The Middle Stage wishes for all its readers a 2012 of health, happiness and great books.
Work pressures don't allow me to write up a detailed books of the year essay as in past years, but here is a selection of the best books I read this year in Indian literature. Where the title is hyperlinked it leads to a longer essay about the book. Amitav Ghosh's River of Smoke; Sonia Faleiro's Beautiful Thing; UR Ananthamurthy's novel from the seventies, newly available in translation, Bharathipura; Yashpal's massive novel about Partition Jhoota Sach, in a translation by Anand called This Is Not That Dawn; Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's Songs of Kabir; Ranjit Hoskote's translations of the Kashmiri poet Lal Ded I, Lalla (Hoskote's introduction is also the best piece of critical writing I read this year in Indian literature); Neera Adarkar's anthology The Chawls of Mumbai; Kaushik Basu's magisterial interrogation of the shibboleths of free-market economics Beyond The Invisible Hand; Sanjay Kak's anthology on Kashmir movement for independence Until My Freedom Has Come; and Satya Mohanty's anthology of essays on the great Indian novelist Fakir Mohan Senapati, Colonialism, Modernity and Literature.
And here are my selections from Indian literature for the January issue of The Caravan: Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's story "A Strange Attachment" in a translation by Phyllis Granoff, and three poems, "Prayer", "Estuary" and "River Island", by Bibek Jena in translations by the poet Bibhu Padhi.
And here are my selections from Indian literature for the January issue of The Caravan: Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's story "A Strange Attachment" in a translation by Phyllis Granoff, and three poems, "Prayer", "Estuary" and "River Island", by Bibek Jena in translations by the poet Bibhu Padhi.
6 comments:
Chandrahas - which are your favourite books in English or translations in English of the year 2011?
Yes, missing your top fiction and non-fiction of 2011. And by the by, surely wishing someone 'happiness' should be enough since that presumably includes 'health' but not necessarily 'books'?
Did you read Mehrotra's book of essays? I liked them but almost everybody whom I've lent the book to has loved them, one friend even suggesting a trek to Allahabad to meet him.
Venkatesh - One might say that health is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for happiness, so important in itself that it deserves to be dissociated from the larger field of well-being into which you would have me make it a part. I've now supplied a list of books for you though.
Anirudh - I didn't manage to read Mehrotra's essays. Even a life lived almost completely through books must miss some to properly enjoy some others. However, I met Mehrotra for the first time in November without having to go to Allahabad, and can report that the encounter yielded some extremely pleasurable and illuminating conversation.
Touche.
When your feeling and emotions are unuttered, gifts speak on behalf of you to convey your feelings. Valentine’s day is nearing, and it is high time to spice up your relationship with treasured gifts. For details visit www.indiafloristnetwork.com
Post a Comment