Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali: রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর , pronounced o in n

ʈh ku ]; Hindi: रबिन्द्रनाथ ठाकुर α ›]β ›]
; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev,δ ›]
γ ›]

was a Bengali poet, novelist, musician, painter and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature
and music. As author of Gitanjali with its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse",[1] he
was the first non-European to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.[2] His poetry in
translation was viewed as spiritual, and this together with his mesmerizing persona gave him a
prophet-like aura in the west. His "elegant prose and magical poetry" still remain largely
unknown outside the confines of Bengal.[3]

A Pirali Brahmin[4][5][6][7] from Kolkata, Tagore was already writing poems since he was eight
years old.[8] At age 16, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym
Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion")[9][10] and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. Tagore
achieved further note when he denounced the British Raj and supported Indian independence.
His efforts endure in his vast canon and in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.

Tagore modernised Bengali art by spurning rigid classical forms. His novels, stories, songs,
dance-dramas, and essays spoke to political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings),
Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are his best-known works, and
his verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism,
and contemplation. Tagore was perhaps the only litterateur who penned anthems of two countries
– Jana Gana Mana, the Indian national anthem and Amar Shonar Bangla, the Bangladeshi
national anthem.
Early life (1861–1901)
Main article: Early life of Rabindranath Tagore

The youngest of 13 surviving children, Tagore was born in the Jorasanko mansion in Kolkata of
parents Debendranath Tagore (1817–1905) and Sarada Devi (1830–1875).ε ›][11] His ancestral
home was in Pithabhog village under Rupsha Upazila of Khulna, then part of British India; now
Bangladesh. [12]

Tagore family patriarchs were the Brahmo founding fathers of the Adi Dharm faith. He was
mostly raised by servants, as his mother had died in his early childhood; his father travelled
extensively.[13] Tagore largely declined classroom schooling, preferring to roam the mansion or
nearby idylls: Bolpur, Panihati, and others.[14][15] Upon his upanayan initiation at age eleven,
Tagore left Calcutta on 14 February 1873 to tour India with his father for several months. They
visited his father's Santiniketan estate and stopped in Amritsar before reaching the Himalayan
hill station of Dalhousie.

There, young "Rabi" read biographies and was home-educated in history, astronomy, modern
science, and Sanskrit, and examined the poetry of Kāli ās .[16][17] He completed major works in
1877, one long poem of the Maithili style pioneered by Vidyapati. Published pseudonymously,
experts accepted them as the lost works of Bhānusiṃh , a newly discoveredδ ›] 17th-century
V iṣṇ v poet.[18] He wrote "Bhikharini" (1877; "The Beggar Woman"—the Bengali language's
first short story)[19][20] and Sandhya Sangit (1882)—including the famous poem "Nirjharer
Swapnabhanga" ("The Rousing of the Waterfall").

A prospective barrister, Tagore enrolled at a public school in Brighton, East Sussex, England in
1878. He first stayed for some months at a house that the Tagore family owned near Brighton
and Hove, in Medina Villas; in 1877, his nephew and niece—Suren and Indira, the children of
Tagore's brother Satyendranath—were sent together with their mother (Tagore's sister-in-law) to
live with him.[21] He read law at University College London, but left school to explore
Shakespeare and more: Religio Medici, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra;[22] he returned
degreeless to Bengal in 1880. Nevertheless, this exposure to English culture and language would
later percolate into his earlier acquaintance with Bengali musical tradition, allowing him to
create new modes of music, poetry, and drama.
Tagore neither fully embraced English strictures nor his family's traditionally strict Hindu
religious observances in either his life or in his art, choosing instead to pick the best from both
realms of experience.[23]

In 1890, Tagore began managing his family's vast estates in Shilaidaha, a region now in
Bangladesh; he was joined by his wife and children in 1898. In 1890, Tagore released his Manasi
poems, among his best-known work.[24] As "Zamindar Babu", Tagore criss-crossed the holdings
while living out of the family's luxurious barge, the Padma, to collect (mostly token) rents and
bless villagers, who held feasts in his honour.[25] These years—1891–1895: Tagore's Sadhana
period, after one of Tagore's magazines—were his most fecund.[13] During this period, he wrote
more than half the stories of the three-volume, 84-story Galpaguchchha.[19] With irony and
gravity, they depicted a wide range of Bengali lifestyles, particularly village life.[26]

Personal life
On 9 December 1883 he married Mrinalini Devi (born Bhabatarini, 1873–1902); they had five
children, two of whom died before reaching adulthood.[46]

Later years and death

Tagore's last five years were marked by chronic pain and two long periods of illness. These
began when Tagore lost consciousness in late 1937; he remained comatose and near death for an
extended period. This was followed three years later, in late 1940, by a similar spell, from which
he never recovered. The poetry Tagore wrote in these years is among his finest, and is distinctive
for its preoccupation with death.[47][48] After extended suffering, Tagore died on 7 August 1941
(22 Shravan 1348) in an upstairs room of the Jorasanko mansion in which he was raised,[49][50]
aged 80 years. His death anniversary is mourned across the Bengali-speaking world.[51] The last
person to see Tagore alive was Amiya Kumar Sen (brother of Sukumar Sen, the first chief
election commissioner); Tagore dictated his last poem to Sen, who wrote it down. Sen later
donated the resulting draft to a museum in Kolkata.
R. K. Narayan

R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001), shortened from Rasipuram Krishnaswami
Iyer Narayanaswami Tamil: ராசிபுரம் கிருஷ்ணசுவாமி அய்யர்
நாராயணசுவாமி) was an Indian author whose works of fiction include a series of books
about people and their interactions in an imagined town in India. He is one of three leading
figures of early Indian literature in English, along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. He is
credited with bringing Indian literature in English to the rest of the world, and is regarded as one
of India's greatest English language novelists.

Narayan broke through with the help of his mentor and friend, Graham Greene, who was
instrumental in getting publishers for Narayan‘s fi s fou ooks, inclu ing he semi-
autobiographical trilogy of Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher.
N y n‘s wo ks lso inclu e The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of
1951, and Sahitya Akademi Award winner The Guide, which was adapted for films in Hindi and
English languages, and for Broadway.

The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi, first introduced in
Swami and Friends. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters
through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner, who also created a fictional
town that stood for reality, brought out the humour and energy of ordinary life, and displayed
compassionate humanism in his writing. Narayan's short story writing style has been compared
to that of Guy de Maupassant, as they both have an ability to compress the narrative without
losing out on elements of the story. Narayan has also come in for criticism for being too simple
in his prose and diction.

In a writing career that spanned over sixty years, Narayan received many awards and honours.
These include the AC Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature and the Padma
Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian award. He was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the
upper house of the Indian parliament.

Life
[edit] Early years

R. K. Narayan was born in Madras (now known as Chennai), Madras Presidency, British India.[1]
His father was a school headmaster, and Narayan did some of his studies at his father's school.
As his father's job required frequent moves, Narayan spent part of his childhood under the care
of his maternal grandmother, Parvati.[2] During this time his best friends and playmates were a
peacock and a mischievous monkey.[3][4][5]

His grandmother gave him the nickname of Kunjappa, a name that stuck to him in family
circles.[6] She taught him arithmetic, mythology, classical Indian music and Sanskrit.[7]
According to his youngest brother R. K. Laxman, the family mostly conversed in English, and
grammatical errors on the part of Narayan and his siblings were frowned upon.[8] While living
with his grandmother, Narayan studied at a succession of schools in Madras, including the
Lutheran Mission School in Purasawalkam,[9] C.R.C. High School, and the Christian College
High School.[10] Narayan was an avid reader, and his early literary diet included Dickens,
Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy.[11] When he was twelve years old,
Narayan participated in a pro-independence march, for which he was reprimanded by his uncle;
the family was apolitical and considered all governments wicked.[12]

Narayan moved to Mysore to live with his family when his father was transferred to the
Maharajah's Collegiate High School. The well-stocked library at the school, as well as his
father's own, fed his reading habit, and he started writing as well. After completing high school,
Narayan failed the university entrance examination and spent a year at home reading and writing;
he subsequently passed the examination in 1926 and joined Maharaja College of Mysore. It took
Narayan four years to obtain his Bachelor's degree, a year longer than usual. After being
persuaded by a friend that taking a Master's degree (M.A.) would kill his interest in literature, he
briefly held a job as a school teacher; however, he quit in protest when the headmaster of the
school asked him to substitute for the physical training master.[9] The experience made Narayan
realise that the only career for him was in writing, and he decided to stay at home and write
novels.[13][14] His first published work was a book review of Development of Maritime Laws of
17th-Century England.[15] Subsequently, he started writing the occasional local interest story for
English newspapers and magazines. Although the writing did not pay much (his income for the
first year was nine rupees and twelve annas), he had a regular life and few needs, and his family
and friends respected and supported his unorthodox choice of career.[16] In 1930, Narayan wrote
his first novel, Swami and Friends,[15] an effort ridiculed by his uncle[17] and rejected by a string
of publishers.[8] With this book, Narayan created Malgudi, a town that creatively reproduced the
social sphere of the country; while it ignored the limits imposed by colonial rule, it also grew
with the various socio-political changes of British and post-independence India.[1
Kiran Desai

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kiran Desai (born 3 September 1971)[1] is an Indian author who is a citizen of India and a
permanent resident of the United States. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man
Booker Prize[1] and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. She is the daughter of the
noted author Anita Desai and the partner of Orhan Pamuk.

Biography
Kiran Desai was born in New Delhi, India, and lived there until she was 10. She left India at 14,
and she and her mother then lived in England for a year, and then moved to the United States,
where she studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia
University.[2]

In January 2010, the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk acknowledged that he was in a relationship
with Desai.[3]

Work
Her first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades
from such notable figures as Salman Rushdie.[4] It went on to win the Betty Trask Award,[5] a
prize given by the Society of Authors for the best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth
of Nations under the age of 35.[6]

Her second book, The Inheritance of Loss, (2006) has been widely praised by critics throughout
Asia, Europe and the United States and won the 2006 Man Booker Prize[1] as well as the 2006
National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.[7]

In September 2007 she was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion
programme hosted by Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3.[8] In May 2007 she was the featured
author at the inaugural Asia House Festival of Asian Literature.
Shobhaa De

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shobha Rajadhyaksha (Marathi: शोभा राजाध्यक्ष) known as Shobhaa Dé (Marathi: शोभा डे),
Previously Shobha Kilachand (born 7 January 1948) is an Indian columnist and novelist.

Early life
Shobha De was born in Mumbai, India. She completed her schooling from Queen Mary School,
Mumbai She graduated from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai with a degree in psychology.

Career
After making her name as a model, she began a career in journalism in 1970, during the course
of which she founded and edited three magazines – Stardust, Society, and Celebrity.[1]

Stardust magazine is published by Mumbai-based Magna Publishing Co. Ltd. and was started by
Nari Hira in 1971.[1] It became popular under the editorship of noted journalist, author and
columnist, Shobhaa De. [2]

In the 1980s, she contributed to the Sunday magazine section of the Times of India. In her
columns, she used to explore the socialite life in Mumbai lifestyles of the celebrities. At present,
she is a freelance writer and columnist for several newspapers and magazines.

Shobhaa De is one of In i ‘s op es -selling authors. All her 17 books have topped the charts
n c e e eco s. ―Spouse – The T u h A ou M i ge,‖ h ex mines he u n ins i u ion
of marriage, sold 20,000 copies on the day of its official launch in Delhi and is currently being
translated into several languages. De gave a new definition to the mass market best seller with
her breakthrough, bold and highly individualistic style that spoke a new language. She is credited
wi h h ving given i h o ―Hinglish,‖ he y, i eve en mix of Hin i n English, h spoke o
e e s in n en i ely new w y. Fou of he i les, n mely, ―Soci li e Evenings,‖ ―S y Nigh s,‖
―Sul y D ys,‖ n ―Secon Though s‖ e cou se m e i l in he Unive si y of Lon on. He
work features extensively in Comparative Literature courses at Universities abroad and within
In i . An c emic ex min ion of he ooks i le , ―The Fic ion of Sho h De,‖ compile y
Professor Dodiya, features 40 critical essays by academics – Indian and foreign. Over a hundred
dissertations on her work are in various libraries worldwide. Recipient of several awards for her
journalistic contributions, De writes prolifically for Indian and International publications. She
runs four weekly columns in mainstream newspapers, including the Times of India and Asian
Age. She h s een he w i e of seve l popul so ps on elevision, inclu ing In i ‘s fi s ily
so p, ― Sw him n‘. She lso ncho e p es igious weekly show c lle ‗Powe T ip‘ which
featured India‘s Billion i es s neve efo e. She p icip es on egul sis on impo n v
e es, such s The EDITORS‘ VERDICT on n v u ing he Elec ions 2009. She is ecognize
as an important social commentator and something of an authority on popular culture. Outspoken
n fo h igh , De ch onicles o y‘s In i in he own inimi le s yle. Mo e ecen ly vi he
immensely popular blog and Twitter account. Her books are best sellers in several regional
languages, including Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Beng li n M hi . ― Bollywoo
Nigh s‖ w s l unche he Lon on Book F i in Ap il 2007, n fo he Ame ic n m ke in
he s me ye , y Penguin In e n ion l. The U.K. e i ion of he l es wo k, ‗Supe s In i ‘
w s pu lishe in Ap il 2009. ‗Supe s In i ‘ sol ove 100,000 copies in In i u ing i s fi s
year , to establish a new record. It will be published in America in September 2009.
―Gli ze n ch ‖, w s l unche he p es igious F nkfu Book F i in 2006, followe y 4 mo e
titles in Ge m n, wi h n i ion l 3 o follow. The fi s of he I li n ooks, ―So elle‖ w s
l unche in Mil n n Rome, followe y ―Bollywoo Nigh s‖ in M y 2007. He ooks e in
translation in Spanish, Italian, German, Hungarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Polish and
Korean at present. Her first book in its French edition was published by Actes Sud in 2010.

Personal life
Shobha De met her present husband, shipping tycoon and business magnate Dilip De in 1981. He
was a widower with two children. Shobha (then Shobha Kilachand ) was a divorcee with two
children of her own. The pair got married in 1984. She and Dilip De later had two more children.

She is the cousin of ace photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha.

Arundhati Roy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in
1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several
collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have
been a subject of major controversy in India.

Early life and background

Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, India,[1] to a Keralite Syrian Christian mother,
the women's rights activist Mary Roy, and an Indian Bengali Hindu father, Ranjit Roy, a tea
planter by profession.

She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, and went to school at Corpus Christi, Kottayam,
followed by the Lawrence School, Lovedale, in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. She then studied
architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, where she met her first
husband, architect Gerard da Cunha.

Roy met her second husband, filmmaker Pradip Krishen, in 1984, and played a village girl in his
award-winning movie Massey Sahib. Until made financially stable by the success of her novel
The God of Small Things, she worked various jobs, including running aerobics classes at five-
star hotels in New Delhi. Roy is a cousin of prominent media personality Prannoy Roy, the head
of the leading Indian TV media group NDTV,.[2] She lives in New Delhi.
Career
Literary career

Early career: screenplays

Early in her career, Roy worked for television and movies. She wrote the screenplays for In
Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a movie based on her experiences as a student of
architecture, directed by her current husband, and Electric Moon (1992); she also appeared as a
performer in the first. Roy attracted attention in 1994, when she criticised Shekhar Kapur's film
Bandit Queen, based on the life of Phoolan Devi. In her film review titled, 'The Great Indian
Rape Trick', she questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her
permission," and charged Kapur with exploiting Devi and misrepresenting both her life and its
meaning.[3][4]

The God of Small Things

Roy began writing her first novel, The God of Small Things, in 1992, completing it in 1996.[5]
The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in
Aymanam.[1]

The publication of The God of Small Things catapulted Roy to instant international fame. It
received the 1997 Booker Prize for Fiction and was listed as one of the New York Times Notable
Books of the Year for 1997.[6] It reached fourth position on the New York Times Bestsellers list
for Independent Fiction.[7] From the beginning, the book was also a commercial success: Roy
received half a million pounds as an advance;[4] It was published in May, and the book had been
sold to eighteen countries by the end of June.[5]

The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American newspapers such as The
New York Times (a "dazzling first novel,"[8] "extraordinary," "at once so morally strenuous and
so imaginatively supple"[9]) and the Los Angeles Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable
sweep"[10]), and in Canadian publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"[11]).
By the end of the year, it had become one of the five best books of 1997 by TIME.[12] Critical
response in the United Kingdom was less positive, and that the novel was awarded the Booker
Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a 1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel
"execrable," and The Guardian called the contest "profoundly depressing."[13] In India, the book
was criticized especially for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar,[14] then
Chief Minister of Roy's homestate Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity.[15]

Later career

Since the success of her novel, Roy has been working as a screenplay writer again, writing a
television serial, The Banyan Tree,[citation needed] and the documentary DAM/AGE: A Film with
Arundhati Roy (2002).