by Khushwant Singh (1983)
'I return to Delhi as I return to my mistress Bhagmati when I have had my fill of whoring in foreign lands...' Thus begins Khushwant Singh's vast, erotic, irrelevant magnum opus on the city of Delhi. The principal narrator of the saga, which extends over six hundred years, is a bawdy, ageing reprobate who loves Delhi as much as he does the hijda whore Bhagmati-half man, half woman with sexual inventiveness and energy of both the sexes. Travelling through time, space and history to 'discover' his beloved city, the narrator meets a myriad of people-poets and princes, saints and sultans, temptresses and traitors, emperors and eunuchs-who have shaped and endowed Delhi with its very special mystique... And as we accompany the narrator on his epic journey we find the city of emperors transformed and immortalized in our minds for ever.
Khushwant Singh
Not a Nice Man to Know is a distinguished work by Khushwant Singh (Padma Vibhushan, Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, Partition Chronicler), celebrated for its literary depth, resonant storytelling, and enduring cultural impact.
Amrita Pritam
Sometimes I Tell This Tale to the River is a distinguished work by Amrita Pritam (Jnanpith Award, Padma Vibhushan, Sahitya Akademi Award), celebrated for its literary depth, resonant storytelling, and enduring cultural impact.
Vikram Seth
Mappings is a distinguished work by Vikram Seth (WH Smith Literary Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Crossword Book Award), celebrated for its literary depth, resonant storytelling, and enduring cultural impact.
Hanif Kureishi
Written over the span of a decade, Love in a Blue Time reveals the essence of a generation - from the liberating irreverence of the seventies to the dilemmas and disillusionments of the nineties. In "With Your Tongue Down My Throat," a Pakistani girl's visit to London foments a revolution in her conservative home. In "My Son the Fanatic," a father, suspicious of his son's rejection of his once-sacred adolescent possessions, makes an unsettling discovery about the new values of the younger generation. And throughout, men and women, once carefree, careless, and usually stoned, grapple with responsibility, fidelity, and other complications of adult life in the middle-class nineties. Driven by love, but distracted by sex, drugs, and the sheer compulsion of argument, these characters are consummate voices of their time. And Kureishi, naughty, provocative, yet intensely sympathetic, finds the heart of their struggle.