THE PICADOR BOOK OF Modern Indian Literature Edited by Amit Chaudhuri PICADOR Contents xiv / Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION xvii / Modernity and the Vernacular xxiii / The Construction of the Indian Novel in English xxxii / A Note on the Selection THE BENGAL RENAISSANCE AND AFTER 3 / Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) 5 / from The Anglo-Saxon and the Hindu' 7 I Two Letters 12 / Bankimchandra Chatterjee (1838-94) 13 / 'A Popular Literature for Bengal' 19 / The Confession of a Young Bengal' 24 / from Rajani 26 / Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 29/ The Postmaster' 34 / Five Letters 39 / An Essay on Nursery Rhymes 42 / from the Introduction to Thakurmar Jhuli Contents 45/ Sukumar Ray (1887-1923) 46 / A Topsy-Turvy Tale' 66 / Bibhuti Bhushan Banerjee (1894-1950) 68/ from Pother Panchali 88 / Parashuram (Rajshekhar Basu) (1880-1960) 89/ 'Blue Star1 97 / The Jackal-Faced Tongs' 106 / Buddhadev Bose (1908-74) 107 / from Tithidore 114 / from An Acre of Green Grass: A Review of Modern Bengali Literature 122 / Mahashweta Devi (b. 1926) 123 / 'Arjun' HINDI 133 / Premchand (Dhanpat Rai) (1880-1936) 134 / The Chess Players' 145 / Nirmal Verma (b. 1929) 146/ Terminal' 156/ Krishna Sobti (b. 1925) 157 / from Ai Ladki Contents xi URDU 187 / Sadat Hasan Manto (1912-55) 188/ Teerun' 193/ The Black Shalwar7 205 / Qurratulain Hyder (b. 1927) 206 / 'Memories of an Indian Childhood' 220 / Naiyer Masud (b. 1936) 221 / 'Sheesha Ghaf THE SOUTH 239 / U. R. Anantha Murthy (b. 1932) 240 / 'A Horse for the Sun' 266 / Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (c 1908-94) 267/ -Walls' 290 / O. V. Vijayan (b. 1930) 291/ The Rocks' 297 / Ambai (C. S. Lakshmi) (b. 1945) 298/ 'Gifts' PAGES FROM AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 309 / Fakir Mohan Senapati (1843-1918) 310 / from Story of My Life xii Contents 330 / Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1998) 331 / from The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian 347 / Aubrey Menen (1912-89) 347 / from Dead Man in the Silver Market 355 / Pankaj Mishra (b. 1969) 356 / "Edmund Wilson in Benares' ENGLISH 375 / R. K Narayan (b. 1907) 376 / from The English Teacher 397 / Raja Rao (b. 1908) 398 / from The Serpent and the Rope 414 / Ruskin Bond (b. 1934) 415 / The Night Train at DeoW 419 / A. K Ramanujan (1929-93) 420 / Is There an Indian Way of Thinking? An Informal Essay' 438 / Dom Moraes (b. 1938) 439 / from Answered by Flutes 455 / Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (b. 1947) 456 / from The Emperor Has No Clothes' 478 / Adil Jussawalla (b. 1940) 478/ "Make Mine Movies' Contents xiii 484 / Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) 486 / from Midnight's Children 508 / Vikram Seth (b. 1952) 509 / from The Golden Gate 538 / Amitav Ghosh (b. 1956) 538 / Tibetan Dinner' 542 / Tour Corners' 547 / Upamanyu Chatterjee (b. 1959) 548 / from English, August: An Indian Story 563 / Vikram Chandra (b. 1961) 564 / 'Siege in Kailashpada', from a novel in progress 582 / Sunetra Gupta (b. 1965) 583 / from Memories of Rain 595 / Aamer Hussein (b. 1955) 596 / The Colour of a Loved Person's Eyes' 605 / Ashok Banker (b. 1964) 606 / from Vertigo 617 / Rohit Manchanda (b. 1963) 618 / from In the Light of the Black Sun 632 / Notes on Translators 635/ Permissions Acknowledgements.