Guest Entry- Indian vs foreign authors.

My cousin from the states hapenned to read my indian vs foreign authors commentary and pitched in with his take of the whole thing....

Do you think Kiran Desai's Inheritance of Loss is an 'author's story'? Do you think 'In Custody' (Anita Desai; there was a wonderful movie made by Ismail Merchant based on the novel) is an 'author's story'? I am not so sure. I always thought that there was enough plot in the Desai novels orVikram Seth or Naipaul.I do agree that in a large number of cases, 'Indian' authors (I am thinking of the two Desai ladies, Jhumpa Lahiri, Naipaul, Vikram Seth here; this is a completely unscientific survey you see) write very'specific' stories in the sense that if you read Jhumpa Lahiri you would think that all Indians have a 'first rice eating' ceremony for their kids. In fact, there is a funny incident in her novel The Namesake (or at least it was funny to me) - our Bengali couple take their young son to the neighbourhood nursery or something and they are surprised when the (white American) teacher tells them "Oh Don't you know the Patels? Their child is the same age as yours."Its the same thing with Vikram Seth novel A Suitable Boy. If you read that book, you would think we all sit around and indulge in high-browUrdu poetry to pass time. But of course thats not true. He is talking about a group of people of a very specific class, very specific community and ethnicity, and religion (not to mention the sub-religion or sect). Also his novel is set in a different time (it is post-independence and people haven't heard of globalization).There are those 'Indian' authors who use what some would call cliched language - Bharati Mukherjee is a classic example. These are novelswith titles that will always contain the words like spices, mango,tamarind, dharma, shiva, vishnu, karma, etc.Manil Suri is another such author.
There is also this question of who is an 'Indian' author? Is Jhumpa Lahiri really Indian? really? I mean, she was born and raised in theWest. And V S Naipaul is Indian? really? He was born and raised inTrinidad and then he has spent most of his time in Britain. He has seen India as a visitor not as a citizen or resident. And is Pankaj Mishra still an Indian? (after his writing a heavy criticism of theIndian armed forces in Kashmir; and just to sprinkle 'salt to thewounds' (jale par namak chidak dena, as we say) of the 'hindu patriots' he has also given up hinduism and embraced Budhhism!)And is Mark Tully Indian? He was born and raised in Britain but he issettled in India. And what about Ruskin Bond (I have a very soft corner for him; we used to have some of his stories in our CBSE syllabus)? I think he is more 'Indian' than many other so-called'Indian' authors. I don't think that there is any such thing as an'Indian.'
So, I guess... well, I am not trying to write a definitive thesis onthe subject. But according to me there is some bad writing and thereis some good writing. Thats all. There are plently of awful 'foreign'writers too. And believe me many of them get their facts completely wrong.