Reading Around India

visited 5 states (14.2%)Create your own visited map of India or try another Douwe Osinga project

I found a neat new map and had to use it.

Here's some reading of my recent reading from India and the relevant state (location for old stuff is approximate):

Mahabharata: Haryana
Kalidasa: Madhya Pradesh
Tagore, Sen, Seth: West Bengal
Mir Amman: Delhi
Murzban Shroff: Maharashtra

I was inspired to look for this by Sanddancer's thread - Sanddancer has a county map for England and a state map for the States.

And here's a map that gives the names of the states colored in above:

http://www.indianomy.com/images/map-of-india.gif

Ooh, now this is an interesting idea. I'd love to see how you get on. I'll have a think about whether I have any useful recommendations...

Cool map, I can't wait to put it to good use (I'm going to India the summer after next)!

Are those states you've visited, or states you've read books about?

I have read authors from those states (I am putting a short list up above, in the first post). It seems there are a number of prominent Bengali authors (Tagore, Seth, Sen - two nobels and a future contender!), though I actually think Tagore was born on the other side of the West Bengal/Bengladesh divide.

I am envious of you heading to India - it is a place I must get to soon. I do a lot of work now with people there.

And bring on the recommendations! I'm particularly light on more contemporary stuff.

Ooooo, cool map and idea, Sam. I love reading about Indian and the surrounding region (well, I love reading about most anywhere, don't I?). I will so enjoy watching your progress.

One of my all time favorite books is The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh. The author was born in Kolkata, but the story takes place in southwestern Bangladesh. Okay, so it's not in India, but it's close enough.

yes, Sam, maybe you ought to include Bangladesh and Pakistan, especially if some of your fiction is pre-colonial. What do you think?

Got a map?

This one's going to have all kinds of problems, just like the US states will - identifying writers with a single state is often quite difficult, and I think that's going to be true in India (Mir Amman, for example, came from Delhi but taught and did most of his writing in Calcutta - and that was a couple centuries ago!). I've got the Babur Nama on my bed stand now - and he started out in Faraguna and Samarkind, then has several years in what is now Afghanistan, and then moves on to the Punjab and Delhi. No problem, we'll make up some rules as we go along.

So I may go looking for broader maps, if I can find them, but why stop at Pakistan and Bangladesh?

Just dropping in with a quick recommend, but it does depend on your rules. During my little literary tour of SE Asia my Bhutanese read was The Circle of Kharma by Kungzang Choden. It was by far the best read of that 'trip', and one I would recommend. Anyway, most of the book is set amongst the Bhutanese (and Chinese) exiles in Bihar, in the north of India. I know you are looking for Indian writers, but Choden is worth a look.

btw Congrats on finally geting a thread about India!!!!!!