Nov 29, 2008

My take on 'Indian Fiction'

'Indian Fiction' over the past few years has gained immense popularity and every visit to your favorite bookstore would assure you coming across at least one new title from a debutant Indian author. Although this genre of books is detested by a large group of intelligentsia or rather in most cases as I'd like to believe pseudos from the category. They feel that books from the 'Indian Fiction' genre don't really add any significant value and hence are not really worth reading. They dissect the books based on authors who are short listed for awards and barring these filtered authors the rest of the clan which more often than not from one of the premium engineering or MBA institutes (or both) is emasculated for reasons best known only to them. I sincerely hope they at least do have their reasons ;).

Well I'd like to disagree and would like to mention my reasons for the same. Agreed, the feel from books of this genre is not the same as compared to the more popular titles in fiction category. But at the same time I think a point which is clearly being overlooked is that these books are just an extension to the variety of titles which are already available on the shelves. Moreover, the way I see it, 'Indian Fiction' authors have done a commendable job of adding so many new readers to the market; not by strangling the space which all other books have managed to establish successfully for years, but my creating a niche of its own which was rather unexpected when publishers were trying to risk their vantage point by giving chance to new faces and unheard names. These same new faces and unheard names are now, well established authors with a huge fan-base and pioneers who've in spite of all the obstacles and hardships have managed to push the envelope and introduce all of us to this genre.

Asking me, it's such a delight to watch college students who choose to buy original copies of these books because they can easily be accommodated in their pocket money, unlike most other books which then get purchased as reprints on the roadside. I firmly believe that reading as a habit is not as well developed amongst Indians because its really difficult to find people who chose to read. But thankfully these authors have made their efforts and have been successful in transforming huge torrents of shipments from publishers, to bookstores, to what can now be termed as a strong network of a new generation of readers. So behaving unlike the pseudos I mentioned at the start I'd like to thank these new authors for making a difference in their own desi way. Let's not forget that this is just the start or probably nascent stages for this category. And the way I see it, it wouldn't take long for 'Indian Fiction' to become as appreciated and hopefully respected genre. Lets just end by saying or rather hoping; the sooner, the better.

Manish :)
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