The Russian poet and Nobel Laureate, Joseph Brodsky once said “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.' One would quite agree with him. We are living in age when books are either burned for their inflammatory views or simply ignored.
As if struggling as a professional writer was not enough, I’ve had to counter considerable strife to cement my likes and dislikes as a reader. Like everyone, I was first introduced to English literature, after which I discovered the joy of reading American bestsellers. European masters were next on my agenda. Finally, a friend introduced me to Indian writers.
My reading, as compared to other MSians is not as comprehensive, but nonetheless, I will try and compile my list of favorite 10 authors. So, here goes.
Vyasmuni
Just imagine a world devoid of the ‘Mahabharata’. This one book puts its author Vyasmuni on the top of my list. I was presented a copy of the English translation of the same by the famous Urdu poet, Ali Sardar Jafri, when I was just 10 years old. Oof! What a book. I must have read it a dozen times. With effortless ease, Vyasmuni has created timeless characters and events, in which even the modern world can find a parable.
Sophocles
Sophocles is the creator of ‘King Oedipus’, ‘Electra’ and many other dramas that can thrill you to the very core. The reason why I put Vyasmuni and Sophocles in my list is that, like Homer, Valmiki, and Euripides, they have created tales of modern relevance. It is on ‘King Oedipus’ and ‘Electra’ that the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud has based his Oedipus and Electra complex theories.
Shakespeare
Any bibliophile cannot and should not miss out the name of William Shakespeare from his list of favorite authors. 37 plays and scores of sonnets have put him in the all time Hall of Fame. My favorite Shakespearean plays are ‘Macbeth’, ‘Othello’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Hamlet’, and ‘The Merchant of Venice’.
In college, my professor, once narrated an interesting tale. I would like to share it with you. A lady, who went for a performance of Hamlet for the first time, on the insistence of her niece, was queried by the latter as to how she liked the play. “It was fine. Except for the fact, that it contained too many proverbs.” That’s right. A lot of dialogues written by Shakespeare are now used as proverbial quips.
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse was a German novelist, who appalled by the spiritual disintegration of the Western civilization(this must be viewed in the background of the two world wars that rocked the grandeur of the world in general and Europe in particular), sought solace in Buddhism. His brilliant novel, ‘Siddharta’ is his catharsis. Also, do not miss his “Gertrude’, and ‘The Glass Bead Game.’
T.S. Eliot
What does one say about a man who wrote brilliant lines like:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question . . .
Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’
(‘The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock’)
T.S. Eliot is best known for his superb ‘The Wasteland’, a poem that describes the human experience to be nothing more than a barren, fruitless Wasteland. Another poetic experience triggered off by the ruthlessness of the wars. In Eliot, one finds him constantly yearning for spiritual solace. I would put him in the same league as Baudelaire, Pound and Yeats. However, Eliot, much like Ezra Pound had a penchant of integrating the scholarly with the emotional. Thus, his poems become a little obdurate for the common man. Eliot is also the creator of powerful plays like ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ and ‘The Elder Statesman’.
Saadat Hasan Manto
If the world wars have left horrible scars on the entire western civilization, the psyche of the Indian subcontinent is bruised as a result of the partition of India. Saadat Hasan Manto is an Urdu short story writer, considered to be at par with Sommerset Maugham, Chekov, and Saki. His short stories vividly capture the essence the human tragedy of that period. His landscape is filled with blood soaked images. In his lifetime, Manto was often criticized for his overt depiction sex and violence. In fact, he was even tried for obscenity. His masterpieces include, ‘Thanda Gosht’, ‘Moezelle’, ‘Khol Do’ and Toba Tek Singh.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Faiz belonged to the Progressive Writer’s Association, but his poetry was redeemed by his overt use of sensuous and romantic imagery. Faiz has extensively been translated into English. His poetry has also been rendered by ghazal singers like Mehendi Hasan. Reading Faiz is an incredible experience.
Rabindranath Tagore
One just has to read the ‘Gitanjali’ to become a ‘bhakt’ of Gurudev. Tagore maybe a poet from Bengal, but his poetry has influenced minds all over the world. And then are his plays and short stories.
R K Narayan
My father had got a copy of Narayan’s ‘Talkative Man’ when I was very young. A chapter into the novella and I was hooked. R K Narayan, despite the emergence of a whole new crop of Indo-English writers, remains a personal favorite. His novels and short stories reflect a deep understanding of human foibles, and thus there is no cynicism, but a genuine fondness of the same. Narayan’s oeuvre is full of good people who find themselves in strange circumstances. His best works include, ‘Swami and Friends’, ‘The Talkative Man’, ‘The Guide’, and ‘The English Teacher.’
Munshi Premchand
The original humanist in Indian literature, Munshiji was the father of the Progressive Writers’ Association. Before him, Indian literature was abounding in tales and verses describing a woman’s beauty. It was Munshiji who stated that true beauty is found in the sweat of a tiller’s brow. His stories, ‘Idgah’, ‘Godaan’, ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’, ‘Kafan’, besides many more depict his world view.
