Getting over the Famous Fives!

I was recently listening to one of the TED talks titled "Danger of a single story" in which Chimanmanda starts with the fact that she grew up reading American novels and thus when she began writing, her stories set in Africa too had white girl with blue eyes as protagonist which clearly were not truly African stories!

The moment I listened to this - all the books I have read immediately flashed across my mind. Keeping aside the non-fiction books, the only works of fiction by an Indian author or about India I remember reading are The Guide by RK Narayan, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, The sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lehri and Glorious Gharwal by Ganesh Saili. Life of Pi by Yann Martel can too be loosely classified in this category given that a bit of it is based in India. Moreover, I am astonished with the fact that I can't recall much from either the Sea of Poppies or the Interpreter of Maladies.

The Guide is thus the only India book which is etched deeply in my mind, rubbing shoulders with the likes of David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, Gone with the Wind, Diary of Ann Frank, Catch 22, The Story of my Life, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and scores of other such English and American books. Shantaram was another book I liked a lot, but it gives more of an outside-in perspective (a foreigner settling in the Indian lifestyle, his numerous observations which we take for granted having seen such things day in and day out!)

In fact, all my childhood novels were also Famous Five, and early teenage novels were those of Sydney Sheldon's. Thus to my mind somehow eating cold milk with cake in brunch by the lighthouse in company of seagulls holds a special place. Through these books I have lived a different life in a different country, in a different culture. However, the irony is that I haven't lived such a life in my own land understanding various cultures within, through books of my own country.

The situation in case of non fiction books is quite different - I have read, and have loved some of the books: I Dare by Kiran Bedi, book on JRD Tata, Small wonder - the story of Tata Nano (not written in a great fashion though); and plan to read Discovery of India, and My Experiment with Truth in near future.

But coming back to fiction, as I think about it - I feel I want to read some of the Indian books. Some books which are written well, and are as epic tales such as David Copperfield. And please don't start by saying 'Suitable Boy'. I don't want to be bored to death while reading such books. And no to Chetan Bhagat's and other cheeky stories as well!

So where should I look at? White Tiger maybe. Maybe some stories by Ruskin Bond. Maybe Bhagwat Gita, and Mahabharata, and Ramayana. What else?

Edit: Came across the review of this book in The Hindu: Beautiful Country: Stories from another India. Looks interesting, though I will wait for some more reviews before buying this.