India, The Land of Storytellers!

We live in a world full of surprises, and being in India could never make me feel prouder. The first sound of literature, as we know it today, was heard in the form of stories from India, in 1500 BCE, that were to become epic for generations after. Mahabharata was the first written account of stories that was created 4000 years ago in India in the form of tales based on Indian traditions. And even now, after thousands of years of its journey, Mahabharata still stands tall on the canons of Indian literature.

That was about the past. But, even in the civilized world, India has produced Nobel laureates like Rabindranath Tagore who became the first Asian, in 1913, to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature. He was majorly known for his works of short stories like Postmaster and Konkaal, dramas like Valmiki Pratibha and Chitrangada, and poetries like Sandhya Sangeet and Manasi. But he has actually explored many more forms of storytelling including novels, songs, and travelogues. Wikipedia has listed close to 500 of his works recorded in the history.

And when we come to the modern world, we can never forget the names like Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Amitav Ghosh, and Devdutt Pattanaik. Each author has a unique style of writing and an exceptional story to tell. While Jumpa Lahiri shook the readers with touching stories of immigrants with her book, “The Interpreter of Maladies”, Arundhati Roy became the voice of the people scathed by cultural tensions with her book, “The God of Small Things” which also won a Booker prize in 1997. Amitav Ghosh is best known for his works of Fiction and was awarded with the top literary award, in France, for his book, “The Circle of Reason”. Devdutt Pattanaik is the explorer of legends, parables, fables, and folklores. His book “Devlok” is a celebrated work in India and has been made into a television program. Forbes ranked him among the top 100 celebrities of India.

India is no doubt a land of people who feel and create. The list of elite authors and writers just keeps increasing every year as we see more books and stories moving us. Many of these books have even inspired Bollywood movies. The 1962 movie Shehab, Biwi, Aur Gholam, was the first Bollywood movie, based on a book written by Bimal Mitra. Devdas, the movie that repeatedly captivated people from different generations was first written by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay as a Novel.  The 2004 movie Pinjar that won multiple awards like Nargis Dutt Awards, Guild Awards, and Zee Cine Awards was based on a Punjabi book by Amrita Pritam. And how can we forget Chetan Bhagat whose almost every book was reshaped into a chirpy movie that made a blockbuster.

Now, we are celebrating 73 years of Independence but it is also a celebration of thousands of great works by hundreds of Indian authors. It is also a celebration of one of the oldest known culture that has been retained in its original form in many ways. India is a land of story tellers, so it is also a celebration of a nation that is fast growing with more and more stories that never fail to amaze us.