CONTENTS 19 Eric Meola My Private India 24 Bharati Mukherjee Introduction 29 Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children 34 I. Allan Sealy The Trotter-Nama 47 R. K. Narayan Ganga's Story 52 R. K. Narayan The Ramayana 63 William Buck Mahabharata 67 R. K. Narayan Mr. Sampath-The Printer of Malgudi 71 GicaMehra A River Sutra 83 Kiran Desai The Inheritance oj Loss 86 Manil Suri The Death of Vishnu 94 R. K. Narayan The Guide 100 Ruth Prawer Jhabvala The Housewife 110 Jhumpa Lahiri Interpreter of Maladies 119 Thomas Byrom Dhammapada 120 Anita Desai Fasting, Feasting 129 Amit Chaudhuri A Strange and Sublime Address 132 Nirad C. Chaudhuri My Birthplace 136 R.K. Narayan The Dark Roam 147 Nirad C, Chaudhuri My Birthplace 150 Kiran Desai Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard 163 Salman Rushdie Midnight's Children 169 Clark Blaise and Bharati Mukherjee Days and Nights in Calcutta 178 Rabindranath Tagore Subha 182 Upamanyu Chatterjee English, August 185 Vikram Seth A Suitable Boy 190 Amit Chaudhuri A Strange and Sublime Address 194 Arundhati Roy The God of Small Things 198 Anita Desai Fasting, Feasting 203 V. Vijayan The River 211 Kamala Markandaya Nectar in a Sieve 214 Amit Chaudhuri Sandeep's Visit 222 Gita Mehta A River Sutra 232 V.S.Naipaul An Area oj Darkness 239 Manil Suri The Death of Vishnu 243 Ismat Chughtai The Wedding Shroud 246 Nirad C, Chaudhuri The Autobiography oj an Unknown Indian 250 Nirad C, Chaudhuri My Birthplace 254 Anita Desai A Devoted Son 260 Kamala Markandaya Nectar in a Sieve