Mumbai is not just the financial capital of India; it is also the cultural capital. The city, well known for Bollywood and art festivals, has also produced a number of authors who have changed the landscape of the Indian literature scene. Here we take a look at 7 such authors.
1. Salman Rushdie
Rushdie was born in Mumbai in British India and spent his childhood in the city. Currently, he is a British citizen residing in USA. Rushdie’s work is mostly based in the Indian subcontinent and deals with the various social issues in his books. He received a fatwa on his life by Islamic extremists for his book The Satanic Verses and has survived attempts on his life. Rushdie has several prestigious awards under his belt, including Booker Prize, Prix du Meilleur Livre Etrangère and James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
2. Rohinton Mistry
Mistry was born in Mumbai in 1952, where spent his childhood and youth. He immigrated to Canada with his fiancée in 1975, and wrote his first book a decade later. Called Tales from Firozsha Baag, it was a collection of short stories. Mistry’s books have a strong Parsi background and showcase all aspects of Zoroastrian lifestyle. He has won quite a few awards for his works. However, his alma mater, the University of Mumbai, dropped one of his books in response to threats and aggression from a Hindu extremist and nationalist political party.
3. Purushottam Laxman Deshpande
One of the most prolific writers in Marathi, P. L. Deshpande has a written a number of novels, children’s books, essays, plays and travelogues in his native language. Often referred to as the P. G. Wodehouse of Marathi literature, his books show unique insight into the local culture. He has received some of the highest literary awards in the country including Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Sahitya Akademi Award. He was born in Mumbai and worked in the city for most of his life.
4. Shobhaa De
Shobhaa De has been a Mumbaikar all her life and writes books about upper class lives. She is famous for being one of the first Indian authors to unashamedly write about sex and other taboo subjects in her books. Though she first started her career as a model, she quickly moved on to journalism and writing and is today a successful author.
5. Devdutt Pattanaik
Another true-blue Mumbaikar, Pattanaik started off his career in the health industry, but is now a full time writer. He mostly writes about Hindu mythological works from different perspectives. He is known for bringing forth the women’s stories in the epics in detail. He has also written books on mythology for children. He makes all the images for his books, which shows his merit as an artist as well.
6. Gabgadhar Gopal Gadgil
Gadgil is a famous Marathi writer, who wrote extensively and experimented with different literary forms such as novels, plays, short stories and children’s stories. He also wrote books on economics, which are used as reference texts by several colleges. A resident of Mumbai, Gadgil has received several awards in his writing career such as Sahitya Akademi Award and Abhiruchi Award.
7. Anant Pai
Though Anant Pai was born in Karnataka in the erstwhile Madras Presidency, he spent his working life in Mumbai. Popularly known as Uncle Pai, Pai is known for creating the Tinkle and Amar Chitra Katha comics series. He always worked with literature for children and is a resounding success with children. Pai is one of the two biggest creatures of comic literature in India.
Image credit: Swaminathan on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/IMG_20141217_101736441.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kavitha is a freelance content writer and French translator, and has been working in this field since 2008. She has degrees in computer applications and international business and has a background in business and international trade. She enjoys learning languages and is currently learning Japanese. Her interests vary from books and writing to travelling and history.[/author_info] [/author]