The new wave in Indian fiction
The novels today are light, fun, easy to understand and set in a surrounding similar to ours. So, it populates most bookshelves instead of orthodox literature. These feel good books are delightful read without delving into the complexities of life.
NOVELS ARE no longer just for those intellectual people, the names of which are illegible and require a look in the dictionary at least ten times in order to get through the first page itself. The Indian novel has landed with a thud and looks like, it is here to stay.
The novel today is light, fun, easy to understand and set in a surrounding similar to ours. So, it has picked up immense popularity and populates most bookshelves instead of orthodox literature. There are a range of books that can be picked up nowadays. These books do not analyse the socio-political or the economical framework of the country, neither do they attempt to understand the complexities of life or even the struggles of a family through adversity and how they stand tall now.
As one enters a Crossword or a similar book store nowadays, they will be attacked by a volley of light hearted books by Indian authors. These feel good books would be a delightful reading without the need to delve into the complexities of life.
The famous sub-genre among this genre would be campus novels, which started with the phenomenal success of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five point someone’. A story about three best friends in IIT Delhi, it tells us about the pressures that they go through at studying in an elite institution of the country. The book became a hit and sold more than a million copies worldwide. The book cashed on to a different target audience altogether.
Following the success, many such books popped up in the scene like 'Above Average' by Amitabh Bagchi, 'Anything For You Ma’am: the love story of an IITian' by Tushar Raheja and Karan Bajaj’s 'Keep off the grass'. Then there are also 'Sumthing of a Mocktale' by Soma Das, set in JNU; Sachin Garg’s 'A Sunny Shady life'based in Delhi College of Engineering among many others.
However, 'The Inscrutable American' by Anurag Mathur can really be said as the first of such kind. Released way back in 1991, it tells the tale of a local boy who has gone to the US to pursue further studies. It is a sweet affair between him and all the new English words that confuse him. The book went on to become a bestseller.
These books may not be what critics define a ‘novel’ to be. A Chetan Bhagat might be ridiculed at for writing such books that do not comply with the standards of true literature. But, the truth remains that they have managed to break the rules and transcend borders. They have opened up the world of fiction to an entire new batch of people, letting them believe in the power of words.
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.Once you understand the basics or the rules, it can be easily broken to give birth to new things.
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