Essential Indian Essays You Should Read In Your Lifetime
Why should you read these essays? Well, because every good life comes with annotations.
This might not please many but somewhere between consuming quick content and struggling to stick to reading novels, we have really sidelined the beauty of personal and journalistic essays- a form that doesn’t so much shout as it sharply clears its throat.
They hold a charm and chapter of the world lived and consumed that perhaps might be exactly like yours but is ruminative and often raw. A mirror of sorts, personal essays are radically human while journalistic essays come with a scalpel, nevertheless, hit the right note.
Why You Should Read Essays?
Let us for a moment indulge in an imaginary play here. Pretend AI-generated content isn’t available to help you answer your queries about life, philosophy, or even the human psyche for that matter. More than chapters of a fictional novel or a self-help book, essays would empathise with you; fearlessly, present the raw, flawed, unfiltered vulnerability.
They hold the most important weapon all of us eagerly crave for—time. Essays whether journalistic or personal age like fine wine and not fairytales since they capture a moment in culture. You can say they are bottled zeitgeists.
You want to know what Bombay felt like in the 80s or epiphanies about life or something really specific like rage, rhythm, confession. Essays are intimate and to the point. They are not buddies that believe in letting the mystery charm the world. But are certainly low commitment with high-reward.
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So with all that said, here's a list of 7 essays you must read in your lifetime:
Lamp Is Lit by Ruskin Bond
A collection of essays by Anglo-Indian author Ruskin Bond that celebrates Bond's survival as a freelance. A fascinating glimpse into the life of the author, the collection contains essays, unpublished pieces from his travel journal and sketches.
The Doctor and The Saint by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy's The Doctor and The Saint is a critical essay on idealism of Gandhi and Ambedkar's realism, highlighting the moral and practical tensions that arose between the two approaches to social justice.
Imaginary Homelands by Salman Rushdie
Known for his controversial books including Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie's collection of essays Imaginary Homelands describes the plight of diaspora and their attempt to reconnect with their home or at least the idea of home.
Moreover, the collection of 75 essays illuminates the of his times and ours by drawing from two political and several literary homelands.
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The Ghosts of Mrs. Gandhi by Amitav Ghosh
This reflective essay recounts the author's experiences in New Delhi during the aftermath of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. Ghosh uses personal anecdotes and observations to weave themes of identity, memory and long-lasting impact of communal violence.
The Elephant, The Tiger, and The Cellphone by Shashi Tharoor
With more than 60 essays organised thematically, Indian politician and writer, Shashi Tharoor's The Elephant, The Tiger, and The Cellphone offers poignant insights into the complex and multifaceted land which is the largest democracy in the world.
Development As Freedom by Amartya Sen
A collection of 12 essays by the renowned Indian economist and philosopher, Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom argues that development should not only be seen as economic growth but as the expansion of human freedoms and capabilities.
According to Sen, true development is about increasing people's ability to live the lives they value, and providing them with the necessary capabilities.
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A Book of Indian Essays: Two Hundred Years Of English Prose (compiled Arvind Mehrotra)
A compilation of essays from various Indian authors that act as alternative history resembles the map of middleclass life. Through reflective essays, memoirs, essays disguised as stories, articles and columns from the newspapers, the book oozes with literariness and taps into India's social life and aesthetic sensibilities from hybrid perspectives.