The story gets real!

From Siddhartha Mukherjee’s biography of cancer to profiling female underworld dons and the world of RD Burman, non-fiction is here to stay. Anuradha Varma reports

If it's wrong to discuss sex and Gandhi, I'm guilty," said Joseph Lelyveld of his well-researched Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India that re-examined the Mahatma.

Not long ago, there was another storm in the literary world with Hamish Macdonald's Ambani & Sons, the inside story of Reliance. But, all is well for non-fiction with Siddhartha Mukherjee being awarded the prestigious Pulitzer for The Emperor of All Maladies, a biography of cancer.

Three women - Shilpa Phadke, an assistant professor at Tata Institute of Social Sciences; Shilpa Ranade, architect and researcher and Sameera Khan, journalist and writer - decided to write about women's access to public spaces in Mumbai with their book Why Loiter?: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets. They say, "We realised that in Mumbai it was acceptable to work or shop in public but not to have fun, especially not at night."

Bollywood has always been a popular theme in memoirs and non-fiction. Anupama Chopra's First Day First Show takes us into the lives of the stars and into the struggles of those who never make it to centre stage. Fans of RD Burman's music, Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal have come out with R D Burman -The Man, The Music. Says Anirudha, "Balaji and I have been buddies from our college days. Our impressionable years coi n c i d e d with Pancham's best years, hence Pa n c h a m was the composer we discussed most over cups of tea and 40-paise cigarettes sitting on the parapet walls." However, he says, "Music books are hardly read, apart from by people who are into appreciating music history."

Sonia Faleiro's Beautiful Thing, profiling the dance bars of Mumbai, is on several must-read lists. She says, "Narrative non-fiction is a way for a writer like me to understand and express the disparity in Indian society, and to do it up close, bringing a sense of intimacy to a story that would otherwise have been alien to a regular middle-class Indian reader."

Crime journalist S Hussain Zaidi, who has written the book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai - Stories of Women From The Ganglands, with colleague Jane Borges, believes non-fiction has a growing audience. He says, "I was sur prised by the overwhelming response that Mafia Queens got from the younger generation who are in their early twenties."

Has non-fiction finally come of age for Indian readers? VK Karthika, chief editor, Harper Collins India, reveals that non-fiction accounts for almost 55 per cent of their publishing programme. International awards can also help sales. Says Karthika, "We had sold 5,000 copies of The Emperor of All Maladies in the first two months of publication and since the announcement of the prize, 18,500 more have sold. So that's quite a substantial jump and the book looks set to have a very long shelf-life." While most unsolicited manuscript s coming into publishing houses are fiction, much of the non-fiction is commissioned. Says Priya Kapoor, Roli Books, "Nonfiction definitely sells better in general. We publish more non-fiction than fiction." For Gyan Prakash, author of Mumbai Fables, Mumbai was a lifetime obsession and after completing his book on the cultural authority of science in India 10 years ago, it was time to focus on the maximum city. He says, "I hit the streets, walked the lanes and bylanes, talked to anyone who would talk to me, scoured archives and libraries, and read everything I could find written on Mumbai."

From historical fiction to Bollywood biographies, and critiques on society, non-fiction writers are bending the plot. Raaja Bhasin decided to put his research where his heart is - his hometown Simla, with his book Simla: The Summer Capital of British India. He says, "There is just so much to talk about - event, heritage and good old gossip." Shaminder Boparai decided to write about his mentor through Billy Arjan Singh-Tiger of Dudhwa. He says, "The inspiration was truly Billy and his selfless life."

Meanwhile, Belgian historian Dirk Collier is confident the Indian reader will enjoy his historical fiction on Mughal emperor Akbar titled Emperor's Writings. He says, "It offers literary entertainment as well as historical information." No less than 5,000 women lived in Akbar's palace, of whom, 'only' about 300 were his wives or concubines. Dirk says, 'It seems Akbar was not a very romantic man. While he did sleep with countless women, particularly when he was still young, it seems he had no real 'love of his life'."

As the literary windfall continues, it's the reader who is richer! 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-&-style/people/The-story-gets-real/articleshow/8340089.cms