There are lines though that are quite thought provoking, often included towards the end of a chapter, allowing the reader to pause and think about the statement before continuing. Sai, Judge Patel's teenage granddaughter, moved to his estate, Cho Oyu, after her parents' untimely death in the Soviet Union. Sai, raised in convent schools, is introverted and disconnected from her Indian heritage. Under her grandfather's care, Sai lives in isolation, escaping her dreary existence by reading National Geographic magazines and colonial travelogues. Sai's closest companion and father figure is Judge Patel's servant, referred to as "the cook." It may not be as comprehensive as Salman Rusdie’s Midnight’s Children although it is also about India that used to be under the British empire. However, it is more exact with its urgent message: the loss of the nation’s true identity due to western influences. The true Indian identity that was an amalgam of the nation’s own culture and tradition spawning several centuries when they were still free of foreign influences. After all, India has one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

The cook sends letters to Biju asking him to help others get to America. Biju feels overwhelmed by these requests, and Saeed empathizes with him because he is experiencing the exact same thing. More than anything, the two aim to get their green cards. One day, they are swindled by men in a van who say that they can get them green cards, but in reality simply steal their money. Shortly after this incident, the Queen of Tarts Bakery closes. Much has changed in the West by the time Biju experiences it. Although now much more of a melting pot, unlike the Judge’s immigrant experience, Biju does not seem to have any opportunity to assimilate and become Western, though it is unclear whether he would take such an opportunity. Nor does he seem to desire any affinity with the other Asian immigrants he knows and works with, some of whom do take the opportunities towards assimilation and citizenship. Instead, Biju’s experiences not only make him yearn for his homeland but also inspire a desire to refine and clarify the kind of Indian he sees himself as being. Kiran Desai is the daughter of novelist Anita Desai. Kiran was born in Delhi, then spent the early years of her life in Punjab and in Mumbai, where she studied at Cathedral and John Connon School. She left India at 14, and she and her mother lived in England for a year, before moving to the United States. Biju suffers from poverty, isolation, and racial discrimination from American customers and his immigrant coworkers. Biju questions his own prejudices when he befriends Saeed Saeed, a Zanzibarian Muslim and local legend. Yet Desai's point is that it is Lola who has failed to progress, still dreaming of an England of Christie and Wodehouse. That said, Desai takes a more sceptical view of multiculturalism than her near contemporaries Zadie Smith and Hari Kunzru. Not for her their largely optimistic views of a changing, expanding world bringing everyone closer together. Instead, as Biju, trawling through a series of illegal catering jobs in New York, discovers, the old caste systems are still in place: 'Above the restaurant was French, but below in the kitchen, it was Mexican and Indian.'The judge remembers when he had left his own home at age twenty. He had been accepted at Cambridge to study for the Indian Civil Service. He had also just been married to a fourteen-year-old wife, Nimi. At Cambridge, he was treated like an outcast and a second-class citizen, and barely spoke to people. He began to find his own skin color odd, and his own accent strange. He spent most of his time studying. Desai's first novel, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard, was published in 1998 and received accolades from such figures as Salman Rushdie. [5] It won the Betty Trask Award, [6] a prize given by the Society of Authors for best new novels by citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations under the age of 35. [7]

When a Nepalese insurgency disturbs the region, Jemubhai becomes vulnerable because of his hunting rifles. Sai has been living in the house for nine years and it has probably become the only home she has known. Her father, a pilot, was recruited from the Indian Air Force for the Intercosmos Program during the period of friendship between the Indian and Soviet governments. Sai’s parents put her in a convent, aged six, when they moved to Russia where they died two years later in an accident, leaving Sai an orphan. On her parent’s death, the convent sent Sai to live with her grandfather, the Judge. Now seventeen-years old, Sai is slowly falling in love with her tutor, Gyan, an ethnic Nepali.As soon as Gyan joins the GNLF protest, his frustration and anger are immediately redirected toward non-Nepalis and other beneficiaries of colonialism. Though Gyan navigated various social spaces and fell in love with Sai, he revives the inherited prejudices he once criticized. Rather than recognizing the complex root causes of his oppression, Gyan takes out his anger on Sai because humiliating and betraying her is immediately gratifying. The characters' lives are intertwined with the story of the cook's son, Biju, who experiences the negative aspects of living as an illegal alien in New York. All the above-mentioned books have complete resemblance – their themes are all about poverty. So when I saw this novel in a book store, I grabbed it because I have now the conception that Indian novels have something to do with India . On the other hand, Kiran Desai’ s has the same hallmark but not as heart-breaking and compelling as Rohinton Mistry’s . The way she wrote it is completely different from the other contemporary writers’ . The Inheritance of Loss is set in the Himalayas, "where India blurred into Bhutan and Sikkim ... it had always been a messy map". A young Indian girl, Sai, lives with her grandfather, a retired judge, in a damp and crumbling house. Sai has started a relationship with her Nepalese maths tutor, Gyan. But, unknown to her, Gyan has become seduced by a group of Nepalese insurgents, some of whom are, as the book opens, marching to Sai's house to steal food, Pond's Cold Cream, Grand Marnier, and her grandfather's old rifles.

So far, this is the Man Booker Prize winner that is most relevant to me as an Asian. Most countries in Asia were once colonies of European or American countries and their influences will forever stay no matter how many centuries have passed. Also, this is one of the most readable. Although the verses are oftentimes playful, the storytelling is concise. Almost all the characters seem to be alive and the imageries that the scenes create seem like imprints that will stay in your mind for a long time. High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion, home to three people, each dreaming of another time. A Magnificent novel of humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and political acuteness' Hermione Lee, chair of the Man Booker Prize judges In Chapter 12, Noni and Lola arrange for Sai to have a tutor from the local college. This is where she meets Gyan. Chapter 13 focuses on Sai's maturation as she becomes a woman. She wants to look better and begins takes better care of her appearance. Global Indian Women: Top 20 India-born & globally successful women from business and arts". The Economic Times. 5 January 2015 . Retrieved 30 November 2017.

Lee-Potter, Emma (5 August 2020). "12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to read". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022 . Retrieved 23 December 2020.

the author is obviously an intelligent writer, and she has a real mastery of language. much of the writing is somberly poetic. but perhaps she pays too much attention to detail..... the story is slow.....The story is centered on two main characters: Biju and Sai. Biju is an undocumented Indian immigrant living in the United States, son of a cook who works for Sai's grandfather. In Chapter 48, Biju arrives at the Calcutta airport. He feels more comfortable than he has in many years. Biju pays the insurgents to take him to Kalimpong. On the way to Kalimpong, they take all his money and clothes and beat him. He takes a dress off of a clothesline and walks home.