Kiran Desai shares her loss of inheritance

Kolkata, Feb 04: As she read out some excerpts from her latest novel, The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai went nostalgic about her link with India, especially Bengal.

Softspoken author went on to read out her some favorite passage from the book that revolved around a Gujarati family story at Kalimpong hills in Darjeeling during violent Gorkhaland agitation in 80s.

Asked about her feeling to recive the Man Booker award, she said it was unexpected achievement but then added that winning the Booker was a matter of chance.

Before coming here she had also read a few lines from her book in other cities like Delhi and Bangalore and was overwhelmed by the responses of the people there.

Desai moved to US at the age of 14. Her first book was 'Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard' in 1998 and she had done a creative writing course while she was penning down her second book, The Inheritance of Loss'.

Present on the ocassion was eminent Kolkata based writer Amit Chaudhari, whose name finds a mention in the book, who interacted with Desai regarding the difference in the writing styles of Indian and American authors.

''Americans follow and encourage elaborate writing. They allow you to expand your thoughts. Its like saying a story but in India the authors follow straight and simple sentences, just the way Journalists write.'' ''I am terribly upset about this. We should inculcate the habit of allowing our ideas and imaginations to flow,'' Desai said.

The book has some funny notes with richness of immigrant experiences.

She owes her talent to her mother, Anita Desai, three of whose books had been shorlisted for the Bookers earlier, saying that it was an enormous inheritance which had not understood herself before she wrote her first book. "I grew up with her taste in writing and sensibility. It was a huge influence as I grew up with books." Asked upon whether she had the influence of American writers in her writing, she said certainly "I do have" and added that she loves Japanese authors too.

She said she has a great affinity towards her motherland India and every year she visits her father in Delhi. Her maternal grandmother was a German, grandfather a refugee from Bangladesh and paternal grandparents from Gujarat. Now is this called a loss of inheritance or gain.

While talking about the characters in her book she says, "The characters of my story are entirely fictional, but these journeys are very much close to that of mine which tells you how it feels when you stay in a foreign country." The Inheritance of Loss is set partly in India and partly in the USA, Desai said describing what it meant to be an immigrant and what happened when an outside element was introduced into a someone or a country.

UNI