Upamanyu Chatterjee is one of the new lights of Indian Engish literature. He was born in 1959 in Patna, Bihar. Upamanyu is a prominent writer and IAS as well. He studied English literature at Delhi University and then in 1983 he joined the Indian Administrative Service. His novels are characterized by humour which goes beyond the comic sense, sometimes it is against the traditional life, sometimes it is the minute description of the middle-class life of Indian society.
WORKS:
English, August: An Indian Story, published in 1988, deals with the life and self-discovery of a newly appointed trainee civil servant, Agastya Sen, in a rural place. It is an entertaining novel, basically for those who want to discover modern India. Agastya Sen is amazed to see rural India. He never imagined the life of these places. The experience, which he gathers from the place, helps him to realize himself, to discover himself. In 1994, the novel was adapted into a film by the same name.
The Last Burden, published in 1994, deals with the life of an Indian middle-class family. He portrays the need, desire, emotions and sacrifices of the middle-class family in India. Here he differentiates the nuclear family and atomic family. The story revolves around Jamun, a workless young man, Shamanand, the father and Urmila, the dying mother.
The Mammaries of the Welfare State was published in 2000. It is the sequel of Chatterjee’s debut novel English, August : An Indian story. Here in this novel, the author describes eight years of Agastya Sen’s life. Chatterjee has frequently used black humour in this novel. In 2004, Chatterjee won the Sahitya Akademi Award for this novel.
SELECTED WORKS
- English, August: An Indian Story (1998)
- The Last Burden (1994)
- The Mammaries of the Welare State (2000)
- Weight Loss (2006)Way to Go (2010)
Awards
2004 Sahitya Akademi Award for The Mammaries of the Welfare State.
2009 Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for “extremely contribution to the contemporary literature”