Bombay Tiger
Kamala Markandaya
Viking, Rs 495

Even though Nectar in a Sieve is a book still read, more than 50 years after its first publication in 1954, and its author Kamala Markandaya is hailed as one of the four greatest Indian writers in English of the mid-20th century, she always had a difficult time publishing her books. This is despite the fact that by 1960, Nectar in a Sieve alone sold more than 250,000 copies in the US and the UK.
Bombay Tiger, written over 20 years ago, has been printed only now, four years after Markandaya’s death. During her lifetime, she confessed that she had been unable to place the manuscript either in the US or the UK.

In his perceptive introduction to Bombay Tiger, Charles R. Larson (professor of literature, American University, Washington DC) gives a brief background to this intriguing author who was unconventional both in her choice of subject and style of writing. (I still remember reading Two Virgins as a child, hiding in my room, convinced that the title alone would get me into trouble!) Nectar in a Sieve, for instance, which is taught in universities abroad, spoke about the poor in India — their hopes and dreams — through the story of Rukmani. It was often compared to Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth. Bombay Tiger shows the deep connection Markandaya had with her home country, though she relocated to London in the late 1940s.

Why did Bombay Tiger face such a grim fate? Markandaya’s reclusive nature may have been partly to blame — in a world of media hard sell, she chose to share very little about herself with the world. It was also because like others, who were writing in English before the triumvirate of Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth and Arundhati Roy broke upon an unsuspecting world, sustained recognition was hard to come by.

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