"My style of writing is to allow the story to unfold on its own. I try not to structure my work too rigidly," says the eminent writer, Anita Desai. The characters of novels and short stories of Anita Desai are the creations that are moulded with the moods and events of the circumstances. The brilliant imageries that are welded to define the story simply deserve comparison with the modernist sensibilities of William Faulkner, T. S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. Imagination is the base of her characters and as she says "I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges."
Anita Desai`s work is a part of new style of writing, which came out of less conservative writings of India as Indian writings have been in the past. For sensitive portrayal of the inner life of her female characters, this Indian novelist and short story writer is eminent. Desai explores the tension between the family members and the lack of correlation of middle class women in several novels.
Anita Desai was born to a German mother and an Indian Father in India June 24, 1937. She teaches writing at Mount Holyoke College in United States. She was born as Anita Mazumdar. She grew up speaking German at home and Bengali at home. She learned to read and write in English at school, which became her literary language. Anita Mazumdar married Ashvin Desai in the year 1957. They have four children from their marriage.
Kiran Desai, the author and winner of the 2006 Booker prize is her daughter.
Anita Desai started to write short stories before her marriage. She made her debut with "The Peacock" in 1963 as a novelist. The next was the "
Voices of the City" in 1965 a story of three siblings Amla, Nirode and Monisha and their ways of life in
Kolkata. With "
Where Shall We Go This Summer" in 1975, it is being noticed that her characters often adopt escapist way to cope with the boring day-to-day life. "
Fire on the Mountain" a story on three women and their experience in life was published in 1977. In 1980 Anita Desai wove the history of
Delhi with a middle class Hindu family in "Clear Light of Day". She considers this book as her autobiographical work.
Anita Desai started to look the life of unprivileged. It reflected in the book "
In Custody" in 1984. It is a story about in his declining days of an Urdu Poet. The book was short listed for the Booker prize. She has been nominated three times for the Booker prize. "
Baugmarten`s Bombay" in 1988, is her German half of the parental heritage. She examined the nature of pilgrimage to India in her "Journey to Ithaca" in 1995. Her "Fasting, Feasting" in 1999 concentrates on male and female role an Indian and American culture. She received the `Guardian Award` in 1983 for her Children`s fiction for the novel "
The Village by the Sea." In 1978 for her "Fire on the Mountain" won the `National Academy of Letters Award`. With "The Zigzag Way" in 2004 she departed from her Indian Territory. It is a story of Identity and self-discovery in Mexico.
Anita Desai has been a member of the Advisory Board for English of the national Academy of Letters in Delhi. She has also been a member of the American academy of Arts and Letters. Anita Desai is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London. Desai has commented on her work: "My novels are no reflection of Indian society, politics or character. They are my private attempt to seize upon the raw material of life." She has dealt with themes like German anti-Semitism, western stereotypical views of India and the demise of the tradition. Her novels reveal the characters though imaginary but are realistic in approach as she says, "I aim to tell the truth about any subject, not a romance or fantasy, not avoid the truth."
