Did you know that India, the world’s largest democracy and the second most populous country in the world celebrates her Independence Day on August 15th?
India became free of British rule in 1947, so this is the nation’s 73rd birthday!
Livingston boasts of a large resident population of Indian origin and the Library aptly stocks a sizable collection of Indian language materials.
We stock fiction and nonfiction books in Hindi and Gujarati, and a list of these can be accessed here: https://www.livingstonlibrary.org/indian-language
The DVD collection comprises Gujarati plays and movies, Hindi television serials (including multivolume sets of the Mahabharata and Ramayana), Marathi language feature films, and music videos. There are music CDs covering different genres like classical, pop, light, instrumental, and devotional, plus a few audiobooks on CD in Hindi.
Of course, no Indian language collection can be complete without Bollywood ( refers to the Indian Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai that produces the largest number of movies in India). Livingston has one of the largest collection of Bollywood DVDs in BCCLS featuring classics to the latest releases.
Magazines in Hindi like GrihaShobha, Manohar Kahaniyan and Sarita, and Gujarati magazines like Akhand Anand and Chitralekha complete the Indian language collection.
For many of our patrons who are familiar with English language Indian magazines back home, we carry the stalwart titles like Filmfare, India Today, Savvy, Femina, and Stardust and for news about the Indian diaspora we carry the weekly “India Abroad” tabloid.
The Library also has works by Indian American writers (including first generation and younger voices in the genre) like Jhumpa Lahiri, Akhil Sharma,, Bharati Mukherjee, Kiran Desai, Thrity Umrigar,, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, to name a few. All of these have enriched the contemporary American literary scene with their unique perspectives and voices.
A selective booklist of works by these writers can be accessed here:
Selected works by Indian American authors:
- The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan FIC MAHAJAN
- Before We Visit the Goddess Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni FIC DIVAKARUNI
- The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri FIC SURI
- The Gene: An Intimate History By Siddhartha Mukherjee. 616.042 MUK
- Girls Burn Brighter Shobha Rao FIC RAO
- Haunting Jasmine by Anjali Banerjee FIC BANERJEE
- If You See Me, Don’t Say Hi: Stories By Neel Patel New FIC PATEL
- In Defense of a Liberal Education By Fareed Zakaria 370.112 ZAK
- The Inheritance of Loss By Kiran Desai FIC DESAI
- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri FIC LAHIRI
- Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee. FIC MUKHERJEE
- The Object of Your Affections: A Novel by Falguni Kothari. New FIC KOTHARI
- Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors: A Novel by Sonali Dev New FIC DEV
- The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal FIC BANTWAL
- The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar. FIC UMRIGAR
- The Storyteller’s Secret: a novel By Sejal Badani. New FIC BADANI
- Temporary People by Deepak Unnikrishnan FIC UNNIKRISHNAN
- The Tusk that Did the Damage Tania James FIC JAMES