Comments on: Why Indian English Loves Long Sentences

By: sbarrkum

sbarrkum — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 09:31:17 +0000

Something I learnt in grad school. Do you want to show off your vocabulary or get the message across.
I choose to get the message across and simple sentences

By: Kabir

Kabir — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 08:27:36 +0000

In reply to X.T.M.

I don’t think the name came from Faiz. According to Wiki, M.D. Taseer’s father was named Mian Atta ud Din Taseer (he was Kashmiri btw).

I love “A Suitable Boy” but I think “Midnight’s Children” is considered to be the “Great Indian Novel”.

“God of Small Things” was my brother’s favorite novel.

By: X.T.M

X.T.M — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 05:22:44 +0000

In reply to Kabir.

I knew the Taseer family somewhat well btw.. and I also did something with Aatish. we interviewed Aatish at Cambridge as well.

I thought “Taseer” was a gift (the name) from Faiz?

I actually like him a lot .. but in general, even over Salman Rushdi, I’d rate Suitable Boy as the best Desi Fiction of all thing.

I couldn’t power through God of Small Things alas but Suitable Boy really captured the spirit.

By: Kabir

Kabir — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 05:15:13 +0000

Rushdie quite famously tried to translate the rhythms of Indian speech into English. It’s a major hallmark of his style.

Aatish is a journalist so I think his English reflects that. As an aside, he’s not a very good novelist. I have read two of his novels and they didn’t make too much of an impression. The narrator in both was kind of a thinly veiled stand in for himself (in one book the narrator was even called “Aatish Taseer”).

He comes from quite a storied Pakistani family. His dada was M.D. Taseer and his dadi was Cristobel George (who was later known as “Bilquees Taseer”). Through his dadi, he is even related to Faiz Ahmad Faiz.

I’ve downloaded Aatish’s translations of Manto so let’s see how those are.