From India with love

ONYEKA NWELUE

Owerri, Imo State

(forwarded by radhika_seth@india.com)

Sunday, July 9, 2006

Recently, I was part of the International Writers Festival in India from the 22-24 March, 2006, where I was able to meet astonishing writers from all over the world. Although, I actually went to the Crown Jewel of the British Colony to work on my novel, [which would soon be published], I decided that I should take part in the festival that had many brains taking part. It was really a mesmerizing one, as we were tucked behind hills and Sal trees in placidness, with over a hundred writers in attendance [all pushing and gushing out their literary potentials like rains].

The most exciting of all is that we were lured into about four venues: Kurushektra, which is known as the epical war site of the country, during the time of Mahabharata, Yamuna Nagar (in Haryana, where I saw the lush wildflower sprinkled green grass seduced me to the extent that I thought of not going back to Nigeria, where I came from), Paonta Sahib (in Himachal Pradesh, in which we lodged inside a Sikh Temple, beautifully constructed with its trappings of a Golden Temple) and in Hardwar, the place where we were served with herbal tea in a posh garden, with the flowers seriating our legs. It was an awesome experience.

After the four day festival, I headed for Delhi, where I started working with my editor, Sangeeta on my novel. As we started our work, I began to feel so much for India and its peoples; the love grew deeply in my heart, that I was actually seduced with the beauties of the city, the way children bicycled in the streets filled with cars, cows and carts; and the thrills and willows of Rajathan-ness flowed in with some two year-olds being married to twelve year-olds and my writings groped on them. It interested me to learn more about the relationship between Touchables and Untouchables, which also enlightened me on the staccato of colourful festivals, and billions of exotic people, the struggle-ness of women shoveling sands and carrying bricks, which most importantly, interested me; the high range of acute penury; the glaring eyes of elephants and snake charmers, toppled with the movement of the beautiful and well-fed cows.

I lay my hands on Indian novels, mostly, first with Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things which I devoured in two days, like I did to the Indian dishes we were served during the festival period [the langars of humble yet-nutrition stuffed food as well as some elegant and gorgeous evenings with fellow writings, everyone talking and discussing about books, and the trekking into the one and only Jammu River] then, I suffused myself with books like Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children [which I have been dreaming to read], Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ the Call Center, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, Gurcharan Das’ A Fine Family, Salman Rushdie’s Shame and The Moor’s Last Sigh.

Nevertheless, reading these books has really shown me another view of the Indian literature. At the moment, I can attest to the fact that Indian writers are the best in the world, with exceptional styles of writing, which make them look extreme and sweet that when you grab any book by an Indian writer, you’d find how humorous the book is, the storylines almost charm, with an example of Gurcharan’s book, in which one of his characters said to the other, ‘…you look like a witch’, which also is similar to Salman’s style, infused with humour and sweetness, subdued beyond writing, with the other character replying, ‘Shut up, you little monsters!’

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Onyeka Nwelue was born in Imo State, Nigeria on the 31 January, 1988. He is the author of a collection of poems, I Will Die When I Want  (Hybun Publishers, Lagos: September 2006) and has been published in The Guardian, The Sun, Daily Times, LibBit Magazine, AfroToronto, Wild Goose Poetry Review and was part of the International Writers Festival, which took place recently in India. His novel, The Abyssinian Boy is forthcoming and he is presently a student of English Literature at the University of Manchester, England.