Is Indian young adult literature set to soar?

Youd be hardpressed to come up with an Indian equivalent of David Levithan discussing young adult YA sexuality maturely or an Indian author writing about violence and death as compellingly as Sally Gardner does But the tide is slowly turning Bolder better YA literature is sniffing air Acircu00c2u0094 pacy mythological thrillers complex graphic novels stories set in conflict zones are on offer Is YA lit finally finding a strong indigenous voice wonders Kareena N GiananiIf one were to walk into 15yearold Teesta Rawalrsquos room a yearago and crane the neck at her bookshelf one would certainly have heard much grumbling Most of it coming from Rawal of courseI began reading YA literature by Indian authors mainly because I was reviewing books for a publisher over the past two years Most of them were horrible They were either too grownup devoid of any idea about what the inside of a young adultrsquos mind is like or they tried too hard The worst ones were those which emulated Chetan Bhagatrdquo she exclaimsRawal says she grew up on Roald Dahl and moved on to Gerald Durrell My Family And Other Animals Anthony Horowitz author of the The Diamond Brothers series the Alex Rider series and The Power of Five series and Satyajit Ray Rawalrsquos favourite is Barin Bhowmick A Kleptomaniac Who Is Taken Back Several Years By A Chance Encounter On A Train ldquoLast year I noticed that Indian publishers were churning out books for young adults and picked up Techie at Heart by Karthik Subramaniam There was no plot it was simplistic and did not mirror my life at allrdquo she saysYA readers Durga Mhatre and Shariva Parulkar give Indian YA fiction a shot while browsing through a bookstore PicRane AshishLast year however a friend introduced Rawal to books such as Facebook Phantom a supernatural thriller penned by a 15yearold author and Anuja Chauhanrsquos works ldquoI was surprised at how good the quality was More so these books werenrsquot trying too hardrdquo she adds Another young adult YA book Jobless Clueless Reckless by Revathi Suresh impressed a most discerning Rawal because it was a comingofagenovel which understood that the life of young adults is just as complicated confused and colourful ldquoNow I can say I have some hope from Indian authors attempting YA literature At least they are taking risks to explore their target audiencersquos mindrdquo says RawalI noticed that Indian publishers were churning out books for young adults and picked up Techie at Heart by Karthik Subramaniam There was no plot it was simplistic and did not mirror my life at all Braving on I recently picked up Jobless Clueless Reckless and Facebook Phantom and hope has been restored I know there are some Indian authors out there who are taking risks and writing plots which mirror a young adultrsquos lifePic CourtesyNikhil RawalTeesta Rawal A 15yearold Bandra resident who recently began reading YA literature by Indian authorsSayoni Basu who cofounded the publishing house Duckbill with authoreditor Anushka Ravishankar in 2012 says YA literature as a category existed since the 1970s and came into its own internationally in the 1990s ldquoIn India it was only after 2000 that books were specifically published with the lsquoYArsquo tagrdquo Paro Anandrsquos No Guns At My Sonrsquos Funeral which went to reprint just four months after its release in 2005 was one of the first books to be published with an explicit YA branding remembers Basu ldquoA couple of years later there were a slew of really good ones Siddhartha Sarmarsquos The Grasshopperrsquos Run which won the first Crossword Childrenrsquos Book Award in 2009 and Samit Basursquos Terror on the Titanic for instanceIn 2005 when my YA book No Guns At My Sonrsquos Funeral which was about the life of a 14yearold terrorist in Kashmir was going for print I was full of trepidation We even changed the title to the muchwatereddown Kashmir The Other Side Of Childhood got covers printed then went back to the original name Today YA writing is ready to take on bolder issues and I do not feel as nervous My next book is a YA graphic novel with a rather nonlinear complex plot and I am not worried at all Paro Anand authorMeanwhile international titles including the Harry Potter Twilight and Hunger Games series continued to hold YA readers in thrall Indian YA fiction is yet to see a book truly deal and deal thoughtfully with tricky subjects of sexuality violence and death We donrsquot for instance yet have an Indian equivalent of Maggot Moon a dystopian YA novel in which author Sally Gardner unflinchingly writes about death and violenceIn 2009 when I began writing The Wordkeepers trilogy a mythological YA thriller many people asked me to ditch mythology and stick to adventure Until two years ago the assumption was to move to lsquoproperrsquo English yet keep the Indianness aside But thatrsquos changing YA literature in India is finding a most unique endearing lsquoIndianrsquo voice Fewer authors are imitating their Western counterparts Now Irsquod like to see books which nudge issues like sexuality race and skin colour Jash Sen author of The Wordkeepers trilogyRisks underwayThat however does not mean that Indian YA authors and publishers are not pushing the boundaries Last year Duckbill published YA poetry for the first time The Right Kind Of Dog by Adil Jussawalla dealt with war famine even murderous thoughts Red Turtle published Guns On My Red Earth by Swati Sengupta which dealt with NaxalismAmeya Nagarajan editor Inked Penguinrsquos imprint dedicated to young adults says Indian writers attempting YA literature seem to have understood the thumb rule negotiate this complex space without talking down to your audience and that by itself is half the job done And take more risksldquoIf you had asked me two years ago I would have had to tell that my favourite YA titles are international because they are no holds barred The YA segment is very commercial so it has a lot of scope but sadly we didnrsquot have writers to match these expectations That is changing now I was surprised to even find the manuscript of Domechild a scifi thriller by Shiv Ramdas in my inbox last year We are gradually moving on beyond the regular themes of romance and fantasy and doing that well This year for instance Irsquom thrilled about this very funny graphic novel about twins separated at birth one of whom has a very Bollywood life while the otherrsquos is very normal Irsquove also got a school story about teenagers in an international school and all the things they get up tordquo says NagarajanThe key change feels Nagarajan has come about because people are hearing about lsquounusualrsquo themes in books and a market is being created in India ldquoItrsquos taking a while for the readers to invest in a book by an Indian We have been told we should try and use nonIndian pseudonyms for some of our international level YA for example The problem is the general feeling that Indianrsquos canrsquot really manage to write at international standard in English The solution of course is very simple find the people whocan and then publish them The market will learnrdquo she explainsCaught in conflictFor Canadian author Rukhsana Khan this evolving almost swashbuckling market has meant the release of a book which she thought would not even see light of the day In 2009 Khan who was born in Peshawar Pakistan wrote Wanting Mor the story of a 14yearold girl who lands up in an Afghan orphanage because her father abandons her at the marketplace ldquoIt is based on a true life story and I knew I wanted to put it down But I wondered whether young adults would want to read about itrdquoThe book did release in Canada and sold very well but Khan missed out every important award in Canada which left her disappointed at least initially Last year when she met Ravishankar and Basu she was taken aback at their interest to publish the book in India More so Wanting Mor is now the first book in the NOW series Not Our War which will publish titles about young adults and children growing up in conflict areas across the worldKhan author of 11 childrenrsquos and YA titles has written about suicide in her previous book Dahling If You Luv Me Would You Please Please Smile and says that the fact that her books have been reached Japan Australia Sharjah even Alaska is a sign that the YA space is ready for a change ldquoNothing is off limits If as a parent or publisher you think you are sheltering this age group by not making them read some themes yoursquore really obliviousrdquo smiles Khan The only thing she considers a nono when writing for young adults is glamourising negative behaviour ldquoI have had characters in my books who have large breasts Irsquove used a cuss word Irsquove even dealt with sexual manipulation between a teenaged couple But all with a consciousness that someone out there might take all the wrong things from it and my style will have to walk some very tricky groundrdquo she explainsAuthor Paro Anand illustrates this shift with an experience of her own writing career In 2005 when No Guns At My Sonrsquos Funeral was just about to go to print she had serious doubts about whether the title would work for young adults The publishers even went ahead and printed covers with a more watereddown title Kashmir The Other Side Of Childhood ldquoWe went back to the original title eventuallyI donrsquot see that sort of trepidation striking me when I write a YA novel Some very broadminded school principals suggested I raise the age of a minor girl sexually involved with a character in the book I did it and thatrsquos again something I donrsquot think I will need to do today We have Ranjit Lal discussing female infanticide for young adults wersquove seen books on war even Naxalism so I think we are in a good space nowrdquo Her next book to be published by Nova is a graphic novel for young adults only the second of its kind to be released in India for this segmentAnand has penned Two in collaboration with Swedish writer Oumlrjan Persson and calls it a ldquohyperreal magical fantastical graphic novel about an Indian boy and a Swedish girl told from two different points of viewrdquo ldquoI am not putting it down very well but it is a rather complicated bookrdquo she laughs ldquoI wouldnrsquot have imagined finding a publisher for this and so much muscle power being put into a graphic novel for young adults even five years agordquo says AnandBoys and sexualityPublishers writers and YA readers call this phase lsquogrowing uprsquo and they expect much trial and error and very tricky times ahead Therersquos much to be done and a marketing model to be cracked for such a tricky segment Outreach programmes in schools are too uncool young adults arenrsquot seen thronging bookstores like their younger counterparts are and theyrsquod rather be seen online than anywhere elseLittle wonder then that Lubaina Bandukwala commissioning editor at Nova Scholasticrsquos young adult imprint feels that experimentation with writing will only have to intensify if India wants the winning formula when it comes to young adults ldquoOur styles are uncompromising now we arenrsquot afraid to explore darker stuff in YA novels YA readers are few and discerning and you cannot mess it up But whatrsquos encouraging is this a few years ago you could only name a few authors who wrote promising edgy YA lit Now we have Kanika Dhillon Sampurna Chatterjee Jerry Pinto jumping on to this And writers are not hesitant to write anythingrdquo she saysNagarajan too has a list of todos she has chalked up for this year ldquoI found no good books with boy protagonists in the YA space in India so thatrsquos something I am looking out for And the next thing is writing well about sexuality because thatrsquos one reality we cannot afford to ignore My favourite even today is David Levithanrsquos Every Day It negotiates sexuality so beautifullyI wish to read and publish more Indian authors experimenting with this theme You donrsquot need a songanddance routine to discuss this subject Just let it flowrdquo says NagarajanlsquoYet to soarrsquoThe young adult category has grown immensely in the last 15 years thanks to the Harry Potter mania that had swept kids and adults off their feet across the world Books such as the Twilight Hunger Games Narnia Veronica Roth series Heroes of Olympus series and Alex Rider series have pushed the sales numbersYA writing by Indian authors is at a nascent stage yet It is a fairly new genre that is coming up now Publishers such as Duckbill Nova and Inked are just about taking off Over the last quarter books such as Wanting Mor Duckbill Seventeen and Domechild Inked and What Happened to Regina That Night Nova have contributed to the sales in YA writing but they are yet to catch up with international titlesKinjal Shah COO Crossword Bookstore