 And in this video, I'm going to talk about some really important Indian works written by Indian writers that you must study if you are preparing for UGC net English. There are so many Indian writers that we must study in order to prepare for UGC net thoroughly. But then since we are running out of time, I thought of making a video in which I can tell you at least six important works that you should not skip if you are preparing for net exam. You can go to my website, arpitaakarwa.com and under the tab of online course content, you will find a list of all important writers that you must cover for the exam preparation. Just check the list and see whether you know all those writers or not because I cover all these writers in detail in my audio course. So if you are preparing on your own, that list will help you to make notes to analyze your preparation, to track your preparation and will definitely boost your confidence for the next net exam. The first work that we are going to touch in this video lecture is cry the peacock by Anita Desai. Cry the peacock is very influential work because it talks about story of a girl Maya. She's married to a man named Gotham. Now the symbolic significance is very important because Maya represents the world of illusion. Whereas Gotham represents the world of detachment and both of them who have different aim in their life, who have totally different personality are married together. So you can very well imagine the outcome. It's a loveless marriage and both of them are not happy and you can see how this is totally connected to Shashi Desh Pandey's that long silence. So you can find that both the novels talks about the same theme. Now what is important to remember here is that this girl Maya, she has dreams of reptiles and snakes and she feels unsafe, she feels hurt, she feels overridden by guilt. And what is the reason for all these negative emotions because when she was married she went to an astrologer and that astrologer told her that four years after your marriage with your husband, either your husband or you will die. And this thought haunts her like the cry of a peacock. If you have ever heard peacock crying, you can very well imagine how annoying that sound is. Just like that annoying sound, she is continuously having nightmares about this thought. She is obsessed by the prophecy of that astrologer and this is what forms the major theme or the major plot of this novel. The second writer that we are going to talk about is Arkin Arayan and you must read his work Man Eater of Malgudi. Man Eater of Malgudi has been inspired from Bhamasura myth. If you have read Indian mythology, you must be aware of this demon called Bhamasura who was given a boon by the gods that you can touch anybody and by the touch of your hand that person is going to burn and will be killed. So your touch is so significant and so valuable that you touch a person and that person will turn into ashes. So later when we find that Bhamasura started to involve himself into malpractices, Lord Vishnu tricked him and made him touch his own body. So Bhamasura touched his own body and on the spot he died. So that was the myth of Bhamasura and the same theme has been adopted by Arkin Arayan because the entire theme of this work is that evil is self destructive. This story revolves around a printer called Natraj and there is a demon like tall man whose name is Vasu. Now Vasu comes to Malgudi and he starts to live above Natraj's flat and Natraj is very terrified and very frightened to see such a huge man because Vasu is very very strong and he brings girls into his house and he involves himself into prostitution and all that stuff. So we find that later when Vasu threatens Natraj by telling him that he is next going to kill the temple elephant named Kumar, Natraj is terrified and Natraj finally thinks that he should go to police. He goes to the police man and police man says that unless and until Vasu doesn't do anything he cannot help him. So Natraj is helpless. The next day when he goes to his flat he finds that Vasu has died and how did Vasu die? Vasu died by slapping a mosquito which was sitting on his face. So his body is so strong that he slapped his face in order to kill the mosquito and just by slapping his face he died. So that was the whole story of Malgudi which talks about how evil is self destructive. The next work that we are going to talk about is Girish Karnat's Hayavadana. Girish Karnat's Hayavadana has been inspired from Katha Saritsagar and the plot has also been taken from Thomas Mann's Transposed Heads. So these are the two works which inspired Karnat to write Hayavadana and the plot of Hayavadana is very simple. There are these two people one person name is Devdatt and the other one's name is Kapila. Devdatt is a man who is son of a priest and he is a Brahmin, he is son of a Brahmin. So he is very good with mental skills, he is very learned and knowledgeable fellow whereas on the other hand we have Kapil who is son of an Iron Smith and he is well versed with physical skills. So what happens is that both the heads, the body of Kapil and the head of Devdatt is mixed and a person is formed who is well versed in both bodily trades and mental trades but then to the surprise of the audience we find that how such a combination proves to be deadly. So that formed the plot line of Hayavadana. The next important writer which must not be skipped if you are preparing for UGC net English is Badal Sarkar and he is famously known for his work Ibong Indrajit. Before we talk about Ibong Indrajit I would like to tell you two things about Badal Sarkar. Number one, he wrote the plays in the language Bengali. So he wrote in Bengali language plus you must also remember that he formed his own theatrical company which is called Shatabdi. Apart from it he is also associated with the concept of third theatre. So all these things must be kept in mind if you are preparing for net exam. Now if you look at the plot of Ibong Indrajit we will find that the story talks about a man who suffers from writer's block. And this is the absurdist play so you will find that this play is quite a lot connected to the theme which was presented by Samuel Beckett in Waiting for Godot. What you need to remember about this play is that it is a play which talks about a writer suffering from writer's block and how this writer finds inspiration in a woman named Mansi. The next writer that we are going to talk about is Kiran Desai. She is daughter of Anita Desai and she is widely known for her work called Halabalu in Guava Orchid. Halabalu in Guava Orchid talks about a man named Sampat Chawla and this man wants to avoid his responsibilities of adult life due to which what he does is that he starts to live under a Guava tree. While he is living under the Guava tree people come to him and look for advice. So he gives them all those advice and people gradually starts to believe him as a holy man. So they start believing him as a holy man and you can see how the plot is very much connected to Arkana Ryan's book called Guide which was also made into a movie by Dev Anand. So if you have watched that movie you can very well link the two plots and you can see how both of them talk about the same things. So it is about this man who is trying to adopt the guys of a pseudo saint and people start believing him as a saint just because he is wise and he talks about some really great things. The next writer that we are going to talk about is Amitav Ghosh. Amitav Ghosh has written this wonderful work called Abyss Trilogy. Now what is important to know about Abyss Trilogy is that Trilogy means a set of three books and these books are interconnected and thus they form a trilogy. If you have read Shiva Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh you can very well associate the same with Abyss Trilogy. On the other side the title Abyss, the word Abyss in the title suggests the boat on which all the characters meet. So the name of the boat was Abyss on which all the characters meet and thus the name is Abyss Trilogy. Now what is important to remember here is that there are two very important and significant historic events which are being talked about in the series of three books. The events are number one they talk about the opium trade which happened between India and China run by the East India Company and number two it talks about transport of labours. Labours were transported from India to work as sugar plantation workers in Mauritius. So it talks about both these historic events and thus the series is very important you just need to remember the title even if you are running short of time and you are not able to read the entire novels just at least remember the title and you must be aware of the facts that I have just mentioned. So with that I end my video on Indian literature I have tried to give you a glimpse of some important Indian writers and their famous works. You must make sure that all these Indian writers are covered by you and I will be meeting you in the next video lecture till the time I meet next. Happy learning keep loving literature and stay tuned to ArpitaKarwa.com and before you leave don't forget to subscribe to this channel and also go to Facebook and Instagram page and look at the Go Net quiz that I am delivering participate in that quiz like those pages so that every time I post a Go Net quiz you are notified. I will see you in the next video lecture bye bye.