The Inexhaustible

While writing my thesis on the Hindi novel. I always felt that, as far as novel is concerned, there does not exist such a broad scope in my own mother tongue Gujarati. An entire generation of Gujarat has gone through and witnessed the traumatic event of the partition of India. Now and then Gujarat burns in communal riots, and yet Gujarati novels seldom echoes it. My first novel Mira Yagnikni Diary depicted the desire for beauty of a very sensitive and intellectual young woman of the 90's. She has created a world of imagination by investing herself in art and literature. For Mira, the highest beauty of life is love. She risks everything to experience the beauty of love. She goes through both homosexual as well as heterosexual relationships. But the novel ends with the encounter of an ugly reality. For the first time in Gujarati, in this somewhat lyrical novel. a taboo subject like Homosexuality was depicted with such frankness and audacity from the pen of a woman. This novel was warmly received by both intellectuals and common readers alike. An independent anthology of articles written about this novel can be easily compiled.