I am an avid reader, and once I moved past my rebellious, foreign-loving phase, I was naturally drawn to Indian literature. The hunger for world languages brought me home with such urgency that I couldn’t help but obsessively look for classical Hindi books.

I grew up with my maternal grandmother, who narrated everything from Panchtantra to Ramayan and Mahabharat as bedtime stories. I loved them. Mahabharat was my favourite. I would always insist she narrates it every night. She would be reluctant because of the epic’s magnitude and insist that she would only recite the story if I promised to stay awake throughout. I would promise but never hold up.

I just love the story of Mahabharat. Our grand epic has everything – hope, love, fear, betrayal, disappointment, pride, envy, happiness, and rage. It is a treat for a serious reader and has just as much wisdom to gain as the thrill to relish. What a shame that people believe keeping a copy of Mahabharat at home brings misfortune and familial conflicts!

Aside from Mahabharat and Ramayan, I looked into more recent Indian Literature. I flipped to the 11th and 12th pages of the Internet browser. Unfortunately, the Internet was not half as resourceful as I had hoped. Most recommendations were just translations and not even good ones. And as any other sensible desi, I turned to my mother for help. She asked me to start with books like Chandrakanta. The undertaking felt overwhelming, so I began with Sarad Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devadas and Kesav Prasad Mishra’s Kohbar Ki Shart [the book that inspired popular Bollywood movies – Nadiya Ke Paar (1982) and Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994)].

After reading these books, I learned various Hindi words and phrases that have either been discarded or are possibly solely used in more rural settings. It was fun to read them. It made me realise two things. Firstly, I am not very good at Hindi anymore, and even worse at shuddh Hindi. Secondly, spare NCERT-taught Indian authors and poets I know no one else. I have been ignorant, and there are many like me out there who have been just as uninformed. But when we want to learn more, the Internet is also not much help. A simple Google search directs you to a complex literary history of Veda and Upanishads. Noobs like me aren’t ready for that yet.

Indian classical literature is vast! The exclamation doesn’t cut it. The premise is magnanimous. This page will collect my thoughts and findings in one place on the Internet so someone else, someone like me, would be able to make use of it.

It will talk about everything from the history of Indian Literature, religious literature of ancient India, medieval Indian literature, sacred scriptures of Hinduism, and whatever falls under the category of Indian Literature.

This page marks a reawakening in me. Hence, a renaissance – Indian Renaissance.