Ananda Devi (Ananda Nirsimloo-Anenden) was born in Mauritius in 1957. The multicultural and multilingual aspects of her birthplace are echoed in many of her works, which explore with lyrical and probing language and imagery the depths of conflicted identities, with a particular focus on women and the consequences of non-conformity. One of the Indian Ocean's leading and most prolific writers, she has published poetry, three volumes of short stories and ten novels. Ìöve de ses d̩combres (2006) was awarded the Prix des Cinq Continents de la francophonie and the Prix RFO. Ananda Devi was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2010.
‰Û÷To say that, in fact, writing has been no more than a way of talking about the body and nothing but the body‰Û?‰۪
Lost to the meaning of her life, a foreign writer arrives in Delhi seeking the wordless company of strangers. Delhi is an exploded sun, bleeding everywhere its untrammelled chaos: the feral dampness of bus fumes; the suicidal rush of scooters; the autorickshaw seats impregnated with thousands of odours‰ÛÓnauseous accretions of India‰۪s muddy human tide. The men with their stinking bidis rule as masters and the women remain walled in by centuries of tradition. The author, infatuated by a quiet lady on the street, begins to seek the untamed and undiscovered country that lies below her sari, the delicate throbbing hidden beneath her silence. As she rediscovers her voice and the ability to write a story, and as monsoon arrives, low and heavy-bellied, washing away the concrete barricades of custom, a secret encounter in a music store opens up an ancient darwaza of forbidden pleasures.
Bursting with sharp irreverence, Indian Tango is a story of fleshly transgression and unlikely liberation in the patriachopolis of New Delhi.
