Hearty Congratulations To Ms. Kiran Desai Poem by Raja Basu

Please accept a ton of hearty congratulations, our beloved Ms. Kiran Desai

By being the youngest woman ever to win the Booker Prize you have made we Indians feel so high.

Your achievement is so spectacular, and it has so much boosted our national pride

India is really lucky to have a child like you, so talented and bright.

Your work has genuinely enriched the field of world literature

And has proved India’s supremacy in art and culture.

Please keep writing, and keep refreshing our mind

In this world of boredom, your works will bring fresh wind.

(I wrote this poem in October 2006 immediately after India’s Kiran Desai became the youngest woman to win the Booker Prize for her work “The Inheritance of Loss”) .