Anita Desai is an Indian author known for novels that often deal with characters who feel isolated. Some of her most famous works include Fasting, Feasting (1999), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and In Custody (1984). Fasting, Feasting tells the story of an Indian family with two daughters and a son and explores the different roles and expectations placed on the children, particularly regarding marriage. Desai now lives in the United States and teaches writing at MIT. Though she lives abroad, her works frequently draw on her experiences growing up in India and comment on cultural differences and the changing roles of women.

2. What does Anita Desai look like? Anita Desai is a famous Indian writer. She is in her seventies. She is of average build and has got wavy greying hair, wide open, sand and sparking dark eyes. She seems to be quite Indian in her appearance. What is Anita Desai like? In my opinion she is creative, imaginative, quick-witted, sensitive and big-hearted. She always tries to express what she considers the truth ♥ Who is she?

4. Anita Desai and her opinions about writing I find it is in the process of writing that I am able to think… … , to feel, and to perform at the highest pitch. It is a necessity to me. Writing is to me a process of discovering the truth ... “ I have been writing, since the age of 7, as instinctively as I breathe While I feel about India as an Indian, I think about it as an outsider . My novels are part of my private effort to make the material of my life meaningful and to have shape. I was "writing in privacy, even secrecy" and that "seemed very lonely".

5. She is a novelist, short-story writer and children's author

7. Fasting, Feasting tells the story of an Indian family with two daughters and single son. The mother and the elder daughter, Uma, open the story with a busy domestic scene: the preparation of a parcel for Arun, her son who is studying in America while his elder sister, Uma, is living under MamaPapa's demanding rule . She also deals with the distribution of power and its hierarchy in the family. The parents were involved in the structures of patriarchy and they did not allow their children to develop their own personalities. Desai's novel Fasting, Feasting deals with the condition of women In this book Uma, the main character of this novel, represents the subordinate role that women play in India , according to the custom of arranged marriages and give dowry. In this case her parents desperately try to arrange a good marriage for her with disastrous consequences. Fasting, Feasting (1999) by Anita Desai , Booker Prize finalist.

10. It captures the physical and emotional aspects of the characters’ lives Fasting, Feasting is a novel that compares two cultures. In beautifully detailed prose Desai draws the foods and textures of an Indian small town and of an American suburb. In both, she suggests family life is a complex mixture of generosity and meanness, license, restriction and lack of communication. The novel's subtle revelation is in the unlikely similarities In one dark moment, Arun recognizes in the Pattons' bulimic daughter a version of his own unhappy sister Uma, and the shock provokes a reflection on these two frustrated women: "But what is plenty? What is not? Can one tell the difference?" Desai's novel is a moving, eloquent exploration of that question.

11. Important ideas What is your advice to young writers to get remarkable achievement? Do you have a particular time to read and write ? Yes, I keep the morning completely clear, I write in the morning without interruption. ● It is not easy to became a writer because you have to face great difficulties ● Be confident and then think about writing. ● To begin it is important to write short stories and when you see that you are good at doing it you can write long stories. ● Try to be persistent and to have it printed in magazines or journals ● Be determined and push for it to be published and sold.