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RAJEEV RAVIDAS

Kalimpong, Oct. 11: As Kiran Desai made a splash in international literary circles by winning the Booker Prize yesterday, the ripples travelled to this sleepy hill town.

Kiran’s aunt Indira Bhattacharya, who works here as a child specialist, is overjoyed with her niece’s achievement.

“I am, of course, delighted. I tried to speak to her but she is travelling somewhere between Frankfurt and London. So I couldn’t reach her,” Indira said, grinning from ear to ear.

The frail 72-year-old doctor did, however, manage to connect with her more famous sister Anita, Kiran’s mother. “Oh, she could hardly speak. She is so happy.”

Although Kalimpong is an integral part of the Booker-winning The Inheritance of Loss, Indira said Kiran didn’t quite think the family belonged there. “We all love this place. But she believes we don’t belong here.”

Kiran had come here on several occasions, she said, and even briefly studied at St Joseph’s Convent in the mid-eighties.

On one such trip, the young Kiran had said she was “just one of thousands of authors going around”. Today the proud aunt is happy that she would have to retract her statement.

Indira, who wasn’t willing to speak too much or even pose for a picture — “It is she who is in the picture, not I. I don’t think it would be appropriate” — said Kiran was a warm, loving and very sensitive person.