can i get the biography of firdaus kanga

Firdaus Kanga (b. 1960, Bombay ) is a writer and actor who lives in London . He has written a novel, Trying to Grow a semi-autobiographical novel set in India and a travel book Heaven on Wheels about his experiences in the United Kingdom . Trying to Grow was later turned into an award-winning BBC-BFI film, Sixth Happiness , for which Kanga wrote the screenplay, and in which he starred. Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard said of Sixth Happiness : "Firdaus Kanga 's performance has battery pack power...a remarkable true story."

Sixth Happiness - BFI/BBC Film

Sixth Happiness is about Brit - a boy born with brittle bones who never grows taller than four feet. It is also about the Parsi or Parsees - descendants of the Persian empire who were driven out of Persia by an Islamic invasion more than a thousand years ago and settled in western India. Parsees had a close relationship with the British during the years of the Raj. Brit is named by his mother, both after his brittle bones, and in tribute to his mother 's love of Britain. The depiction of Brit 's parents as ardent Anglophiles with fond memories of the Raj and WW2, presents a glimpse of a non-stereotypical Indian family. This, along with the story of a young disabled man 's sexual awakening as family life crumbles around him makes Sixth Happiness an interesting exploration of modern, urban India. Kanga 's creation - both as writer and performer - resists drawing the main star Brit as either martyr or victim. Brit is bright, spiky, opinionated and selfish with a razor-sharp wit.

Kanga 's history and cultural contribution

Firdaus Kanga was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition also known as brittle bones disease. This left him with several painful fractures throughout his childhood and adolescence in India. He grew up in a family of five, in a one bedroom Bombay apartment. He spoke out against the Indian socialist consensus, and was a supporter of Reagan and Thatcher politics. Kanga 's first major achievement was Trying to Grow (also translated into French [Grandir] and Italian) a novel exploring disability, sexuality and culture. In Indiawhere religion still dictates most cultural acts, Kanga 's novel broke several taboos - portraying disabled people with healthy, rich sexual appetites. Kanga publicly rejected Hindu notions of karma (laying responsibility for suffering at what humans may have done in their last birth) often foisted on disabled people.

Influential Indian writing

Kanga was selected to be part of The Vintage Book of Indian Writing: 1947-97 - a major anthology of the work of the most important and influential Indian writers of the last 50 years. This volume was published bySalman Rushdie and Elizabeth West to coincide with the anniversary of India 's independence.