Firdaus Kanga , born in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

1960 to a Parsi Family, Kanga is an Indian

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

and actor who currently lives in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He has written a novel '' Trying to Grow'' a

semi-autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. Beca ...

set in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and a travel book ''''Heaven on Wheels'''', which shares about his experiences in

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

where he met Stephen Hawking. A film was based on his novel Trying to Grow with the name of Sixth Happiness, where he himself played the role of a screenwriter and the lead character. Kanga was born with a rare disease called

Osteogenesis imperfecta Osteogenesis imperfecta (; OI), colloquially known as brittle bone disease, is a group of genetic disorders that all result in bones that break easily. The range of symptoms—on the skeleton as well as on the body's other organs—may b ...

or brittle bones disease.

References

External links

*
Article by Kanga on the BBC websiteSixth Happiness -- a BBC-BFI film that won the EMMA award
* ttp://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/firdaus-kanga Trying to Grow by Kanga -- republished in November 2008 by Penguin Indiabr>New York Times review of Kanga's film Sixth HappinessKanga in a New York Times review of the history of homosexuality in Indian literary history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanga, Firdaus 1960 births British gay writers Indian LGBT novelists Indian LGBT journalists Indian LGBT rights activists People with osteogenesis imperfecta British people of Parsi descent Living people Gay novelists Gay journalists Indian emigrants to England Writers from Mumbai Parsi writers LGBT Zoroastrians British LGBT novelists Parsi people from Mumbai