 Salman Rushdie famously said English is an Indian literary language. Like an expert showman, he took the Queen's English and recolonized it, peppering it with Indian words, playing with syntax, turning phrases on their heads. Writer Arundhati Roy took it to another level in the Booker-winning God of Small Things with her what is it, what happened as compound words, and a furry whirring and a sorry flapping.