Author: K Satchidanandan
Malashri Lal/Namita Gokhale
Editor: K Satchidanandan, Malashri Lal and Namita Ghokhale
Publisher: Full Circle
Year: 2002
Language: multilingual
Pages: 270
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8176211117
Description
This unique collection of contemporary creative writing in a multilingual text format brings alive the plurality and diversity of Indian literature. Among the classics is U R Ananatha Murthy’s Samskara, the furtive spiritual journey of a flawed priest.
It captures the mood of a new cultural space. Believing that the inscriptions of a language are as much visual as aural, this multilingual text offers a tribute to the resonance of India’s multiple voices. Further, it encourages readers to recognize their own multilingual capabilities and actively engage with the regional work and its translation. While most of the selections from bhasa have been rendered here in English, as a unique experiment some reputed English writing has been specially translated into bhasa.
Mahasweta Devi’s story of the nameless girl linking tribal communities to the controlling power of state institutions is not unlike Tendulkar’s version of the exploitation of Gauri by Ghasiram Kotwal, or Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s ironic glance at Oxfam blankets for the poor.
Poets, K. Satchidanandan, Keki Daruwalla, Dilip Chitre, Nirmalprabha bardoloi prefer to let images evoke their variable impact.
Kiran Nagarkar’s Cuckold, relying upon the common availability of Mira’s legend, turns history another way by foregrounding the viewpoint of the neglected husband. Such playful irreverence for tradition lets Sunil Gangopadhyay fill in juicy gossip about Rabindranath Tagore’s infatuation for his sister-in-law Kadambari Devi, and have Bhalchandra Nemade compare Purusha and Prakriti to a huge generator.
The joy and poignancy of this writing has a location and name in the particularity of a tongue, a grammar, a region, which through the medium of translation enlarges its audience.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
KRISHNA SOBTI
Ai Ladhi
PAUL ZACHARIA
A Letter
RAMAKANTA RATH
A Request to the Dead
VIKRAM SETH
A Suitable Boy
MAHASWETA DEVI
Body
KEKI N DARUWALLA
By the River Kama
ASHOKAMITRAN
Coming of Age
KIRAN NAGARKAR
Dram Log
KEKI N DARUWALLA
Cuckold
SUNIL GANGOPADHYAY
First Light
SITANSHU YASHASCHANDRA
Forest
NABANEETA DEV SEN
Fourteen
VIJAY TENDULKA
Ghashiram Kotwal
K SATCHIDANANDAN
How to Go to the Tao Temple
BHALCHANDRA NEMADE
In Fergusson College Again
DALIP KAUR TIWANA
Lang Gaye Dariya
ARUNDHATI ROY
Paradise pickles & Preserves
(From The God of Small Things)
SUGATHA KUMARI
Pity the Heart of Man
SHRILAL SHUKLA
Raag Darbari
SUGATHA KUMARI
Rathrimazha
CHANDRASHEKHAR KAMBAR
River Ghataprabha
U R ANANTHA MURTHY
Samskara
M T VASUDEVAN NAIR
Second Term
RAMAKANTA RATH
Sri Radha
DILIP CHITRE
Stairways
MANOJ DAS
The Bull of Babulpur
GURDIAL SINGH
The Incomplete Tale
NIRMAL VERMA
The last Forest
CHANDRASHEKHAR KAMBAR
The Young Hunter
K SATCHIDANANDAN
Who Said?
NABANEETA DEV SEN
Winter 1971
NIRMALPRABHA BARDOLOI
Words, More words
About the authors