Caught in the World of Binaries: Selected Poems of K S Nisar Ahmed
₹310.00
Author: K S Nisar Ahmed Editors: C N Ramachandran, M S Raghunath
Professor K S Nisar Ahmed (b 1936) is a geologist by profession and a major writer in Kannada. His first collection of poems, Manasu Gandhi Bazar (My Mind is like Gandhi Bazar) was published in 1960, and since then he has published poetry (15 collections), prose (five collections), and translations from Shakespeare and Neruda. He has been honoured with many awards, including ‘Padmashri’, Honorary D Litt (Kuvempu University), and Pampa Prashasti (Karnataka Government). Living between two languages and two cultures, Prof. Nisar has successfully achieved the balance necessary for the tight-rope walking as a poet. He believes that, “Only when you understand another religion (or culture or language), you really understand your own religion (or culture or language).” The present volume of 100 selected poems exhibits the multifaceted poetry of Nisar that reflects his creative pluralism. The 13 translators of the poems in this volume include A K Ramanujan, V K Gokak and Tejaswini Niranjana.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Categories: | Indian Literature in Translation, Works in Fiction |
---|
Author | |
---|---|
Format |
Related products
-
Sati Kamale
Author: S U Paniyadi Translators: B Surendra Rao, K Chinnappa Gowda
This eponymous novel is centred on Kamale, who is an embodiment of wifely virtue. For fifteen long years Kamale lives the life of a widow to the outside world, nurturing the hopes of reuniting with the husband one day. Alone in the room, each night she wears her marks of a married woman with the dagger gifted by Umesha next to her. It could be seen as an exposition on the then existing indigenous discourse in India in the 19th century and early 20th century. Kamale, in her rigorous commitment and in retrieving her husband from ‘death’, is fashioned after Savithri in an intertextual reference to Mahabharata’s episode of “Satyavan and Savithri”. The novel might look conservative for the present-day reader, but it is a representative literary work of the time when Paniyadi, among many others, wanted to regain the independent status of the Tulu language which had somehow slipped out of its pedestal.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
-
Mahāmmāyi
Author: Chandrasekhara Kambara, Translator: Kathyayini Kunjibettu
Mahāmmāyi is the story of the legend of Shatavithaayi – the Goddess of death, and her adopted son Sambhashiva. Out of affection for her son, Goddess Shatavithaayi blesses him with the “power of life”. The blessing was that death will evade the people who are treated by Sambashiva. But a certain condition set by Shatavithaayi forbade him from healing every ill man. The condition was that, if Shatavithaayi stood on the right side of the patient, Sambhashiva could treat that person and he would live; but, if she stood on the left side of the patient, he should not treat that person as his death was inevitable. Through a distinct method of story-telling, the story follows the life of Sambhashiva as he begins to question the ideas of fate and destiny. Thus, the conflict between fate and human efforts to change that fate is vividly described in this play. -
Two Plays – The Sahyadri Saga and The World of Swayamvara
Author: Akshara K V Translator: Jayanth Kodkani
These two plays negotiate with the real problems of contemporary India. If Sahyadri Kanda is about the ripples caused in the life of the people in a village on the Western Coast which will soon have a nuclear plant, Swayamvaraloka, is an allegorical narrative set in a small village that extends to include the larger contemporary world. Both the plays dwell on the seeming binaries of village-city, success-failure, modern-traditional while examining the nature of human relationships in the changing world. These plays also reflect an ambition to elevate the real experience to a mythical level. While most playwrights attempt to echo contemporary concerns by reinterpreting history and mythology, for these plays, the epics, their grandeur, the struggle, the wars are not episodes that happen in kingdoms and palaces and battlefields, they are also that which takes place in the microworld of one’s consciousness. Each character in these plays find their own dharma, yet it offers no model for the reader, and remains only a pointer to the complex process of finding it.
Also available on
eBook available on
-
A Shrine for Sarasamma
Author: Shivarama Karanth Translator: D A Shankar
A Shrine for Sarasamma is the English translation of Sarasammana Samadhi written by K Shivarama Karanth in 1937, in his early thirties. It offers one of the most authentic and searing accounts of Indian womanhood, which consistently, and through the ages, has suffered deep anguish, humiliation and crushing insult from the oppressive patriarchal culture prevalent in all parts of India and among all castes and classes. The novel is a classic in Kannada and the English translation is an attempt to bring to the English reading audience a taste of the regional classic.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
-
If we meet again we shall smile
Author: Anushua Chakrabarti
People leave our lives. Some simply walk away from our world while some leave this world altogether. Through visuals, poetry and short stories, the author has a dialogue with the reader that takes them both through a journey full of characters that are no more, and yet have shaped the story. This fictional dialogue is a short trip down memory lane that visits the relationships one keeps hidden beneath.
Anushua Chakrabarti, originally from Kolkata, is a wandering minstrel. She lives on travel and music. Anushua has completed her MBA from TAPMI, Manipal, India, post which she worked in top technology brands like HP and Microsoft. She is presently back in Kolkata, driving social service through her acquired experience. Anushua has faced several childhood traumas but she believes she is what she is today, not in spite of it; but because of it.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
-
A Bond So Sacred
A Bond So Sacred tells the story of Raman, a satyagrahi, who adopts Kokila, an orphan. He leaves the five year old in the care of his mother while he plunges into the freedom struggle. His nationalist fervour, however, clashes with his love for Amina, his charming neighbour who wants parental approval to their marriage. Raman’s mother is as staunch a Brahmin as Amina’s father is a Muslim. Will Raman be able to get their consent. The joy of India becoming an independent nation is marred by Gandhiji’s death. Raman’s fellow satyagrahis have gone their ways and he finds himself with no role to play in a rapidly changing country. Meanwhile, Kokila, his protégée, has her own battles to fight. As the years bring them together again, Kokila discovers truths about Raman that she would never have imagined. She is forced to confront the ghosts of the past, his and hers.
-
Pot of Butter and other short stories
Author: Sunanda Belgaumkar Translator: Sa Usha, Vaijayanti Suryanarayana
Pot of Butter and other Short Stories is a collection of nine short stories, originally composed by Sunanda Belgaumkar in Kannada, handpicked and translated from her collections – Kajjaya and Koduvudenu Kombudenu. The bulk of her literary work including the stories in this book are inspired by the experiences in her early life, in the rustic and robust atmosphere of Dharwad. Her stories are predominantly semiautobiographical, laced with a liberal dose of artistic freedom.
This collection weaves together her writings on the underprivileged and marginalized as seen from the comfort of her palatial home, but rendered with compassion and empathy. Often, we find her narrative infused with self-directed questions such as, “What if I was in her shoes? ” or “Could that have been me? ” These stories are reflections on human nature, suffering, and destiny. There is hope, there is despair. There is love, there is longing. There is defeat, and there is triumph. In her stories, an oft-recurring metaphor for picking up one’s life after loss is a scorching summer followed by a torrential downpour and subsequently a plant springing to life.
As a translation, this book attempts to introduce Sunanda Belgaumkar’s literary and artistic creations to the non-Kannada reader, retaining as much of the indigenous elements of the original writings as possible. In doing so, it seeks to preserve the cultural climate of North Karnataka as it was around fifty years ago.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
-
Inti Dvadasha Akhyana
Author: Sathyavathi Harikrishnan
ಸತ್ಯವತಿ ಹರಿಕೃಷ್ಣನ್ ಹಾಸ್ಯಬರವಣಿಗೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸುಮಾರು ಎರಡು ದಶಕಗಳಿಂದ ತನ್ನನ್ನು ತೊಡಗಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿರುವ ಕವಯಿತ್ರಿ. ಇವರ ಹಾಸ್ಯಲೇಖನಗಳು ತರಂಗ, ತುಷಾರ, ಮಯೂರ, ಕರ್ಮವೀರದಂಥ ನಿಯತಕಾಲಿಕಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಉದಯವಾಣಿ, ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ ಮುಂತಾದವುಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ಪ್ರಕಟಗೊಂಡಿವೆ. 2002ರಲ್ಲಿ ಡೆಟ್ರಾಯಿಟ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆದ “ಅಕ್ಕ” ವಿಶ್ವ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಮ್ಮೇಳನದ ಸ್ಮರಣ ಸಂಚಿಕೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇವರ “ಗುಂಡ್ರಾಮನ ಚಿಕಿತ್ಸಾಯಣ’ ಎಂಬ ಕೃತಿ ಪ್ರಕಟವಾಗಿದೆ. ಸನ್ಮಾನ್ಯರಾದ ದೇಜಗೌ ಮತ್ತು ಜಿಟಿನಾರವರ ಸಂಪಾದಕತ್ವದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕಟವಾದ “ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ’ದಲ್ಲಿ ಇವರ ಅನುವಾದಿತ ಲೇಖನಗಳು ಪಡಿಮೂಡಿವೆ. “ಕುಂಬಾಸ’, “ನುಗ್ಗೇಹಳ್ಳಿ ಪಂಕಜ’ವೇ ಮೊದಲಾದ ಪ್ರಶಸ್ತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಪಡೆದಿರುವ ಸತ್ಯವತಿಯವರು ಈಗಾಗಲೇ ಐದು ಹಾಸ್ಯ ಸಂಕಲನಗಳನ್ನು ರಚಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅವರ ಆರನೆಯ ಹಾಸ್ಯ ಸಂಕಲನವೇ – “ಇಂತಿ ದ್ವಾದಶ ಆಖ್ಯಾನ’. ಹಾಸ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಅಪಹಾಸ್ಯ, ತಿಳಿಹಾಸ್ಯ, ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯ ಮುಂತಾದ ಪ್ರಭೇದಗಳಿವೆ. ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯಮಿಶ್ರಿತವಾದ ತಿಳಿಹಾಸ್ಯ ಒಂದೇ ಕಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ಎರಡು ಉದ್ದೇಶಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿರುತ್ತವೆ. ಅದು ಮೇಲ್ನೋಟಕ್ಕೆ ಮನೋರಂಜನೆಯಾಗಿ ಕಂಡರೂ, ಅದರ ಇಂಗಿತ ಓದುಗರನ್ನು ಗಂಭೀರ ಚಿಂತನೆಗೆ ತೊಡಗುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡುವುದಾಗಿರುತ್ತದೆ. ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಯನ್ನು ನೋಯಿಸದೇ ಲಘುಹಾಸ್ಯ-ವ್ಯಂಗ್ಯಗಳಿಂದ ಸ್ವವಿಮರ್ಶೆ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ ಪ್ರೇರೇಪಿಸುವುದು ಹಾಸ್ಯದ ಕಲಾತ್ಮಕ ಪ್ರಕ್ರಿಯೆ. ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ ಸತ್ಯವತಿಯವರ ಈ ಕೃತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇಂತಹ ಒಂದು ಪ್ರಯತ್ನವನ್ನು ನಾವು ಕಾಣಬಹುದು. “ಇಂತಿ ದ್ವಾದಶ ಆಖ್ಯಾನ’ದಲ್ಲಿ ಹನ್ನೆರಡು ವೈವಿಧ್ಯಮಯ ಸಣ್ಣ ಹಾಸ್ಯಲೇಖನಗಳಿವೆ. ಸತ್ಯವತಿಯವರು ನಮ್ಮ ಜೀವನದ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಘಟನೆಗಳನ್ನೇ ರಂಗುರಂಗಾಗಿ ತಿಳಿಹಾಸ್ಯದ ಮೂಲಕ ಈ ಕೃತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ತೋರಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಕಾಲ್ಪನಿಕ ಘಟನೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಹಾಸ್ಯದ ಪಾತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸಿ, ಗಂಭೀರ ವಿಚಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಮನಮುಟ್ಟುವಂತೆ ನಿರೂಪಿಸುವ ಲೇಖಕಿಯ ಶೈಲಿಯು ಅಪೂರ್ವವಾದದ್ದು. ಪ್ರತಿ ಕತೆಯ ಶೀರ್ಷಿಕೆಯಲ್ಲೇ ಹಾಸ್ಯ ತುಂಬಿರುವ ಈ ಕೃತಿಯು ಓದುಗರನ್ನು ನಗಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಯಶಸ್ವಿಯಾಗುತ್ತದೆ.
Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on