Categories: | Fiction, Indic languages, Translation |
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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.
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Ati Sannakathe: Swarupa, Siddhi Mattu Sadhyate
Author: T P Ashoka Translator: Prakash Nayak
ಕಲ್ಪನೆ ಎಂಬುದು ಸತ್ಯಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಸತ್ಯ, ಕನಸು ಎಂಬುದು ವಾಸ್ತವಕ್ಕಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ವಾಸ್ತವ ಎಂಬುದು ಅತಿ ಸಣ್ಣಕತೆಗಳು ನಮಗೆ ಮನದಟ್ಟು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುವಂತೆ ಕಾಣುತ್ತವೆ. ಹೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಅತಿ ಸಣ್ಣಕತೆಗಳು ವಾಸ್ತವವಾದೀ ಮಾರ್ಗವನ್ನು ಬಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಟ್ಟಿರುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರಾಯಶಃ ಇದೇ ಕಾರಣ. ವಿವರಣೆ-ವರ್ಣನೆಗಳ ಹಂಗು ಇಲ್ಲದಿರುವುದರಿಂದ ಸಂಕ್ಷಿಪ್ತತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಸಾಂದ್ರತೆಗಳು ಇವುಗಳ ಸಹಜ ಲಕ್ಷಣಗಳಾಗಿವೆ. ಅಂತರಂಗದ ಆಳವನ್ನು, ಅಮೂರ್ತವನ್ನು, ಸಾಂಕೇತಿಕವಾದುದದ್ದನ್ನು ಮತ್ತೊಂದೇ ಸ್ತರದಲ್ಲಿ ಗ್ರಹಿಸಿ ಅಭಿವ್ಯಕ್ತಿಸಲು ಲೇಖಕರಿಗೆ ಈ ಪ್ರಕಾರ ಹೇಳಿ ಮಾಡಿಸಿದಂತಿದೆ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಜಗತ್ತಿನ ಎಲ್ಲ ಭಾಷೆಗಳ ದೊಡ್ಡ ಲೇಖಕರು, ದೀರ್ಘವಾದ ಕತೆ-ಕಾದಂಬರಿಗಳನ್ನು ಬರೆದವರನ್ನೂ ಸೇರಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು, ಈ ಪ್ರಕಾರದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೃಷಿಮಾಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ತುಂಬ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮವಾದ, ನಾಜೂಕಾದ ಸಂಗತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಸೂಚ್ಯವಾಗಿ, ಕೆಲವೊಮ್ಮೆ ಪರೋಕ್ಷವಾಗಿ, ಇನ್ನೂ ಕೆಲವು ವೇಳೆ ಮುಚ್ಚಿಟ್ಟು ಹೇಳಲು ಈ ಪ್ರಕಾರವು ತನ್ನ ಸ್ವರೂಪದ ಕಾರಣದಿಂದಲೇ ಅನುವು ಮಾಡಿಕೊಡುತ್ತದೆ. ಇದು ಆಧುನಿಕ ಪೂರ್ವದ ದಂತಕತೆ, ನೀತಿಕತೆ, ದೃಷ್ಟಾಂತ ಕತೆಗಳ ಆಧುನಿಕ ರೂಪವಾಗಿ ಕಂಡರೂ ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ.
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Sati Kamale
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.
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Bamonn
Konkani Roman Catholic Christians were converted from other groups by Goan Missionaries long back, keeping the caste system tradition to a large extent in layers such as the Bamonn, the Charodi, the Gawdi, the Nendar, the Shudra, etc. At the time of marriages and other social gatherings they continue to consider caste system norms and customs in the community. Caste system in Indian Christians is vividly described in the novel Bamonn. Christopher Pai of Kalyanpura hails from a Bamonn family and takes great pride in his ancestry. He believes in the stories about his Konkani Roman Catholic ancestors from his elders and about their being true Christians, holding on to their faith despite tremendous pressure to convert to Islam during Tipu Sultan?s regime. He also believes Bamonns are superior to other Christians in the community. After retiring from his job of a Headmaster, he refuels his obsession to retrace his roots and find out the truth about his ancestors. In his journey of self-assurance and faith, will he succeed in his mission to convince his family, his children and the community at large of his glorious ancestry and in still pride in the next generation? . . .
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Mahaammaayi
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. -
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.
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Pot of Butter and other short stories
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.
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If we meet again we shall smile
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.