Swan Song

The Preferred Pronoun and Other Stories

Guruprasad Kaginele

₹400.00

The Preferred Pronoun and Other Stories

Guruprasad Kaginele

Author: Guruprasad Kaginele, Translator: Narayan Shankaran

The Preferred Pronoun and Other Stories is a unique collection of twelve short stories by Guruprasad Kaginele. These stories arise from the restless tension of being away from one’s roots, the haunting nostalgia for the home left behind, and the interplay of diverse cultures, while also exploring the process of integrating into a new environment. Set against the backdrop of America and within the medical world, the stories reflect the author’s thoughts and experiences.
From Osama, who nervously sweats after discovering a semiautomatic pistol in a schoolteacher’s house, to Morris, a middle aged individual on a quest for the perfect pronoun after gender transformation, the collection brings a wide array of characters and situations to life. The Nesting, a story that triggers many thoughts with its metaphorical allusions to a home blooming over the doom of another, and The Big Save, a story about a doctor yearning to regain his lost mojo despite realizing that it requires jeopardizing a life to save another, along with other stories, amply illustrate the author’s uncanny prowess in the dramatic presentation of compassion, love, jealousy, torts and their befitting punishments, the thin line between good and evil, and other subtle nuances.

The stories depict three phases of a migrant’s life: the naiveté and challenges of a new immigrant, the process of assimilation, and the adaptation to American culture, seamlessly woven together to create a cohesive narrative of diverse experiences. Stemming from the choice to build a life in a foreign land, the narratives explore the politics and ethnic consciousness tied to that journey. Through the lens of a doctor’s work and family life in America, Kaginele captures the dynamic political changes in the country, while revealing subtle shifts in ethnic sensibilities and the evolving nature of interpersonal relationships in the migrant experience.

Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.

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₹400.00

Mandagere Sitharamaiah Keshava Prabhu

BAKA – Collection of Two Plays

₹340.00

Mandagere Sitharamaiah Keshava Prabhu

BAKA – Collection of Two Plays

Author: M S Keshava Prabhu, Translator: L V Shantakumari

Baka dramatizes the episode of Bakasura, from the Indian epic, Mahabharata. Baka is a cannibal demon that terrorizes a village with its horrifying attacks. The king of the village strikes an agreement with the demon, putting its people in peril. They live in constant fear for years until the sudden arrival of a hero changes everything.

A theatrical and evocative narration, this play satirically mirrors society’s greed and irresponsibility. It depicts power struggles through the conflict that arises between Baka the demon, the cowardly king, and the oppressed people.

Interested customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.

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₹340.00

K Mahalinga, T K Ravindran

Unheard Sounds Flow On

₹315.00

K Mahalinga, T K Ravindran

Unheard Sounds Flow On

Author: K Mahalinga, Translator: T K Ravindran

In spite of being one of the oldest members of the Dravidian family of languages, Tulu, unfortunately, has not yet found the recognition that it richly deserves in the modern world. Since modernity privileges the written over the spoken, the Tulu language that is abundantly blessed with oral literature has been placed on the fringes of modern literary world. Ironically, Tulu is still engaged in a desperate fight for official status in a country that boasts of its cultural and linguistic diversity. The motives behind the translation of Nanajjer Sude Tirgayer, hailed as the first modern Tulu novel, into English refuse to remain apolitical in this context.

The novel, which has already been translated into Kannada, Konkani and Malayalam, beautifully captures the pulse of rusticity that characterizes the life of a village community that lived its life with its love-hate relationship with nature, more than 75 years ago in a Tulu speaking village in the south-western part of Karnataka. Besides bringing alive the socio-cultural practices that find their articulation through the natural linguistic plurality ingrained in the village psyche, the novel touches upon the duality of human nature that leaves man perennially condemned to an inner crisis.

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₹315.00

Tapaalu Mani

Rabindranath Tagore

₹140.00

Tapaalu Mani

Rabindranath Tagore

Author: Rabhindranath Tagore, Translator: Mounesh Badiger

ರಾಷ್ಟ್ರಕವಿ ರವೀಂದ್ರನಾಥ ಠಾಕೂರರ ‘ಡಾಕ್ ಘರ್’ ಬಹಳ ಪ್ರಸಿದ್ಧ ನಾಟಕ. ಮಗುವಿನ ಮನೋದೈಹಿಕ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲೆಯ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮಕಣ್ಣಿನಿಂದ ನೋಡುವ ಎರಡಂಕದ ಪುಟ್ಟ ನಾಟಕವಿದು. ಇದು ಸೃಷ್ಟಿಸುವ ಮಾಯಾವಾಸ್ತವ ಬಹಳ ಅಪರೂಪವಾದದ್ದು. ಇದರ ಮುಖ್ಯ ಪಾತ್ರ ಮಗುವೇ ಆಗಿದ್ದರೂ ಇದರ ವಸ್ತು ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗಳಿಂತ ಹೆಚ್ಚಾಗಿ ದೊಡ್ಡವರಿಗೇ ಅನ್ವಯವಾಗುವಂತಿದೆ. ಮೌನೇಶ ಬಡಿಗೇರರು ಇದನ್ನು ಉತ್ತರಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಭಾಷೆಗೆ ತಂದು ಕನ್ನಡದ ನಾಟಕವೇ ಎನ್ನುವಷ್ಟು ರೂಪಾಂತರಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಇದರ ಪ್ರಯೋಗದ ಹೊಸ ಹೊಸ ಸಾಧ್ಯತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕನ್ನಡ ರಂಗಭೂಮಿ ಇನ್ನೂ ಶೋಧಿಸಬೇಕಿದೆ.

Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.

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₹140.00

D A Shankar, Shivarama Karanth

A Shrine for Sarasamma

₹180.00

D A Shankar, Shivarama Karanth

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.

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₹180.00

Sa Usha, Sunanda Belgaumkar, Vaijayanti Suryanarayana

Pot of Butter and other short stories

₹250.00

Sa Usha, Sunanda Belgaumkar, Vaijayanti Suryanarayana

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.

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₹250.00

Chandrashekhar Kambara, Kathyayini Kunjibettu

Mahammaayi

₹195.00

Chandrashekhar Kambara, Kathyayini Kunjibettu

Mahammaayi

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.

Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.

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₹195.00

M R Rakshith, Savita Sastri, Sumathi Shenoy, Gopalakrishna Pai

Swapnasaraswatha

₹530.00

M R Rakshith, Savita Sastri, Sumathi Shenoy, Gopalakrishna Pai

Swapnasaraswatha

Author: Gopalakrishna Pai Translator: Sumathi Shenoy, M R Rakshith, Savita Sastri

Swapna Saraswatha is the saga of migration of a community called Saraswaths in the west coast of India, extending from Goa to the south of Mangalore. It captures the dominance of a colonial power over the region that began with the entry of the Portuguese about four hundred years ago. The novel is a graphic description of the displacement of this strongly-rooted community which saw its resurrection in a new area. In the course of its narrative, the novel traces the gradual changes in the structure of the family that moved from a closely knit joint family of the bygone era to the nuclear family. It also deals with the factors that are responsible for the change in value systems of individuals in the wake of such paradigm shifts. With its vast canvas, it remarkably weaves fiction with myth and history, peppered with cultural details and linguistic nuances. The narration in Swapna Saraswatha progresses in the form of an epic detailing the story of nine generations spread over a period of two hundred and fifty years from 1510 to about 1760. It encompasses more than a hundred and fifty characters which include Hindus, Muslims, Christians, chieftains, traders, farmers, priests and black magicians, and covers a range of themes spread across folk tales, legends, armies, myths and a sprinkling of history.

₹530.00