Swan Song
₹320.00
Author: T R Subba Rao| Translator: Pramod Mutalik
Swan Song is the poignant tale of Venkatasubbiah, a legendary musician from 18th century Chitradurga. Written by renowned Kannada author Late Shri T R Subba Rao (TaRaSu) and translated into English by Prof Pramod Mutalik, the novel explores the extraordinary journey of an artist whose unwavering dedication to his craft defines his life.
The author weaves together perspectives from people of varied backgrounds to reconstruct Venkatasubbiah’s story, revealing his innate musical genius and determination. It narrates the tale of a musician’s steadfast devotion to art against all odds.
The narrative takes a dramatic turn when Venkatasubbiah defies Tippu Sultan’s order to perform in his palace. To protect the dignity of his art, he sacrifices his ability to sing by cutting off his tongue. Undeterred, he continues to produce swaras through his nose, earning him the metaphorical title of the swan. His life ends while performing, leaving an unforgettable legacy of self-respect and artistic integrity.
| Author | |
|---|---|
| Format |
Related products
-
Mahāmmāyi
₹195.00Author: 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.
Also available on
-
Two Plays – The Sahyadri Saga and The World of Swayamvara
₹199.00Author: 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.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
eBook available on
-
Defiance
₹495.00Defiance is a captivating tale of the march of globalization and its impact on the lives and times of the Santher Guthu family in Ombathkere, a village located between Mangaluru and Kasaragodu. Set in the picturesque Malabar coast of Karnataka in the late 20th Century, the novel takes the reader through four generations of the family. Ambakke, the protagonist, along with her brother Sankappa Hegde, the third-generation descendants of the family form the lifeblood of this story of human relationships in the midst of time and change. The novel is born out of deep contemplation of a community in the face of transition. There is anxiety that grips this part of Karnataka in the wake of modernity. The vast canvas of the novel and the depiction of folk culture provides a unique touch to the saga of the community. Defiance is a novel about traditions and the fear of losing out to modernity. It is about change and the desire to remain rooted.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
-
The Preferred Pronoun and Other Stories
₹400.00Author: 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.
Also available on
-
The Pollen Waits on Tiptoe- Selected Poems
₹310.00Author: Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre Translator: Madhav Ajjampur
The book presents English translations of 26 selected poems of 20th-century Kannada literature’s varakavi (heaven-touched poet) and one of the greatest lyric poets to have lived: Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre.
Although no selection of Bendre’s poems, even in the original Kannada, can ever be representative of the astonishing range of his poetry, the poems in this book give the reader a sampling of some of the different types of poems Bendre wrote – including the blank verse of his sonnets, the free verse of some of his later poetry, and the overwhelmingly-euphonic lyric poems of his first period. Several of the included poems are also acknowledged classics.
A standout feature of this book is its character as a multimedia presentation. Given the exceptional aural quality of Bendre’s poetry, a provision has been made for the reader to listen to audio recordings of each poem, in both its original and translated forms. Also included are Afterwords which, among other things, contain stories about Bendre, interesting anecdotes related to the poems, and reflections on the process of translation.
Interested overseas customers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
eBook available on
-
Caught in the World of Binaries: Selected Poems of K S Nisar Ahmed
₹310.00Author: 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.
Also available on
-
The Other Face
₹550.00Author: Na Mogasale Translator: N T Bhat
Set in a fictitious village called Kanthapura in Kasaragod district, Mukhāntara spans across the life of seven generations of a Havyaka Brahmin family. A story about the realities of living in a society marked by caste distinctions, the desire to find communal harmony and the tribulations of the characters through the entirety of the novel, it is also a tale of changing times and people. After unexpectedly coming into possession of a huge portion of land, Thirumalēshwara Bhat of Īshwarīmūle becomes a satisfied man. But childless, Thirumalēshwara Bhat and his wife Pārvathakka decide to adopt Venkappaiah and also give shelter to his widowed mother, Rathnamma. Venkappaiah is to inherit Thirumalēshwara’s vast wealth but when Krishnaiah, the illegitimate child of Thirumalēshwara and Rathnamma is born, rivalry ensues. Through the overlapping narratives of the characters, we get a glimpse into their journey from tradition to modernity. The characters strive to reshape new values when old values are slowly questioned and erased as they move on and are swept along in the waves of globalization.
Interested readers may write to us at mup@manipal.edu about purchasing the book.
Also available on
eBook available on
-
Pot of Butter and other short stories
₹250.00Author: 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.
Also available on