Two Plays – The Sahyadri Saga and The World of Swayamvara
₹199.00
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 |
Categories: | Fiction, Plays and Theatre, Translation |
---|
Format |
---|
Related products
-
Defiance
Defiance 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.
-
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.
-
Caught in the World of Binaries: Selected Poems of K S Nisar Ahmed
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.
-
The Gandhi Cap and Other Short Stories by Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Singh
The book The Gandhi Cap and Other Short Stories offers a glimpse into the lifetime of work of a forgotten pioneer of Hindi fiction, Raja Radhikaraman Prasad Sinha. It is ironic that one cannot find a single book by this author who was so dedicated to Hindi literature. The stories in this collection are a testament not only to the contributions of Sinha to Hindi fiction but also, reflect the depth of political and social milieu of the times. Many readers will be moved by the elements patriotism, feminism, secularism, and spiritualism in these stories. Strong female characters are common in most of these stories. These characters provide both a moral fulcrum to the stories as well as reflect the struggle of women to balance prevailing customs with modernity. Some of these stories provide sharp political and social commentary that still have currency (The Gandhi Cap). Sinha incorporates a unique style of writing that uses lyrical prose and poetry together. He even employs a dialogue between the storyteller and a social gathering in the form of an epilogue, to offer a discourse on social dilemma about women?s plight to become modern while admonishing them to retain their Indian essence (An Expensive Bargain). We hope the readers will enjoy this wonderful collection.
-
Swapnasaraswatha
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.
-
U-Turn
ಮರಾಠಿ ನಾಟಕ. ಯು-ಟರ್ನ್ ಮಹಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರ ಮತ್ತು ಅದರಾಚೆಗೆ 585 ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳೊಂದಿಗೆ ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಹೃದಯಗಳನ್ನು ಗೆದ್ದಿದೆ. ಗುಜರಾತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇದರ ಅನುವಾದವು 115 ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡಿದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹಿಂದಿಯಲ್ಲಿ 50 ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಪ್ರದರ್ಶನಗಳನ್ನು ಕಂಡಿದೆ. ಈ ಯಶಸ್ಸು ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ ಸವಿತಾ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿಯವರ ಬೆಂಬಲದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಕೃತಿಯನ್ನು ಅನುವಾದಿಸಲು ಪ್ರೊ.ನೀತಾ ಇನಾಮದಾರ್ ಅವರನ್ನು ಪ್ರೋತ್ಸಾಹಿಸಿತು. ನಾಟಕವು ಉದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ಕೇವಲ ಎರಡು ಪಾತ್ರಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ ಮತ್ತು ಇಡೀ ಅವಧಿಗೆ ವೇದಿಕೆಯ ಮೇಲಿರುವ ಇಬ್ಬರನ್ನು ಹೊರತುಪಡಿಸಿ ಒಂದೆರಡು ಧ್ವನಿಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ. ನಾಟಕದ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಕಲ್ಪನೆಯು ಆಧುನಿಕತೆಯನ್ನು ಒಪ್ಪಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವಲ್ಲಿನ ವ್ಯತ್ಯಾಸಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಎರಡು ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ತಲೆಮಾರುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ ಸಂಘರ್ಷಗಳು. ವಿಚ್ಛೇದಿತ ಸೇನೆಯ ಮೇಜರ್ ಮತ್ತು 50 ರ ದಶಕದ ಅಂತ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ವಿಧವೆಯ ನಡುವಿನ ಒಡನಾಟವನ್ನು ಅವರ ಮಕ್ಕಳು ವಿರೋಧಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ ಮತ್ತು ಅವರು ತಮ್ಮನ್ನು ತಾವು ಆಧುನಿಕತೆಯನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಸಿಕೊಂಡರೂ ವಿಭಿನ್ನ ರೀತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಾರೆ. ನೀತಾ ಇನಾಮದಾರ್ ಅವರು ಮಣಿಪಾಲ್ ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾನಿಲಯದಲ್ಲಿ (MU) ಯುರೋಪಿಯನ್ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ವಿಭಾಗದ (DES) ಮುಖ್ಯಸ್ಥರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ ಮತ್ತು ಮಣಿಪಾಲ್ ಯೂನಿವರ್ಸಲ್ ಪ್ರೆಸ್ ನ (MUP) ಮುಖ್ಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಸಂಗೀತ ಮತ್ತು ರಂಗಭೂಮಿ ಅವರ ಆಸಕ್ತಿಗಳಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ ಸವಿತಾ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿ ಅವರ ನೆರವಿನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಈ ಕೆಲಸವನ್ನು ಕೈಗೊಳ್ಳುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡಿತು. ಸವಿತಾ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿ ಅವರು ಮಣಿಪಾಲದ ಮಹಿಳಾ ಉದ್ಯಮಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಅವರು ಬಾಬಾ ಆಮ್ಟೆ ಅವರ ಆನಂದವನಕ್ಕೆ ಧನಸಹಾಯವನ್ನೂ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಅವರು ಮರಾಠಿ, ಹಿಂದಿ ಮತ್ತು ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ನಲ್ಲಿ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ನಾಟಕಗಳ ಓದುಗರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ, ಅವರು ಈ ಅನುವಾದ ಯೋಜನೆಗೆ ತಮ್ಮ ಬೆಂಬಲವನ್ನು ನೀಡಿದರು.
-
Kaitan Gandhi’s Freedom Struggle
Kaitan Gandhiya Swatantrya Horata is one of the very few novels written in Kannada on the Gandhian phase of the Indian freedom struggle. It is not globally unknown that Gandhi not only changed the idiom of the struggle and successfully experimented his lifetime-belief in non-violence on the vast canvas but also made it decisively inclusive. Kaitan Gandhi’s Freedom Struggle thematically illuminates these two crucial aspects of the great struggle and grapples with the naked truth as Charles, the priest in the novel revealingly says,The rulers, whosoever it is, are rulers. Caste, colour, or country does not matter to them. All are wicked. Like in all true works of realist literature, the author, here too, creatively blends the individual, the social, and the historical in such a way that the novel poignantly unfolds the true spirit of quest for freedom and humanity.