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A New World Romance
An accidental meeting at a seminar brings Ketaki and Aditya, two academics based in the United States, together. Well established in their careers, with romantic and marital relationships behind them, they are located in different cities in what the author calls the ‘new world’ or Navabhum, while the ‘old world’ or Purabhum has long been left behind. Neither is in search of a relationship, but they find themselves falling deeply and inexorably in love. Even as the new world opens up infinite possibilities, the old world casts its gentle shadow over their lives and touches everything. Where, the author asks, will their love take them? Susham Bedi’s moving and delicately crafted novel is brought to us in this sensitive and nuanced translation by Astri Ghosh.
Darkness and Other Stories
Razia Sajjad Zaheer’s stories are gentle and unassuming tales that describe the lives of ordinary women—a homemaker, a teacher, a writer, a sex worker—whose struggles simply to be themselves, or to make sense of the realities they see around them, mark them as extraordinary. A low caste woman shows up society’s hypocrisy in dealing with caste and, in doing so, turns the mirror on her own tendency to do the same. A working woman, a mother and writer, grapples with how to deal with her over-helpful house help, a man, who thinks he knows that when she asks for tea, he must instead serve her milk. A writer travels alone on a train at night, fearful that she may be attacked by the sinister-seeming men around her, only to find that they are fans of her writing. Every story offers a situation that readers may easily recognise and relate to, and each then suggests a complex twist or an ambivalence that is sometimes elusive and sometimes illuminating. Saba Mahmood Bashir’s competent and accessible translation brings the work of this important writer—which has thus far received little attention—to life for readers of today.
Unmoored
In Unmoored, Ramachandran Usha crafts an intimate exploration of migration and belonging. Three women—Ayesha, Indu, and Ameera—return to Chennai from the Gulf, each looking to reunite with the loved ones they left behind. Despite differences in religion, social status and age, they are also united in their quest for a true sense of home. Usha’s novella dwells on the seldom-told yet pervasive story of women who travel to the Middle East and beyond, driven by the need to secure their families’ futures. The protagonists of the two short stories featured in this collection, ‘Khushka’, and ‘Success’, have much in common with the women of Unmoored, even as they grapple with crises of faith and finance.
Hidden Treasure
Living on rent in a wealthy, religious house, Chintamoni spends her days holding together her ordinary, lower-class family. Nothing excites her in her marriage to an unremarkable man, while the shadow of her son’s heart disease looms over her austere life. When a secretive devotee of Ma Kali begins boarding in the house, Chintamoni realises that the man has been eyeing her. His arrival kindles her dormant desires, bringing her both love and money. But the events that should have changed her life for the better end up making it much worse. Hidden Treasure is the story of a woman—and of women—struggling to make something of their lives in a world run by men, money, and religion.
Ittehad
Known and celebrated in her time, Guli Sadarangani, the first woman writer of Sindh, later sank into oblivion. Perhaps this was because she dared to write about a Hindu-Muslim romance that culminated in marriage. The novel that told this story, Ittehad, was first published in undivided India, and later appeared under another title, Melaapi Jeevan. Rita Kothari’s elegant and empathetic translation of the love story of Asha and Hamid teases out the nuances of their understated relationship and reveals how pre-Independence and pre-Partition India held so many possibilities of living and loving together. Perhaps that is why, the translator speculates, members of the Sindhi community trying to find their feet in post-Partition India were uncertain of showcasing a writer whose writings represented a world that no longer seemed possible.
Asian American Short Story Writers
Asian America has produced numerous short-story writers in the 20th century. Some emerged after World War II, yet most of these writers have flourished since 1980. The first reference of its kind, this volume includes alphabetically arranged entries for 49 nationally and internationally acclaimed Asian American writers of short fiction. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and includes a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, a survey of the writer's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. Writers include Frank Chin, Sui Sin Far, Shirely Geok-lin Lim, Toshio Mori, and Bharati Mukherjee. An introductory essay provides a close examination of the Asian American short story, and the volume closes with a list of works for further reading.
India in Translation Through Hindi Literature
What role have translations from Hindi literary works played in shaping and transforming our knowledge about India? In this book, renowned scholars, translators and Hindi writers from India, Europe, and the United States offer their approaches to this question. Their articles deal with the political, cultural, and linguistic criteria germane to the selection and translation of Hindi works, the nature of the enduring links between India and Europe, and the reception of translated texts, particularly through the perspective of book history. More personal essays, both on the writing process itself or on the practice of translation, complete the volume and highlight the plurality of voices that are inherent to any translation. As the outcome of an international symposium held at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2008, India in Translation through Hindi Literature engages in the building of critical histories of the encounter between India and the «West», the use and impact of translations in this context, and Hindi literature and culture in connection to English (post)colonial power, literature and culture.
Other Skies, Other Stories
These stories, written originally in Hindi, reveal an author who can think and create in two languages with rare fluency. With her faultless ear for the cadences of Hindustani, Sara Rai illuminates the life of small towns with details which perhaps only a bilingual writer would pick up on. Equally important to her in the landscape of human lives is the presence of trees, birds, insects, and fish. Her Zen-like meditations on the silent yet profound movements of this world are presented in a language that is pared down, spare, and evocative. She remains unseen, but her presence animates each of her characters, whether it be Surabhi from ‘Catfish’, the eponymous Nabila, or Sour Face and Shrew from ‘Golden Anniversary’. The stories are presented here in a lucid translation by Ira Pande and the author.
The Fire Sacrifice
'Everything that was tender, fragrant, fresh and pure... All turned to ashes... Had she herself been saved or burned to nothing, like the offerings in the fire?'. As Guddo's family gathers in her New York apartment to welcome the new year, she re-lives the ten years that have passed since she left her native India. Drawn to the USA by the promise of a glamorous life, Guddo's whole family become ensnared in a struggle between Indian and American ways of life. She watches as the next generation is drawn inevitably into rootless Western ways, with tragic results. A fast-moving novel which encapsulates the conflicts of the immigrant to the West, through the eyes of a woman coming to terms with loss and challenge.
The Fire Sacrifice
Susham Bedi's first novel, The Fire Sacrifice, is in the tradition of social realism in Hindi fiction that began with Premchand about the time of the First World War.
