And
the award goes to... .
HONOURED Krishna Sobti at the award ceremony in New
Delhi
Veteran author Krishna Sobti's "Dino Danish" and its translated
version "The Heart Has Its Own Reasons" bagged Hutch Crossword
Book Award-2005 recently
Krishna Sobti wrote a heart-rending novel a couple of decades ago,
titled Dino Danish. Set in `Dilli' of 1920s, the novel narrates the
real lives of joint family members.
It is about "how so many members lived under the same roof with
no ego clashes and no greed for power," as the veteran author
puts it. Reema Anand and Meenakshi Swami have just translated the
novel into English as "The Heart Has its Reasons".
|
The
book vied for the prestigious Hutch Crossword Book Award-2005 with
the big names as V. S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Mahashweta Devi, the
late V. K. Madhavan Kutty, Suketu Mehta, Rana Dasgupta, Cyrus Mistry
and Siddhartha Deb among others.
Among them Krishna Sobti bagged the award. And Reema Anand and Meenakshi
Swami won it in the Indian Language Fiction and Translation category
for this book.
The award presented recently in New Delhi has placed the Hindi literature
and English translation many notches higher, especially when not many
translations are happening.
Says a humble 75-year-old author, "Actually the translators deserve
it more than me. I wrote it long back. They have made it reach those
who don't know Hindi."
No blame game
Not that the author is less concerned about the growth of Hindi literature
and fiction in the country but at the same time she takes a logical
view of the scene.
"Hindi society's reading habits is still very conventional. It
hasn't cultivated the habit of buying books. So it is not good to
blame publishers for its little growth. We also should not forget
that there is still great illiteracy in the country. How can you expect
just a literate person to buy literature? But yes, some changes in
the copyright would help promote growth," she suggests.
|
Growth
for Hindi
And the author also foresees a better growth of Hindi in India because
of ever growing people-to-people contact between India and Pakistan.
"An amazing thing is that whatever has gone wrong between the
two countries, politically, intellectuals from both the sides refused
to succumb to the political pressures.
"They kept meeting and now their collective consciousness is
yielding splendid results. SAARC Literary Conference in India is helping
the writers in Hindi-Urdu a great way. In Pakistan they have even
done the Urdu translation of the Rig Veda."
The author also pins her hopes on the young generation. "The
middle generation didn't have so much liberty that today's generation
has. That is why I am very hopeful of these young people. Recently
in Kolkata I saw a collage of Hindi and Urdu in a stage performance.
I was greatly impressed. These steps would help the writing habits
grow too."
We hope so.
RANA SIDDIQUI
|
Book Rewards
Crossword
Recommends
Gift Vouchers
Crossword Events