my journey with the craft of translation

Looking back, I see that it all started with a casual interaction with a senior colleague who was a professor of Hindi and a published writer of poetry. He had with him some poems translated into English and wanted to ensure that it was good. Having a look at that I realized that the task needs improvement and I sought his permission to redo the same in my own fashion. A couple of days later, when I brought a typed copy (it was somewhere around 1998-99 when, even a typewriter was a luxury and I could afford it because something always pushed me to do things in the right way) of the same to him. His expressions confirmed that the task accomplished was not only good but to his satisfaction. Not all Hindi professors are unaware of subtle nuances of English. His admiration and encouragement made me to continue the same as a hobby. Unfortunately I was transferred and the company of such great scholars was left behind. However, the flame continued and I picked up bits and pieces on my own and kept showing to the worthy owners of the works.

Then it so happened that the national bilingual journal of Indian Literatures entitled the same, held a national competition of translation from Indian languages into English. This was an opportune moment and I decided to enter the competition. Nothing much happened but I was happy to have a Consolation Prize from Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, which provided me with a beautiful certificate of honor and One Year free subscription to the Journal. This set the ball rolling.

Then followed Shankar Puntambekar's novel entitled Jahan Devta Marte Hain translated by me into English as Where Gods Die and published by AuthorHouse UK Ltd, Bloomington, IN, USA 2014. Since then there is a long list of publications which I would share some other time. At the moment I would just like to add that the craft of translation has awakened the other me inside and brought forth the hidden fire which was lying dormant for a long time. Thanks for reading and see you soon.

With Late Shir Shankar Puntambekar

He published this novel with an anglicized name P Shankar!