JOIN USGeetanjali Shree's 'Tomb of Sand' makes it to Booker longlist
Ever since the recent announcement of the longlist of the 2022 International Booker Prize, New Delhi-based author Geetanjali Shree has been keeping extremely busy accepting congratulatory messages.
Her 2018 Hindi novel, Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as the Tomb of Sand, has become the first book in the language to make it to the longlist of the prestigious international literature award. It's a milestone whose significance is not lost on the impact it can have on the non-English literature scene of the country, and whose enormity is sinking in for the author herself gradually.
"I humbly accept the realisation that it's not a small thing. Initially, I was viewing it with a strange detachment as it is so much outside the purview of my world, but a few of my friends scolded me and asked me not to trivialise it," says the author of the well-known Hindi novels such as Mai, Hamara Shahar Uss Baras, Tirohit and Khali Jagah, which have reached a wider readership through translations in other languages such as French, German, English, Serbian, etc. Besides, her writings have been part of the curriculum in universities abroad.
Thirteen books from 11 different languages from 12 countries have made it to the longlist. The prize requires these books to have been published in their English translations in either the UK or Ireland.
The International Booker Prize began as a biennial in 2005, turning annual in 2015. It carries prize money of £50,000 that is divided equally between the author and the translator. The shortlist of six books will be announced on April 7 and the winner on May 26.
Shree's nomination has set the publishing industry in India abuzz and brought focus on the importance of translation in a multilingual country like India. The top publishing houses of India — all English-oriented — have had a rigorous translation programme for the past few years, bringing regional gems to mainstream readership.
"The International Booker longlist brings the focus on the vibrant Hindi literature scene, and of other Indian languages such as Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, that have a rich literary culture, but things do not change in one dramatic moment," said Shree.
"Translation remains the key for dialogue between and access to different Indian languages. We have to accept, without prejudice, that English is the link language in our country and much of the world. There is a need to develop the whole scene of translation, not just into English but from one Indian language to another," said the author.
It's interesting to note that Ret Samadhi became the Tomb of Sand at the hands of American writer and artist Daisy Rockwell, who has some seminal Hindi translations to her credit, including the works of Upendranath Ashk and Krishna Sobti, among others.
A history student, Shree did her bachelor's degree from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, and master's from JNU. It was around this time that she started veering towards Hindi literature.
"I found the academic bridge between history and Hindi in my PhD, which was on Prem Chand, not as a literary person but as a part of the nationalist intelligentsia in the independence movement," said Shree.
She enrolled at the MS University, Baroda, for her PhD, and took up teaching at Jamia Millia Islamia and Zakir Hussain College in New Delhi. By the time she completed her PhD in the early 1980s, she had decided to leave history for good. Her first novel, Mai, was published in 1993 and has been translated into other languages.
(The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist, editor and arts consultant)
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