And here is the book, published by Penguin Random House India. Every dream begins with a hope of fruition. Though it takes sweat and perseverance to climb the mountain. But the happiness is worth all that struggle!
April is the cruellest month,
breeding Lilacs out of the dead land,
mixing memory and desire,
stirring dull roots with spring rain….T.S.Eliot
Dare one say, ‘Your Honour, we beg to differ!’ It is a blessed month when Nireeswaran’s grace will alight on us.
To the Lord beyond any form, name, shape, definition: the incarnation of love, kindness and tolerance; the One who exists in words and music, fragrance and beauty, everything and everyone…thank you for April.
**
The front cover and back cover of the new translation of V. J. James’ book Nireeswaran, to be released in April.
The Art of Revival: Get to know how the magic of Translation works
The Art of Revival: Get to know how the magic of Translation works
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http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/books/a-dark-tale-of-light-and-love/586844.html
https://southword.thestate.news/books/2018/04/23/i-am-used-to-gods-without-sight
https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/book-review-the-unseeing-idol-of-light/1165097/
https://www.deccanherald.com/sunday-herald/sunday-herald-books/experience-loss-674081.html
Read…and buy…Enjoy, reflect.
***
https://www.pustakmandi.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=22649
Translated from the original Malayalam by Yours Truly.
Release date: April 16 th 2018
Hardback
Penguin Random House
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http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/books/books-highlights-of-2018
And yes! In the fiction list for 2018, you find K R Meera’s novel, published by Penguin.
‘The Unseeing Idol of Light’
Translated by Yours Truly.
I remember reading aloud the first paragraph in translation to my brother in December 2015. It was one of the toughest phases of my life.
He smiled and said that it was beautiful. He also said that I would overcome the challenges.
From my side, this translation is dedicated to my beloved brother.
Thank you. Both your predictions came true. It turned into a beautiful book. And yes, the darkness went away.
May glorious, lovely light spread out in all our lives.
May words thrive and flourish.
May we constantly improve in character and outlook, generosity and perspective.
May we learn to look at life anew, this New Year.
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The AttaGalatta -Bangalore Lit Fest, Book Prize 2017 has announced the short list.
THE FICTION SHORT LIST
Anees Salim for This Small Town Sea
Penguin Random House
Arundhati Roy for The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Penguin Random House
S.L Bhyrappa for Saakshi
Niyogi
K.R Meera for The Poison of Love
Penguin Random House
**
Tulsi epitomises the blindness of passion. The sort that we typically associate with the gopikas of Vrindavan. Such obsessive love sees only the idol of worship: breathing him in, dreaming of him always, worshipping him with body, mind and soul.
The loved one is soon bored of such a love. He gets it from every single woman he courts. He loves a hunt and a chase. He values the woman who holds herself back, and taunts him with her haughtiness. Ah, that means she is covetable. If others too covet her affection, that makes her all the more invaluable a prize!
Tulsi is bereft of the tricks of love. She has been invited into love by a Player-God!
What happens when such a love is thwarted and treated with disdain and complacency? What happens when you desecrate what is sacred? And tell her that the actual pursuit is of another woman, who is ‘ extra ordinary’, and ‘ not like her.’
Is it a tale which rings true only in the precincts of myth? Or do we see such on a regular scale?
The story of the worshipped – both male and female-who use their powers of attraction for ticking off a virtual ‘ I got her/him crawling on the knees list’, and then ticking another ‘ Now I am bored with her/him for overwhelming me list’ is playing around us all the time.
You occasionally draw blood with such games. It happens when what was once love, curdles into something frighteningly deadly.
The basil , Tulsi being its cognate, happens to be one herb which would never rot or stink when it dries up. Instead, it remains fragrant, and slowly fritters away, bit by bit.
There is something divine about Tulsi. And her love.
**
The DSC awards for South Asian Literature has announced its long list. My friend K.R.Meera’s book- The Poison of Love- is in the long list of 13 books selected by an eminent jury. I am thrilled that her amazing talent as a writer has yet again been recognised.( I have lost count of the number of awards she has already won:) I am also happy that my role as a translator has been recognised.
My job takes me to very traumatising places at times. Like a place of suicide. A severed head and torso- lifeless-of what once was a very brilliant young man. When you stand looking at the gory remains of a human body, you realise yet again the futility of ego. The way death beckons with a loving smile. Love can be poisonous. It can tempt people into twisted ways of paying back. I have experienced it in my own life. Is it love at all? Isn’t that sort of love rather evil?
Perhaps as Gibran’s Prophet explained: ‘.. For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst.Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters…’
I see the ripples of love turned poisonous in both the lifeless body now firmly etched in my memory and in Meera’s iconic novella. Tulsi epitomises the peculiar way women can sometimes love. Men too, for that matter. The theme is universal and yet so enlivened by traditional montages and nuances. The human mind is the greatest mystery ever created by The Lord.
I think the Lord has a taste for black humour at times.He has taught me once again that He is the master wit of them all.
**
Ministhy S Nair