Ep. 19: Gujarat, Dhumketu, and Translations

Writer, literary translator, book critic and a literary podcast (Desi Books) host herself, Jenny Bhatt speaks to Ayushi Mona how the themes of Dhumketu’s books resonated with the short stories of her own, prompting her to bring out her debut literary translation, ‘Ratno Dholi: The Best Stories of Dhumketu’. In this hour-long episode on short […]

Indian Films Adapted from Books: A List

Indian Films

World Television Day falls on November 21 every year and this time, we have chosen to highlight it by celebrating #AdaptationWeek on our social media. While adaptations have gained traction over the last 5 years, with the success of shows like Game of Thrones, the concept is not new, and neither is the regularity. Indian […]

In Conversation With: Shabnam Minwalla

Shabnam Minwalla

Shabnam Minwalla has worked as a journalist with the Times of India, and writes food columns, book reviews and features for various national publications. She has written many critically acclaimed titles for children and those belonging to YA fiction, such as The Strange Haunting of Model High School, The Shy Supergirl, Lucky Girl, The Six Spellmakers of Dorabji Street and What […]

Short Story Thursday : August 2020

Short Story Thursday

Short Story Thursday is a weekly series dedicated to highlighting the short-stories from Indian literature. In August, we focused on the theme of #WomenInTranslation. First up on our #ShortStoryThursday, was ‘Lihaaf’ (The Quilt). Originally written in Urdu by Ismat Chughtai, and translated by M. Asaduddin, ‘Lihaaf’ is one of the most powerful works not just of […]

In Conversation With: Sowmya Vajjala

Sowmya

Sowmya Vajjala is a translator, notably for her work ‘The Sharp Knife of Memory’ from Telugu to English and has translated “Our Films, Their films” by Satyajit Ray into Telugu. Sowmya Vajjala has a PhD in Computational Linguistics from University of Tubingen, Germany. She currently works as a research officer at National Research Council, Canada’s […]

In Conversation With: Jahnavi Barua

Jahnavi Barua

Jahnavi Barua is an Indian writer based in Bangalore. Next Door (Penguin India, 2008), her debut collection of short stories was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Her next, a novel called Rebirth (Penguin India, 2010), was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize and theCommonwealth Writers’ Prize. The third, Undertow, a […]

#WordOfTheWeek Wednesdays: August 2020

Word of the week

While reading, it is often wondered what a particular word will be written or pronounced as in a different language. Our idea is to promote and preserve Indian literature, and to build on that – we aim to bring a word every week and what’s it called in different languages from India. To being with, […]

In Conversation With: Amrita Tripathi

Amrita Tripathi

Amrita Tripathi is a novelist, and collector of identities. She is passionate about gender rights and about raising awareness on mental health issues. She writes contemporary fiction — both her novels Broken News and The Sibius Knot deal with the darker side of urban realities. Her passion project is The Health Collective, and encouraging conversations on mental health.  Q. As a […]

In Conversation With: Ranjita Biswas

Ranjita Biswas is a journalist, writer and translator of fiction from Assamese into English. She is currently based in Kolkata. She is the translator of Written in Tears by Arupa Patangia Kalita, a collection of novella stories from Assam. Rupal Vyas caught up with her to talk about the book, translating, juggling several writing careers, […]

In Conversation With: Aanchal Malhotra

Aanchal Malhotra

Aanchal Malhotra is an Indian author and historian, best known for her work on oral history and material culture of the Partition of India in 1947. You must have started being around books at a very young age because of the very renowned bookstore that your grandfather started ‘Bahrisons Booksellers’. How was the journey throughout and what inclined you towards […]