November 18, 2025 • 63 mins
How does mythology change when we look at them through women’s lives?
In this episode, Tara chats with P. Lalita Kumari, also known as Volga, one of the most influential feminist voices in Indian literature, and Purnima Rao, the translator of On the Banks of the Pampa, Volga’s retelling of Shabari’s story from the Ramayana.
Volga shares how the idea for Shabari’s story first took shape, reflecting on the many women in mythology whose voices have been silenced. She talks about nature, womanhood, and the connection she sees between the two. Purnima speaks about the process of translating Volga’s lyrical Telugu prose into English while preserving its essence.
Volga also explores her journey as a reader and poet, the challenges of writing as a feminist in the 80s, and how storytelling became her weapon. Purnima discusses her shift from tech to writing, the hurdles of setting up an independent Telugu publishing house, and the need to fill gaps in the literary ecosystem.
Together, they look ahead to their upcoming projects, and to Volga’s return to contemporary narratives.
Tune in to dive into their creative process and literary brilliance.
Books mentioned in the episode:
- Yashodhara: A Novel by Volga
- Swetcha by Volga
- Liberation Of Sita by Volga
- Na Maate Tupaki Toota (in Telugu) by Mallu Swarajyam
Painting mentioned in the episode:
- The Great Departure (Mahabhinishkramana)
‘Books and Beyond with Bound’ is the podcast where Tara Khandelwal and Michelle D’costa uncover how their books reflect the realities of our lives and society today. Find out what drives India’s finest authors: from personal experiences to jugaad research methods, insecurities to publishing journeys. Created by Bound, a storytelling company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social media platforms.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tara Khandelwal (00:02):
Hi everyone.
We're in the middle of festivalseason, and today's book fits
perfectly with the mood ofreflection and of stories passed
down through generations. Butbefore we dive in, if you enjoy
this podcast, do us a favor.
Follow and read books and beyondon Spotify and Apple podcasts,
it really helps us bring youconversations with brilliant
(00:22):
authors like the one we're aboutto have today. And today's
author is iconic. I have withme, Volga. She is one of India's
most important voices inliterature. Her work reimagines
mythology through the lens ofgender and social justice, and
with her is purnamara, who isher translator, who translates
(00:43):
from Telugu into English, andshe is beautifully carried out
volgas Telugu novel on the banksof the Pampa, which we are going
to be speaking about today. Sothis book tells the story of
Sabari. She is a character fromthe Ramayana, who is usually
remembered only for offeringberries to Rama. But in this
story, we see her whole life,her childhood, her struggles,
(01:06):
her escape into the forest,escape from the cruelty of the
city and an eventual life ofwisdom and freedom on the banks
of the Pampa. And she reallyembodies this transformative
power of devotion in theRamayana, so I cannot wait to
explore this with you. Morewelcome, Volga, ma'am and
(01:26):
Poornima.
Volga (01:26):
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for having
Tara Khandelwal (01:29):
us here. So let's start with the book, with
the banks the Pampa, right? Incase, in most retellings, as I
mentioned, savari only appearsin this one episode, but you've
crafted a whole book about this.
You know, we see her as a childwho loses her home, a woman who
escapes oppression, and then aseeker in the forest. And I just
(01:50):
love it's so serene. It's sobeautiful her life in the
forest, and that's such a hugeshift in the way we see her. So
what made you want to retellthis story? Why do you think
Sabari is so important for ustoday?
Volga (02:07):
I think Sabari is very important character in Ramayana,
but in Valmiki Ramayana, hercharacter was only in four
slokas. So this is very puzzlingto me, from the times
(02:29):
immemorial, saburi was thehousehold name for the devotion.
For many things, the story ofsabary was told to all of us
from our childhood, but when wego into the original text, it
was only four slokas. WhyValmiki didn't write about her
(02:53):
life, even in 15 or 20 slokas,where did she come from? What
she is doing in her life and allthat. Then I thought, why Sabari
is waiting for Rama? All we knowis Sabari is waiting for Rama,
(03:14):
unending waiting, and thatwaiting and that longing was
described beautifully by manypoets in many languages of
India. So while she was waitingfor Rama, that was the question
that bothered me very much,because sebari, how come Sabri
(03:36):
knew about Rama? Rama at thattime was not known by even
Hanuma or Sugriva. He just cameinto the forest on exile and
killing some dasya kings. That'sall what he is doing. There is
(03:56):
no question of hearing aboutRama in the far south. So why?
Why she is waiting? How she knewabout trauma? These questions
bothered me and I, and I knowthat Shabari was a tribal
(04:18):
because of the whole descriptionof that Pampa forest in Valmiki
Ramayana was very beautiful.
Sabari was described in fourslokas, but the forest was
described in many 100 or 150slokas. Why? Why Valmiki did
(04:38):
this. This also puzzled me so Ithought, as a forest dweller
sabary Want to ask Rama somequestions, why these bars? Why
these state control? Why?
(05:00):
Invasions on forest dwellers.
Why deforestation? All thesequestions she wants to ask. How
come she knew about all these asa forest dweller, she underwent
all these experiences. So then Icreated a story. This is my
imagination at that time. Also,the kingdoms are there, the
(05:24):
invasions are there, wars arefought. So I created this story.
And Matanga Muni was the guru ofSabari that was also in balmy
Ramayana. So I picked up thatMatanga Muni as an untouchable
and Sabari as a tribal woman,how they become guru and
(05:50):
shishya, and how their bond wasso strong for so many years. And
after Matanga Muni died, Sabariwas alone in the forest, and she
is waiting for Rama. So somehowshe heard that Rama left the
kingdom and came into theforest, that she understood in a
(06:14):
different way, that Rama didn'tlike kingdoms in wars and all
that, and she waited that hermessage she want to pass on to
Rama and want, she wants to. Shewants Rama to stood against
(06:36):
these wars and invasions, butdisappointing to her dreams and
waiting Rama was not for hermission. He has a separate
mission of his own, invading thesouth and establish Arya Dharma
(06:58):
in the South, in my opinion, andin many scholars opinion also.
So this whole story fall intoplace, and this novel came into
came into be in this form
Tara Khandelwal (07:19):
that's really beautiful. And, you know, I
genuinely didn't know that itwas a work that, you know, you
had sort of added so much ofyour storytelling as well
fictional elements to it, yeah,and that is very, very
fascinating, because it reallydoes read like this beautiful
retelling of this myth. And Iwant to ask you about your other
(07:42):
books, because you are reallyone of the most prolific writers
out there. And I've read yourprevious books as well. I loved
yashodra, which is the story ofBuddha Gautama, Buddha's wife,
and, of course, liberation ofSita. But you've also written
other books. Your book switchhas published in all Indian
languages by the National Trustof India. And what I really
(08:05):
liked about this book because Ilove books by female
protagonists. I love theretellings of myths that
showcase female characters thathave been sidelined and you have
opened the floodgates for a hostof women writers. So how I want
to know a little bit more aboutyou as a person. How did you get
into writing, and how did youdecide that? Okay, I'm going to
(08:28):
write about women. I'm going towrite about these female
characters that have beenoverlooked, and I'm going to
write about
Volga (08:35):
mythology. No, there is no specific decision at one
point that I am going to writeabout women. I am going to write
about women, protagonist orretelling. It's not that
decision making previously andstart writing is not there, but
(08:56):
as a woman, I am reading manynovels in Telugu and in other
languages, and the womencharacters are there, but many
women characters were shown asvictims only. So that victimhood
(09:16):
is bothering me. Why always theyare victims. These writers are
showing even women. Writers showwomen characters as victims. So
I Yeah, women suffer a lot inlife, in workplace, in every
(09:37):
way. They suffer a lot, buttheir agency is there in
bringing the change in thesociety and bringing a change in
the atmosphere and bringing achange in the history. Also why
nobody is speaking about theiragency and why many, many great.
(10:00):
Characters also control women,characters in some borders and
boundaries. So I want to explorethe real life, characters who
made change in their lives andthe surroundings. Also, when I
(10:23):
read about women's history,there are wonderful, wonderful
women whom I encountered in thehistory of India, in the history
of other countries also. So whenI see my immediate surroundings,
also, women are fighting. Womenare struggling. Women are going
(10:46):
for ahead of time. So I want toportray them as fighters for
change. I want to portray theirstruggle, not only for small
changes in their family life,but for a bigger change in the
(11:10):
society. That's how I startedwriting sweater was my second
novel, and when I wrote that,there was lot of commotion in
Telugu literary circles for awhole year and half the literary
(11:31):
discussion means discussion onsvetcha. So that was a turning
point in understanding genderquestions, in understanding
women's rights and so manythings.
Tara Khandelwal (11:48):
Why was it such a contentious
Volga (11:52):
because the heroine was very normal, woman, educated
women, a working women, and herhusband was a very good person,
very loving person. His onlyobjection was her work for the
(12:14):
society she wants to enter intosome organizations which are
working for the benefit ofdowntrodden people or workers
and women, Dalits like that. Soshe wants to work in those
organizations. The husband. Weare happy with our family. We
(12:39):
have a lovely daughter. We canbuild our own house and we will
live. We both are working,earning enough money to live
happily. Why you bring all thoseissues into our home? Please
stop all this. But she wants tobring a change in the society.
(12:59):
Her life goal was that. So thereare a lot of struggle between
them, and finally, she left herhome, Husband, Daughter and
organization also told, stopcoming to the organization.
Don't sacrifice your family. Soorganization is also patriarchal
(13:24):
in their world. So thesequestions arised, if the husband
is a bad person, if he is adrunkard or beating or harassing
her, like any thing everybodysympathizes with the heroine of
my novel, but he is a veryideal, good person, loving his
(13:47):
wife and daughter very much sofor for other reasons, how can a
women do This? But I think I puta discussion on wifehood and
citizenship. Citizenship is alsoimportant for women. Nobody
(14:11):
consider women as citizens. Ithey are daughters, they are
wives, they are mothers, butnobody ever see them as citizens
of the society, who areresponsible to correct the
society, to bring change in thesociety. Those roles were always
(14:32):
delegated to men. Men were theleaders. Men were the agents.
Men bring change. Men changehistory. Men fought bottles,
everything, everything men willdo. Women as daughters, as
wives, as mothers, have to dotheir duties in the home. The
(14:55):
public is away from them. Thispublic. Private dichotomy, I try
to bring in that novel.
Tara Khandelwal (15:04):
Thank you. Just that's what makes you you, and
that's what makes you soprolific, because you push those
boundaries. And it was almostahead of its time, right? And,
you know, because it's ahead ofhis time, it was doing something
new. It was doing somethingradical, yeah, I think you
became that voice for a lot ofwomen, and that's why I'm also
so excited to have you heretoday as well. But you know,
(15:28):
before we get to you, Purnima, Iwould also like to know a little
bit, Volga, ma'am, about yourbackground and how you got into
writing in the first place.
Volga (15:40):
I'm a lover of literature and a prolific reader, reading
everything I came across, everybook, every piece of paper. From
my childhood, I used to read,read, read, and when I was 19
(16:01):
years old, I started writingpoetry and my with my friends
and classmates and the four men,we wanted To bring an anthology
of poems, five poets, oneanthology, and we called
(16:25):
ourselves by gumber poets.
That's all like, very engagedand all that. But the poems are
very powerful at those times.
Those times are very critical.
Times are also 6970, like that.
(16:46):
That is the axilary movement,the left politic, political
discussions and all are veryvibrant in Andhra Pradesh. So
then we started writing poetryand working with revolutionary
(17:07):
movements, revolutionary writersmovements and all that. But
after working for so many, manyyears, means around 10 or 12
years, I am disillusioned withrevolutionary organizations.
Also, there also the genderquestion, well remained as a
(17:31):
question. There were not even aquestion. We cannot speak about
patriarch TR male domination andall that in the organizations.
So I came out and want to andenter into feminist politics,
(17:53):
and I am very much alone atthose times in the 80s, the
beginning of the 80s, andstarted writing. The writing was
only my weapon, because, yousee, I am very much alone. No
one was ready to be a feministor in favor of feminists. So how
(18:18):
can I do my work. I can'tconduct meetings. I can't
conduct other things. Only toolis writing. So I started
writing. I started writingpoems, stories, novels,
(18:39):
translating feminist literatureinto Telugu and feminist
literary criticism everythingunder the world. I started
writing, began writing and everyday trying myself to put new
(19:00):
ideas and about the women'sagency, about women's rights,
and how to look at from theWomen's point of view, and how
we are missing the women's pointof view and lost humanity. So
(19:22):
the since the 80s and writing asa feminist,
Tara Khandelwal (19:27):
I love what you said about writing is your
weapon. And I think you know,like for all of us, when we feel
like, Oh, we don't have anyother weapons, this is such a
good thing to put these storiesout there. So Purnima, I want to
bring you in here, becauseTelugu is such a lyrical
language, like my husband. Isthis Telugu? So I hear his
(19:50):
family speaking all the time,and I wish I understood what
they were saying. But I want tospeak about your approach to
translating this book, becauseyou also. It retain some words,
instead of flattening them intoEnglish equivalence, which has
really kept a flavor of theoriginal alive. So what was your
(20:10):
approach and what was thehardest parts of the process?
Purnima (20:14):
Yeah. So this book, like when you see it, it
reveals, like a really shortbook. It is a small, compact
size book in that sense, butit's a dynamite there's so much
happening in it, in that, inthat small space, and, and, and
also, it is kind of upending ourunderstanding of the world,
(20:35):
right? Like whatever we weunderstand as knowledge, we
understand as wisdom, progress,development, it is kind of
upending all of that and andmaking us question ourselves so
in we right now in the world ofartificial intelligence and
worried about what, what dangersand what kind of impact it will
(20:55):
create on us, but, but Olga garuis taking us one step Back and
questioning human intelligenceitself on On what basis those
things are taken? So likewhenever I translate for the
first thing I'm trying toreplicate is my reading
experience. So when I read thetext very closely, what are the
(21:19):
things that I have taken, whatkind of emotions I have felt,
where and how, certain thingslike this, this particular book,
it was like here and there. Itwas like slapping. It's like
somebody is in deep slumber, andit kind of hits you hard and
helps you wake up. So it is thatkind of voice, right? So getting
(21:41):
that voice in translation wasreally important for me. Then
the second part is about theheavily loaded philosophical and
cultural words that that arelike, like the entire premise of
the book is is based on them. Sofor in my first draft, I did
(22:03):
translate them to into English,all of those. But when we had a
discussion between Noura garueditors and Harper Collins and
me, we thought it would bebetter to retain the words. So I
the reason I hesitated to retainthe words in the first draft was
because these, all these wordshave sanskritized truths, which
(22:26):
means they are available inalmost all Indian languages. But
because of usage over thecenturies and many other
cultural aspects coming in, eachmay mean different things, like
nagarikata in Canada, or Teluguwill will hint towards
civilization. The first thingthat comes to your mind is
civilization, but say in Bengalior Hindi, it comes to
(22:50):
citizenship. So I did not wantto create that confusion. When
someone is speaking up, a panIndian reader is speaking up,
and first and get confused. Sowhen I did the second draft and
when I tried to retain thewords, I ensured that the single
word is not bearing all theburden of the meaning, but it is
(23:12):
distributed across the story, sothat even if I'm leaving some
things unexplained, like I tellwhat is Jnanam, but I won't say
what is so. And I expect, and myhope is, that the any discerning
reader will latch that and andtherefore I don't have to over
explain. So yeah, in that sense,in that particular process, I
(23:35):
have put a lot of trust in thereader, that even if someone
unfamiliar with Ramayana, or thenuances of Ramayana, someone
unfamiliar with thephilosophical concepts in India
will still have enough meat toget extract out of this text,
and it will also make themfurious. Go look up or have have
(23:58):
a discussion with friends andthings like that. And the third
hardest part of this text wasOlga garu prose, as you said,
Telugu is very musical. It has awonderful rhythm. Even the
plainest and simplest ofsentences can can sound so
beautiful. And on top of that,Olga garu is a poet. You You
(24:21):
just heard her saying that shehas journey started with poetry.
For me, she is a poet first andthen anything else. So she, and
the way she has created allthose imageries of Pampa forest
in in like very compactsentences and not too much
flowery language, but, but,yeah, she literally takes you
(24:44):
onto the banks, right? So myeffort was also to retain the
lyricism as much as possible andalso focus on the Imagine
imagery. So her poetry is morevisual in the sense that it is
almost like. Cinematography. Soshe is, she is literally taking
and giving the top view, sideview, and all of those angles
(25:06):
that a cinematographer would do.
So I tried to bring in that intothe translation, so that it will
be a wholesome so the poeticsand politics of this book, which
are so intertwined. So thechallenge as a translator, I
mean, I'm just still hoping andpraying that readers get that,
(25:28):
because it is such a beautifulamalgamation of these two and
and I tried my best to bringthem into English. I agree.
Tara Khandelwal (25:38):
I like what you said about politics and
politics, because even thoughit's a very short book, it took
me a really long time to readit, and it's not because of the
language and not because of thestory. It's a very easy story.
The language is also, you know,simple. You know, it's not very
but I think it's because it's sorich, there is a lot of
(26:00):
information about thesurroundings, where you just
feel like you're there in thatbeautiful forest. There is so
many ideas, the philosophies,you know, even though even the
idea about the Raja and the youknow, for the Rajam borders were
of paramount importance, and howthey start cutting all the trees
(26:23):
out, and then how they starttreating those forest dwellers
and sabaris family. So with veryfew sentences, we have conveyed
a lot in this book. And I didnot expect that it would take me
so long to read it, because I'ma very, very fast reader, but
(26:43):
you know, to really take it in,it does require that, and it's a
very enjoyable read. It's not ahard read, but it's a read that
makes you think. And it's notjust a feminist retelling. I
feel like it's very deeplyecological. It almost is like,
yeah, it almost is like climatefiction. You can smell the birds
(27:04):
you see. You know where, ascivilization and humanity, we
have gone wrong, and where ourpriorities have gotten mixed up.
And I think those ideas havereally come out in this book. So
yes, I wanted to ask, you knowit's, it's kind of its own
genre. So I actually wanted toask you, and Volga Ma'am, you
(27:26):
know how much of your ownconnection to nature has fed
into this story?
Purnima (27:31):
Yeah, for me, the reason I picked up this book, I
mean, any opportunity to workwith who is a great blessing and
and I'm fortunate that I haveworked with her in terms of
Publisher of her translations.
She is a wonderful translator,also, and, and then I translated
her work. So for me, the therewas an urgency about when I read
(27:54):
this book, right? So the I felta kind of urgency that I have to
tell about this book to manyfolks. I have to in the sense
that actually, as soon as theTelugu version came out in
Bangalore, we had a little gettogether celebrating oldest,
latest novel of Pampa JIRA andand then in that gathering,
(28:17):
because most of them were nontelegus, and we were discussing
the ideas in this book. And, andwhen there were questions, I was
super tempted to translateimpromptu layer and give, give
them insights into the books.
So, yeah, I have mainly readthis book as psychological
(28:38):
fiction and, and that is, thatis what my driving force was. So
so far I have the other text Ihave translated into Telugu are
based on partition, on Telanganamoment, those kind of very
historically heavy and and, andkind of chromatic events, in
some sense. But this book, mymain drive was ecological
(29:02):
fiction. And yeah, we have beengetting some beautiful reviews.
And one reviewer on Insta, sorrythat I can't remember her name,
but she said reading this bookis like walking on barefoot in a
forest. There is no way you canrush through it. You have to
savor each and every momentthere. So yes, and and another
(29:25):
delightful thing for me andolder Guru is that how the
younger generation is iscatching up with this book and
how it is reading the book inthis in the context of what's
happening right now inHimalayas, the flooding, the
cloud outburst, and also tryingto question our choices.
Basically, it is more thananything else. It is about our
(29:49):
madness in viewing the universein a very self centered fashion,
right, the human, the supremeand everybody else, all other
creatures are subservient, kindof. Of attitude that we have
towards nature. It isquestioning that, and right now,
that is a very importantquestion for us and the next
generations, I think,
Volga (30:10):
in our country and in many countries of the world
also, we think women as nature,Sri prakriti, prakriti purusha,
that ideology, Prakriti iswoman. Purusha is purusha. And
what is this purusha? That meansman will do is to conquest the
(30:35):
nature. So this the wholedevelopment and civilization was
conquesting the nature andconquesting the women,
conquesting women's right asmothers, conquesting women's
reproductive rights. So thatprakriti Purusha question is a
(31:00):
patriarchal person and apatriarchal struggle. So when we
are talking about nature, we arealso talking about women, if man
stop conquesting nature of hisown, not nature means his
(31:27):
characteristic. He wants toconquest everything, everything
in his surroundings. And thewhole development was the idea
of conquesting the nature, goingand controlling the nature that
(31:48):
control that conquest are reallyworsening the ecological
situation. So as nature womenshould talk about this concept.
Yes, we are nature. We are theproviders. We are the birth
(32:11):
givers. So we have to protectthis earth with its diversity,
with its all living things andnon living things working
together in harmony to protectthis earth. So this is also in I
(32:37):
tried to put in this novel. Sowhen we are protecting nature,
means we are also talking aboutprotecting women. Women were
undergone for so many conquestson their wombs, in every war was
(32:59):
fought on the wombs or on thecharacter of women. So that is
the feminist and ecological.
They are not two separatethings, in my view. So I took
sabary. There are continuationsfor sabary When we look at the
modern history, all of us knowabout Chipko movement. It is
(33:24):
women who went and embracedtrees and stopped the
deforestation at one time, thenthe many women like Vandana,
Shiva, Jahan, so, so many womenwho are fighting to protect the
(33:45):
nature. So it is their story.
Also they can own this story.
Sabari was the, maybe the firstone. Maybe there is. There are
characters previous to sabary, Idon't know, but maybe sabary was
the first woman to to make adecent statement on the whole
(34:13):
civilization, on the wholenature of the kingdoms and the
invasive nature of the state. Sofrom sabary to the tribal women
today, there are lots of voiceswho are raising their voices and
(34:37):
not heard properly. So we haveto make them heard by the new
generation, by the young peoplewho has this valuable Earth in
their hands. Is, and it is theirresponsibility to protect this
(35:03):
earth, to protect this natureand to protect it from all the
calamities. Now we are seeingthose calamities in the very
beginning stages. So we have towake up now and be careful about
the earth.
Tara Khandelwal (35:25):
And I love that perspective of, you know,
conquering, because you see thatin the book as well, right? Like
mankind wants to conquer, womenwants to conquer, nature wants
to it's just that unending greedthat you showcase so well in
this woman. And I like howyou're drawing a straight line
(35:46):
between Sabari to, you know, thetribal women and women of today.
And I actually quite a newperspective. So coming to your
other books, because I didreally enjoy your other books as
well. You know, Sita, yashodra,Sabari, you've chosen these
women who are central inmythology, but whose voices are
(36:07):
muted in the traditionaltelling. So what do you look for
in a character before decidingto tell her, retell her story?
Specifically with regards tomythology, let's say,
Volga (36:21):
and even you, talk about liberation of Sita stories, the
first story surpanaka was themain character along With Sita,
so that surpanaka was very knowncharacter, very familiar
(36:43):
character, a household name, andit her name was gone into
proverbs. Also, if any women waslooked as fierce and like ugly,
like we thought, surpanaka andenvious women, also as
chuppanati surpanaka in Telugu,chupanati means jealousy kind of
(37:09):
thing. So that surpanaka wasonly in one chapter in few
slokas and so powerful we cannotforget her, and she was
showcased as the beginning pointof Rama Ravana battle without
(37:30):
surpanaka interfering here, theRama Ravana battle were not
happen in this way, Maybe inanother way, so, but after that,
after the mutilation of her noseand ears and there was nothing
about her in Ramayana, whathappened to her, how he how she
(37:57):
struggled with the mutilatedbody of her, how she understood
the beauty and ugliness beforemutilation and after mutilation,
how she understood her own self.
So all these questions botheredme, and when I actually I wrote
(38:17):
a dance ballet, war and peace,and in that I made Sita and
surpanaka dance together forthree minutes or four minutes.
The ballet was 70 minutes. Theballet was so popular that
durdarson Want to telecast it,and they recorded, but at the
(38:41):
time of the telecast, the higherofficials, when they saw
surpanaka character, how cansurpanaka portray with Sita?
Sita was a pativrata, verychaste women, and surpanaka was
a bad, bad woman. She desired amarried man. So for that, her
(39:04):
decision, she suffered. Hers isnot at all suffering. So they
start argued with us, and theywant to censor that character
from the ballet. It is a threeminutes dance. So they censored
that part because, intraditional ideology, surpanaka
(39:31):
was a bad woman. So I want tochange that whole this thing of
surpanaka, and I want totransform her into a beautiful
soul, not only a beautifulperson, a beautiful soul with a
(39:52):
beautiful soul who nurturenature. And understand the value
of labor. Labor means working.
So that story happened likethat. And with Ahalya another
(40:16):
instant, and with Renuka, somany questions when I pick up
the character from the Ramayanaand Yashodhara, particularly, it
is not a mythology, buthistorically, very little
information was there aboutashodhara. So the only image we
(40:45):
thought about a shodhara wassleeping with her newly born
child, and Siddhartha, like athief, is leaving the house.
That was the painting. Andmahabhi, Anish kramana, the
painting was titled, and thatwas a popularly known painting.
When I saw that painting for somany times, I have so many
(41:12):
questions. When Siddhartha wasleaving the palace or a house,
how can she sleep so peacefully.
The whole house was in turmoil.
Siddhartha's parents were cryinglike anything. And with in that
(41:33):
situation, how can she sleeppeacefully? And how can
Siddhartha, who is very kindperson, very kind to even to the
birds and animals and everyliving things can be so cruel to
her is to his wife. How can she?
How can he left without tellingher? No, this is not, I don't
(41:55):
believe this that Yashoda RAwill be so peaceful and
Siddhartha is so cruel. So Ithought that yashodara was part
of his nishkamana from thehouse, so Yashoda Ra was part of
(42:17):
his awakening as Gautama Buddha,because she, in those days,
women, has no spiritual opening.
They have to be in the house anddo household duties, no
(42:43):
spiritual they can't becomesannyasins or Munis maharshis
like other men. So Yara want toenter into the path. So she
cooperated with Siddhartha, andlater she also become a vehicle
like that. I at some point thatsomething triggered me, and from
(43:11):
there, the story started, andsavari also, as I told in the
first answer to the your firstquestion. So these things I
didn't sit at one time and startfrom this day on. I want to
write mythological stories. No,not like that. In liberation of
(43:37):
Sita, one story was written in2004 and another story in 2007
or eight, and the whole bookfive stories I took six years to
write. On and off I am writingso there is not a mission like
thing that I should retellmythology. Come on, sit and
(43:57):
write, not like that.
Tara Khandelwal (43:59):
I am also very fascinated by Yashoda story.
And, you know, because veryinteresting perspective that you
say that actually she wascooperating because she wanted
to get into that pathway, andthat was the end outcome.
Because what I found veryfascinating, and even I kept
asking, you know, here is thisGautama Buddha, and, you know,
(44:21):
like amazing person andeverything, but he's just left
his wife, and he's, you know,she has to fend for herself. And
also, then when the wife and awhole group of other female want
to become sannyasis, he actuallyrefuses. At first, he doesn't
let them, and then they, youknow, then later on, sort of he
(44:43):
agrees, but it's still differentrules for the men and the women,
which I found very interesting,given that all of the teachings
and everything, there's still adouble standard, you know,
Volga (44:57):
I think in those days, it's a very different. Difficult
for him to bring all the changesat one go. One cannot expect
everything from one person. No,he Yeah, so the circum that is
(45:19):
why I created a shodhara in thatway that he can understand the
problems of women from her
Tara Khandelwal (45:28):
Correct correct I really like that perspective.
And then another thing, I alwaysthink, even RAM is an ideal man.
But then what happens with Sita?
You know, at the end of thestory, she's again alone in the
forest with the sons love andpush. So there are all these
cognitive dissonances anddichotomies in these mythologies
and these histories andreligion, which I think are very
(45:50):
interesting to explore. And itcan just be an endless
exploration.
Volga (45:54):
Yeah, because epics are very much open ended, they never
end there, and the epics endingis the real beginning of a new
story. I understand like thatthey are very much open ended,
that we can explore the epicsRamayana and Mahabharata, and
(46:19):
can write so many, so manystories.
Tara Khandelwal (46:23):
Yeah, absolutely. And Purnama, you
know, you come from a techbackground, actually, and you
run an independent Telugupublishing house, which I really
want to know more about. It'scalled ilami publications. So
how did you sort of set that up?
And how has it been building aTelugu publishing house from the
ground
Purnima (46:43):
up? Yeah. So I am a techie, so that is my full time
job, and also my first passion.
Then I've started writing inearly 2008 and from then on,
I've I went on to run a websitecalled Sister come.net which was
exclusively for book reviews inTelugu, you can read any
language and write. And afterthat, I translated manto around
(47:06):
2018 to 2020, and then I wastrying to find publishers, and
couldn't find the one whichmatch with my thing. So
everybody wanted to see mandu asa sensational character, as some
controversial figure, but notthe human and not the person
(47:28):
that he was. So that led to mestart LMA publication. So we are
now three year old company, selffunded bootstrap thing, and we
have published around eighttitles. Volga garu did two
translations for us. Hamiddalvai, Marathi writer. He is
(47:49):
known for his non fiction andand he's an activist and those
things, but his fiction, webought like 12 short stories
together as one collection. Andshe also did another wonderful
book. Unfortunately, the Englishbook is now out of print, but it
is written by Vidya Rao Ji ofHindustani vocalist. She wrote
(48:13):
about her guru, Nana Naina Devi.
So it's part Memorial, partbiography kind of thing. So Olga
garu translated that for us andpublished it. And yeah, we are
looking forward to put out thefirst graphic novel in
translation this year, and wehave some interesting projects
(48:37):
coming up. Yeah, it's been hard,but, and as you know, anything
within publishing is very hardto run such low margins, hard to
reach readers, and distributeddistribution systems are all
here and there, so it's been achallenge, but also to try and
(48:57):
fill in the gaps. Now, there arethese big players, and they play
the big game, but sometimes itis very important to do some
quality work at small scaleconsistently, and that creates
its own impact, right? So, soyeah, that is what we are
looking forward to. We areplanning a series of books on
(49:19):
Indian partition, and we want totake multiple themes and do
fiction, non fiction in in that.
Yeah, it's going on pretty well,but sales are always a
challenge. I mean, the thehardest part is to crack the
marketing and
Tara Khandelwal (49:35):
sales. Yes, absolutely, I think definitely,
we need more readers in thecountry. But, yeah, I want to
know also, Volga, Ma'am, what,what was the What's your biggest
difficulty that you face whilewriting? What is it the
publishing process? Is it, youknow, coming up with the story
(49:55):
of the characters for you? Whatis your biggest challenge? And
what part do you. To, you know,find the easiest.
Volga (50:02):
The easiest part is writing, because we we have pen
papers within the reach so wecan write, and The urge is so,
so much to write, so we willdie. But after that, the
(50:23):
publication part, where to send,how to publish, is quite a
challenge for writers. Butfortunately for me, it is also
went went on Well, there is oneone challenge was when I wrote a
(50:47):
story called ioni that usuallymy stories were published in
those days when I sent to anymagazine. But this story, I only
when I sent to a magazine whichis very Actually, it is very
popular magazine they rejected,I am very much surprised, and
(51:14):
then I sent to another they alsorejected. So many magazines
rejected that story, and I sentto a only one feminist magazine
then, so I sent to thatmagazine. They also rejected it,
but they came to talk with me.
We will publish this story ifyou remove certain words and
(51:37):
certain sentences I said, noquestion of censoring my
sentences. I don't want tocensor them. Then after, after
one year after my writing thatstory, one in one magazine that
(51:58):
was published. That magazine wasalso run by a woman. So after
that story came also lot ofdiscussion about their story
controversies. How can thesefeminist writers write these
stories? But slowly it subsidedand it was remained as one of
(52:20):
the best story of mine andTelugu short story anthology was
published by katha. Thatanthology was named as ioni and
other stories, so many storiesnot of my stories, but an
(52:42):
anthology of different storieswith of different writers. That
was so that story was reallywent to the people after two
three years. Those two threeyears was really something like
a challenge, for the first timeto me and sweetcha. Lot of, as I
(53:06):
told, lot of discussions, lot ofthe whole left movement was into
it. How do you
Tara Khandelwal (53:18):
deal with all of those, like the discussions
that during Shweta time, like,how did you deal with that?
Volga (53:26):
Because during Sveta, not only on the novel, The
discussions are slowly centeredon my personal life, also by
that time, I am a divorcee. Somy divorce and the protagonist
divorce, they were compared, andthese, this novel and the writer
(53:54):
are also destroying family,institution of family, and
institution of marriage, allthese kinds of but I withstand,
withstood all that, all that,and slowly they change. The
whole scenario change. And Iedited the first feminist poetry
(54:18):
anthology in 93 before 93 late80s, in Telugu, there was very
powerful feminist poets, writingwomen writers, writing very
powerful poems. They are writingabout their bodies, about their
(54:39):
sexuality, motherhood, all thesethings they are writing until
that time. Poet means a malepoet. That area of poetry was a
male best and. Ah, novels, yeah,women can write about the family
(55:04):
life and their troubles. Sonovels, they don't care. Short
stories, they don't care men,when women are writing, but when
women wrote this powerfulpoetry, they were really
threatened. So they call thispoetry as pond poetry, blue
(55:26):
poetry. And this is about bodilyconsciousness, no social
consciousness in these poemslike this, these poets, writing
alone in different parts of thestates, are very much worried
how to encounter this alone.
Then we from an organizationcalled asmita, called for a
(55:46):
women writers meet about 100more than 100 women writers came
to that meeting. We discussedmany things for two days and
held a press conference and allthat. And we decided, then,
within a year, we have to bringa feminist poetry anthology. And
in 93 we brought it that time,until that time that the
(56:10):
criticism on women writers, andespecially on feminist writers,
is very much on then, after thisanthology, the whole situation
changed. Feminist writingsearned the legitimacy,
legitimate space in the literaryarea. So it is like a big
(56:32):
battle, big battle in mylifetime, and I am also part of
it.
Tara Khandelwal (56:41):
Yes, that's amazing. And you sort of, you
know, and your contemporariesmade that space for feminist
literature to have a voice.
Yeah, in
Volga (56:54):
in Telugu, I can, I did something, not much, but
Tara Khandelwal (56:59):
something I was telling, you know, like I was
speaking about this interviewand with my husband's family,
and everybody knows, you know,who all guys, because one of the
most prolific writers, I think,out there, in India today, so
that's just, it's justfantastic. And I think just
(57:20):
generally, also, I feel like,you know, it's always a battle
to get female issues to be takenseriously, yeah, whether it's
women's health, whether it'seven something like, you know,
people make so much fun ofromance novels or Chiclet or
whatever, you know, all ofthese, they have a space. So I
(57:41):
do feel like these battles. Ithink you know, everybody would
thank you for doing that work onour behalf. And thank you so
much. This is very interesting.
My last question for both of youis, what are you working on
next?
Volga (57:57):
Wow. My I have a no project to write a novel about
the contemporary issues offreedom from from the times I
wrote sweet Cha, there is lot ofchanges in the situation of
women and In the contemporarysociety also. So there is a lot
(58:22):
of new problems, new chains forwomen to encounter. So I want to
put them in the form of a novel.
That was a project I have in mymind, because this mythology and
historical novels occupy so muchwriting space of mine, now I
(58:47):
want to return to thecontemporary society,
contemporary Problems womenencounter in these times, in
these times like politicalturmoil, ecological turmoil and
lot of violence on women, howthis violence is increasing? Why
(59:12):
it is increasing, how to how tomake it disappear, how to
encounter it with thesequestions, mainly violence is
the main thing, and surroundedby many other things that that
(59:34):
was my project, I have to seehow I can complete it. It will
work out or not. Sometimes itwon't work out. Also, we can't
say
Tara Khandelwal (59:53):
and will it?
Will it get translated intoEnglish?
Volga (59:58):
And that depends. That depends, no
Tara Khandelwal (01:00:02):
what does it depend on to get it translated?
Does that sort of the decisionthat maybe Purnima you can
answer, is that a decision thatthe translator takes,
Purnima (01:00:13):
I think, especially if we are talking about translating
into English, then it depends onvarious factors. Because, again,
as I said, there are players,and those players create a kind
of market and, and they are veryconscious about picking and
choosing stuff that suits themarket and and how much it goes
(01:00:35):
it doesn't go that those kind ofconversations come into picture.
And, and also finding, sometimesthe right translator who can,
who can bring that whatever is,is there in the original, try to
get it with minimum loss toEnglish that? That could be
another challenge. So, yeah, itdepends on various factors,
(01:00:56):
factors like that, and and alsofrom my understanding of Pampa
theorem, and also as a publisherof translators that I'm working
it is about the synergy betweenthe original author, translator
and the publisher, all of themcoming together, totally
believing in the story andtotally committed to the readers
(01:01:17):
to bring the story In its finestform. So unless that kind of
magic combination happens,translations are bit hard. It is
hard in every sense. Yeah,usually, as a translator, I get
to ask when people ask mequestions about the craft, but
once the thing is ready, thetranslation is ready, and
(01:01:41):
putting it out is also achallenge in itself.
Tara Khandelwal (01:01:43):
Yeah. So do you do you translate the work first
and then go to a publisher? Ordo you sort of first go to the
publisher and then translate thework? Yeah.
Purnima (01:01:55):
So whatever I did in Telugu, I first translated and
then searched for publishers. Itdid not work. I ended up being a
publisher. When I'm translatinginto English. I have done two
books so far. One is Pampatheram, and the other is
maliswara Jim's memoir, NAMA tetupaki tota. It is a Telangana
arms movement leader her memoir.
So that also the publisheroffered me to translate, but I
(01:02:19):
would say I never do the book infull, unless you have a
publisher. Just do a sample,start pitching it, let people
know that you're working onthis, and when an interested
party comes and everything worksout, then only come into full
length project is my advice.
Tara Khandelwal (01:02:37):
Great, great.
That's That's great advice.
Thank you both so much for thisinterview. I really loved the
books, and I can't wait for moreof them to come out. Thank you
so much.
Purnima (01:02:51):
Thank you. Thank you for having us. Hope
Tara Khandelwal (01:02:54):
you enjoy this episode of Books and Beyond with
bound. This
Michelle D'costa (01:02:57):
podcast is created by bound, a company that
helps you grow through story.
Find us at pound India on allsocial media
Tara Khandelwal (01:03:05):
platforms. Tune in every Wednesday as we peek
into the lives and minds of somebrilliant authors from India and
South Asia. You.
Hi everyone.
We're in the middle of festivalseason, and today's book fits
perfectly with the mood ofreflection and of stories passed
down through generations. Butbefore we dive in, if you enjoy
this podcast, do us a favor.
Follow and read books and beyondon Spotify and Apple podcasts,
it really helps us bring youconversations with brilliant
(00:22):
authors like the one we're aboutto have today. And today's
author is iconic. I have withme, Volga. She is one of India's
most important voices inliterature. Her work reimagines
mythology through the lens ofgender and social justice, and
with her is purnamara, who isher translator, who translates
(00:43):
from Telugu into English, andshe is beautifully carried out
volgas Telugu novel on the banksof the Pampa, which we are going
to be speaking about today. Sothis book tells the story of
Sabari. She is a character fromthe Ramayana, who is usually
remembered only for offeringberries to Rama. But in this
story, we see her whole life,her childhood, her struggles,
(01:06):
her escape into the forest,escape from the cruelty of the
city and an eventual life ofwisdom and freedom on the banks
of the Pampa. And she reallyembodies this transformative
power of devotion in theRamayana, so I cannot wait to
explore this with you. Morewelcome, Volga, ma'am and
(01:26):
Poornima.
Volga (01:26):
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for having
Tara Khandelwal (01:29):
us here. So let's start with the book, with
the banks the Pampa, right? Incase, in most retellings, as I
mentioned, savari only appearsin this one episode, but you've
crafted a whole book about this.
You know, we see her as a childwho loses her home, a woman who
escapes oppression, and then aseeker in the forest. And I just
(01:50):
love it's so serene. It's sobeautiful her life in the
forest, and that's such a hugeshift in the way we see her. So
what made you want to retellthis story? Why do you think
Sabari is so important for ustoday?
Volga (02:07):
I think Sabari is very important character in Ramayana,
but in Valmiki Ramayana, hercharacter was only in four
slokas. So this is very puzzlingto me, from the times
(02:29):
immemorial, saburi was thehousehold name for the devotion.
For many things, the story ofsabary was told to all of us
from our childhood, but when wego into the original text, it
was only four slokas. WhyValmiki didn't write about her
(02:53):
life, even in 15 or 20 slokas,where did she come from? What
she is doing in her life and allthat. Then I thought, why Sabari
is waiting for Rama? All we knowis Sabari is waiting for Rama,
(03:14):
unending waiting, and thatwaiting and that longing was
described beautifully by manypoets in many languages of
India. So while she was waitingfor Rama, that was the question
that bothered me very much,because sebari, how come Sabri
(03:36):
knew about Rama? Rama at thattime was not known by even
Hanuma or Sugriva. He just cameinto the forest on exile and
killing some dasya kings. That'sall what he is doing. There is
(03:56):
no question of hearing aboutRama in the far south. So why?
Why she is waiting? How she knewabout trauma? These questions
bothered me and I, and I knowthat Shabari was a tribal
(04:18):
because of the whole descriptionof that Pampa forest in Valmiki
Ramayana was very beautiful.
Sabari was described in fourslokas, but the forest was
described in many 100 or 150slokas. Why? Why Valmiki did
(04:38):
this. This also puzzled me so Ithought, as a forest dweller
sabary Want to ask Rama somequestions, why these bars? Why
these state control? Why?
(05:00):
Invasions on forest dwellers.
Why deforestation? All thesequestions she wants to ask. How
come she knew about all these asa forest dweller, she underwent
all these experiences. So then Icreated a story. This is my
imagination at that time. Also,the kingdoms are there, the
(05:24):
invasions are there, wars arefought. So I created this story.
And Matanga Muni was the guru ofSabari that was also in balmy
Ramayana. So I picked up thatMatanga Muni as an untouchable
and Sabari as a tribal woman,how they become guru and
(05:50):
shishya, and how their bond wasso strong for so many years. And
after Matanga Muni died, Sabariwas alone in the forest, and she
is waiting for Rama. So somehowshe heard that Rama left the
kingdom and came into theforest, that she understood in a
(06:14):
different way, that Rama didn'tlike kingdoms in wars and all
that, and she waited that hermessage she want to pass on to
Rama and want, she wants to. Shewants Rama to stood against
(06:36):
these wars and invasions, butdisappointing to her dreams and
waiting Rama was not for hermission. He has a separate
mission of his own, invading thesouth and establish Arya Dharma
(06:58):
in the South, in my opinion, andin many scholars opinion also.
So this whole story fall intoplace, and this novel came into
came into be in this form
Tara Khandelwal (07:19):
that's really beautiful. And, you know, I
genuinely didn't know that itwas a work that, you know, you
had sort of added so much ofyour storytelling as well
fictional elements to it, yeah,and that is very, very
fascinating, because it reallydoes read like this beautiful
retelling of this myth. And Iwant to ask you about your other
(07:42):
books, because you are reallyone of the most prolific writers
out there. And I've read yourprevious books as well. I loved
yashodra, which is the story ofBuddha Gautama, Buddha's wife,
and, of course, liberation ofSita. But you've also written
other books. Your book switchhas published in all Indian
languages by the National Trustof India. And what I really
(08:05):
liked about this book because Ilove books by female
protagonists. I love theretellings of myths that
showcase female characters thathave been sidelined and you have
opened the floodgates for a hostof women writers. So how I want
to know a little bit more aboutyou as a person. How did you get
into writing, and how did youdecide that? Okay, I'm going to
(08:28):
write about women. I'm going towrite about these female
characters that have beenoverlooked, and I'm going to
write about
Volga (08:35):
mythology. No, there is no specific decision at one
point that I am going to writeabout women. I am going to write
about women, protagonist orretelling. It's not that
decision making previously andstart writing is not there, but
(08:56):
as a woman, I am reading manynovels in Telugu and in other
languages, and the womencharacters are there, but many
women characters were shown asvictims only. So that victimhood
(09:16):
is bothering me. Why always theyare victims. These writers are
showing even women. Writers showwomen characters as victims. So
I Yeah, women suffer a lot inlife, in workplace, in every
(09:37):
way. They suffer a lot, buttheir agency is there in
bringing the change in thesociety and bringing a change in
the atmosphere and bringing achange in the history. Also why
nobody is speaking about theiragency and why many, many great.
(10:00):
Characters also control women,characters in some borders and
boundaries. So I want to explorethe real life, characters who
made change in their lives andthe surroundings. Also, when I
(10:23):
read about women's history,there are wonderful, wonderful
women whom I encountered in thehistory of India, in the history
of other countries also. So whenI see my immediate surroundings,
also, women are fighting. Womenare struggling. Women are going
(10:46):
for ahead of time. So I want toportray them as fighters for
change. I want to portray theirstruggle, not only for small
changes in their family life,but for a bigger change in the
(11:10):
society. That's how I startedwriting sweater was my second
novel, and when I wrote that,there was lot of commotion in
Telugu literary circles for awhole year and half the literary
(11:31):
discussion means discussion onsvetcha. So that was a turning
point in understanding genderquestions, in understanding
women's rights and so manythings.
Tara Khandelwal (11:48):
Why was it such a contentious
Volga (11:52):
because the heroine was very normal, woman, educated
women, a working women, and herhusband was a very good person,
very loving person. His onlyobjection was her work for the
(12:14):
society she wants to enter intosome organizations which are
working for the benefit ofdowntrodden people or workers
and women, Dalits like that. Soshe wants to work in those
organizations. The husband. Weare happy with our family. We
(12:39):
have a lovely daughter. We canbuild our own house and we will
live. We both are working,earning enough money to live
happily. Why you bring all thoseissues into our home? Please
stop all this. But she wants tobring a change in the society.
(12:59):
Her life goal was that. So thereare a lot of struggle between
them, and finally, she left herhome, Husband, Daughter and
organization also told, stopcoming to the organization.
Don't sacrifice your family. Soorganization is also patriarchal
(13:24):
in their world. So thesequestions arised, if the husband
is a bad person, if he is adrunkard or beating or harassing
her, like any thing everybodysympathizes with the heroine of
my novel, but he is a veryideal, good person, loving his
(13:47):
wife and daughter very much sofor for other reasons, how can a
women do This? But I think I puta discussion on wifehood and
citizenship. Citizenship is alsoimportant for women. Nobody
(14:11):
consider women as citizens. Ithey are daughters, they are
wives, they are mothers, butnobody ever see them as citizens
of the society, who areresponsible to correct the
society, to bring change in thesociety. Those roles were always
(14:32):
delegated to men. Men were theleaders. Men were the agents.
Men bring change. Men changehistory. Men fought bottles,
everything, everything men willdo. Women as daughters, as
wives, as mothers, have to dotheir duties in the home. The
(14:55):
public is away from them. Thispublic. Private dichotomy, I try
to bring in that novel.
Tara Khandelwal (15:04):
Thank you. Just that's what makes you you, and
that's what makes you soprolific, because you push those
boundaries. And it was almostahead of its time, right? And,
you know, because it's ahead ofhis time, it was doing something
new. It was doing somethingradical, yeah, I think you
became that voice for a lot ofwomen, and that's why I'm also
so excited to have you heretoday as well. But you know,
(15:28):
before we get to you, Purnima, Iwould also like to know a little
bit, Volga, ma'am, about yourbackground and how you got into
writing in the first place.
Volga (15:40):
I'm a lover of literature and a prolific reader, reading
everything I came across, everybook, every piece of paper. From
my childhood, I used to read,read, read, and when I was 19
(16:01):
years old, I started writingpoetry and my with my friends
and classmates and the four men,we wanted To bring an anthology
of poems, five poets, oneanthology, and we called
(16:25):
ourselves by gumber poets.
That's all like, very engagedand all that. But the poems are
very powerful at those times.
Those times are very critical.
Times are also 6970, like that.
(16:46):
That is the axilary movement,the left politic, political
discussions and all are veryvibrant in Andhra Pradesh. So
then we started writing poetryand working with revolutionary
(17:07):
movements, revolutionary writersmovements and all that. But
after working for so many, manyyears, means around 10 or 12
years, I am disillusioned withrevolutionary organizations.
Also, there also the genderquestion, well remained as a
(17:31):
question. There were not even aquestion. We cannot speak about
patriarch TR male domination andall that in the organizations.
So I came out and want to andenter into feminist politics,
(17:53):
and I am very much alone atthose times in the 80s, the
beginning of the 80s, andstarted writing. The writing was
only my weapon, because, yousee, I am very much alone. No
one was ready to be a feministor in favor of feminists. So how
(18:18):
can I do my work. I can'tconduct meetings. I can't
conduct other things. Only toolis writing. So I started
writing. I started writingpoems, stories, novels,
(18:39):
translating feminist literatureinto Telugu and feminist
literary criticism everythingunder the world. I started
writing, began writing and everyday trying myself to put new
(19:00):
ideas and about the women'sagency, about women's rights,
and how to look at from theWomen's point of view, and how
we are missing the women's pointof view and lost humanity. So
(19:22):
the since the 80s and writing asa feminist,
Tara Khandelwal (19:27):
I love what you said about writing is your
weapon. And I think you know,like for all of us, when we feel
like, Oh, we don't have anyother weapons, this is such a
good thing to put these storiesout there. So Purnima, I want to
bring you in here, becauseTelugu is such a lyrical
language, like my husband. Isthis Telugu? So I hear his
(19:50):
family speaking all the time,and I wish I understood what
they were saying. But I want tospeak about your approach to
translating this book, becauseyou also. It retain some words,
instead of flattening them intoEnglish equivalence, which has
really kept a flavor of theoriginal alive. So what was your
(20:10):
approach and what was thehardest parts of the process?
Purnima (20:14):
Yeah. So this book, like when you see it, it
reveals, like a really shortbook. It is a small, compact
size book in that sense, butit's a dynamite there's so much
happening in it, in that, inthat small space, and, and, and
also, it is kind of upending ourunderstanding of the world,
(20:35):
right? Like whatever we weunderstand as knowledge, we
understand as wisdom, progress,development, it is kind of
upending all of that and andmaking us question ourselves so
in we right now in the world ofartificial intelligence and
worried about what, what dangersand what kind of impact it will
(20:55):
create on us, but, but Olga garuis taking us one step Back and
questioning human intelligenceitself on On what basis those
things are taken? So likewhenever I translate for the
first thing I'm trying toreplicate is my reading
experience. So when I read thetext very closely, what are the
(21:19):
things that I have taken, whatkind of emotions I have felt,
where and how, certain thingslike this, this particular book,
it was like here and there. Itwas like slapping. It's like
somebody is in deep slumber, andit kind of hits you hard and
helps you wake up. So it is thatkind of voice, right? So getting
(21:41):
that voice in translation wasreally important for me. Then
the second part is about theheavily loaded philosophical and
cultural words that that arelike, like the entire premise of
the book is is based on them. Sofor in my first draft, I did
(22:03):
translate them to into English,all of those. But when we had a
discussion between Noura garueditors and Harper Collins and
me, we thought it would bebetter to retain the words. So I
the reason I hesitated to retainthe words in the first draft was
because these, all these wordshave sanskritized truths, which
(22:26):
means they are available inalmost all Indian languages. But
because of usage over thecenturies and many other
cultural aspects coming in, eachmay mean different things, like
nagarikata in Canada, or Teluguwill will hint towards
civilization. The first thingthat comes to your mind is
civilization, but say in Bengalior Hindi, it comes to
(22:50):
citizenship. So I did not wantto create that confusion. When
someone is speaking up, a panIndian reader is speaking up,
and first and get confused. Sowhen I did the second draft and
when I tried to retain thewords, I ensured that the single
word is not bearing all theburden of the meaning, but it is
(23:12):
distributed across the story, sothat even if I'm leaving some
things unexplained, like I tellwhat is Jnanam, but I won't say
what is so. And I expect, and myhope is, that the any discerning
reader will latch that and andtherefore I don't have to over
explain. So yeah, in that sense,in that particular process, I
(23:35):
have put a lot of trust in thereader, that even if someone
unfamiliar with Ramayana, or thenuances of Ramayana, someone
unfamiliar with thephilosophical concepts in India
will still have enough meat toget extract out of this text,
and it will also make themfurious. Go look up or have have
(23:58):
a discussion with friends andthings like that. And the third
hardest part of this text wasOlga garu prose, as you said,
Telugu is very musical. It has awonderful rhythm. Even the
plainest and simplest ofsentences can can sound so
beautiful. And on top of that,Olga garu is a poet. You You
(24:21):
just heard her saying that shehas journey started with poetry.
For me, she is a poet first andthen anything else. So she, and
the way she has created allthose imageries of Pampa forest
in in like very compactsentences and not too much
flowery language, but, but,yeah, she literally takes you
(24:44):
onto the banks, right? So myeffort was also to retain the
lyricism as much as possible andalso focus on the Imagine
imagery. So her poetry is morevisual in the sense that it is
almost like. Cinematography. Soshe is, she is literally taking
and giving the top view, sideview, and all of those angles
(25:06):
that a cinematographer would do.
So I tried to bring in that intothe translation, so that it will
be a wholesome so the poeticsand politics of this book, which
are so intertwined. So thechallenge as a translator, I
mean, I'm just still hoping andpraying that readers get that,
(25:28):
because it is such a beautifulamalgamation of these two and
and I tried my best to bringthem into English. I agree.
Tara Khandelwal (25:38):
I like what you said about politics and
politics, because even thoughit's a very short book, it took
me a really long time to readit, and it's not because of the
language and not because of thestory. It's a very easy story.
The language is also, you know,simple. You know, it's not very
but I think it's because it's sorich, there is a lot of
(26:00):
information about thesurroundings, where you just
feel like you're there in thatbeautiful forest. There is so
many ideas, the philosophies,you know, even though even the
idea about the Raja and the youknow, for the Rajam borders were
of paramount importance, and howthey start cutting all the trees
(26:23):
out, and then how they starttreating those forest dwellers
and sabaris family. So with veryfew sentences, we have conveyed
a lot in this book. And I didnot expect that it would take me
so long to read it, because I'ma very, very fast reader, but
(26:43):
you know, to really take it in,it does require that, and it's a
very enjoyable read. It's not ahard read, but it's a read that
makes you think. And it's notjust a feminist retelling. I
feel like it's very deeplyecological. It almost is like,
yeah, it almost is like climatefiction. You can smell the birds
(27:04):
you see. You know where, ascivilization and humanity, we
have gone wrong, and where ourpriorities have gotten mixed up.
And I think those ideas havereally come out in this book. So
yes, I wanted to ask, you knowit's, it's kind of its own
genre. So I actually wanted toask you, and Volga Ma'am, you
(27:26):
know how much of your ownconnection to nature has fed
into this story?
Purnima (27:31):
Yeah, for me, the reason I picked up this book, I
mean, any opportunity to workwith who is a great blessing and
and I'm fortunate that I haveworked with her in terms of
Publisher of her translations.
She is a wonderful translator,also, and, and then I translated
her work. So for me, the therewas an urgency about when I read
(27:54):
this book, right? So the I felta kind of urgency that I have to
tell about this book to manyfolks. I have to in the sense
that actually, as soon as theTelugu version came out in
Bangalore, we had a little gettogether celebrating oldest,
latest novel of Pampa JIRA andand then in that gathering,
(28:17):
because most of them were nontelegus, and we were discussing
the ideas in this book. And, andwhen there were questions, I was
super tempted to translateimpromptu layer and give, give
them insights into the books.
So, yeah, I have mainly readthis book as psychological
(28:38):
fiction and, and that is, thatis what my driving force was. So
so far I have the other text Ihave translated into Telugu are
based on partition, on Telanganamoment, those kind of very
historically heavy and and, andkind of chromatic events, in
some sense. But this book, mymain drive was ecological
(29:02):
fiction. And yeah, we have beengetting some beautiful reviews.
And one reviewer on Insta, sorrythat I can't remember her name,
but she said reading this bookis like walking on barefoot in a
forest. There is no way you canrush through it. You have to
savor each and every momentthere. So yes, and and another
(29:25):
delightful thing for me andolder Guru is that how the
younger generation is iscatching up with this book and
how it is reading the book inthis in the context of what's
happening right now inHimalayas, the flooding, the
cloud outburst, and also tryingto question our choices.
Basically, it is more thananything else. It is about our
(29:49):
madness in viewing the universein a very self centered fashion,
right, the human, the supremeand everybody else, all other
creatures are subservient, kindof. Of attitude that we have
towards nature. It isquestioning that, and right now,
that is a very importantquestion for us and the next
generations, I think,
Volga (30:10):
in our country and in many countries of the world
also, we think women as nature,Sri prakriti, prakriti purusha,
that ideology, Prakriti iswoman. Purusha is purusha. And
what is this purusha? That meansman will do is to conquest the
(30:35):
nature. So this the wholedevelopment and civilization was
conquesting the nature andconquesting the women,
conquesting women's right asmothers, conquesting women's
reproductive rights. So thatprakriti Purusha question is a
(31:00):
patriarchal person and apatriarchal struggle. So when we
are talking about nature, we arealso talking about women, if man
stop conquesting nature of hisown, not nature means his
(31:27):
characteristic. He wants toconquest everything, everything
in his surroundings. And thewhole development was the idea
of conquesting the nature, goingand controlling the nature that
(31:48):
control that conquest are reallyworsening the ecological
situation. So as nature womenshould talk about this concept.
Yes, we are nature. We are theproviders. We are the birth
(32:11):
givers. So we have to protectthis earth with its diversity,
with its all living things andnon living things working
together in harmony to protectthis earth. So this is also in I
(32:37):
tried to put in this novel. Sowhen we are protecting nature,
means we are also talking aboutprotecting women. Women were
undergone for so many conquestson their wombs, in every war was
(32:59):
fought on the wombs or on thecharacter of women. So that is
the feminist and ecological.
They are not two separatethings, in my view. So I took
sabary. There are continuationsfor sabary When we look at the
modern history, all of us knowabout Chipko movement. It is
(33:24):
women who went and embracedtrees and stopped the
deforestation at one time, thenthe many women like Vandana,
Shiva, Jahan, so, so many womenwho are fighting to protect the
(33:45):
nature. So it is their story.
Also they can own this story.
Sabari was the, maybe the firstone. Maybe there is. There are
characters previous to sabary, Idon't know, but maybe sabary was
the first woman to to make adecent statement on the whole
(34:13):
civilization, on the wholenature of the kingdoms and the
invasive nature of the state. Sofrom sabary to the tribal women
today, there are lots of voiceswho are raising their voices and
(34:37):
not heard properly. So we haveto make them heard by the new
generation, by the young peoplewho has this valuable Earth in
their hands. Is, and it is theirresponsibility to protect this
(35:03):
earth, to protect this natureand to protect it from all the
calamities. Now we are seeingthose calamities in the very
beginning stages. So we have towake up now and be careful about
the earth.
Tara Khandelwal (35:25):
And I love that perspective of, you know,
conquering, because you see thatin the book as well, right? Like
mankind wants to conquer, womenwants to conquer, nature wants
to it's just that unending greedthat you showcase so well in
this woman. And I like howyou're drawing a straight line
(35:46):
between Sabari to, you know, thetribal women and women of today.
And I actually quite a newperspective. So coming to your
other books, because I didreally enjoy your other books as
well. You know, Sita, yashodra,Sabari, you've chosen these
women who are central inmythology, but whose voices are
(36:07):
muted in the traditionaltelling. So what do you look for
in a character before decidingto tell her, retell her story?
Specifically with regards tomythology, let's say,
Volga (36:21):
and even you, talk about liberation of Sita stories, the
first story surpanaka was themain character along With Sita,
so that surpanaka was very knowncharacter, very familiar
(36:43):
character, a household name, andit her name was gone into
proverbs. Also, if any women waslooked as fierce and like ugly,
like we thought, surpanaka andenvious women, also as
chuppanati surpanaka in Telugu,chupanati means jealousy kind of
(37:09):
thing. So that surpanaka wasonly in one chapter in few
slokas and so powerful we cannotforget her, and she was
showcased as the beginning pointof Rama Ravana battle without
(37:30):
surpanaka interfering here, theRama Ravana battle were not
happen in this way, Maybe inanother way, so, but after that,
after the mutilation of her noseand ears and there was nothing
about her in Ramayana, whathappened to her, how he how she
(37:57):
struggled with the mutilatedbody of her, how she understood
the beauty and ugliness beforemutilation and after mutilation,
how she understood her own self.
So all these questions botheredme, and when I actually I wrote
(38:17):
a dance ballet, war and peace,and in that I made Sita and
surpanaka dance together forthree minutes or four minutes.
The ballet was 70 minutes. Theballet was so popular that
durdarson Want to telecast it,and they recorded, but at the
(38:41):
time of the telecast, the higherofficials, when they saw
surpanaka character, how cansurpanaka portray with Sita?
Sita was a pativrata, verychaste women, and surpanaka was
a bad, bad woman. She desired amarried man. So for that, her
(39:04):
decision, she suffered. Hers isnot at all suffering. So they
start argued with us, and theywant to censor that character
from the ballet. It is a threeminutes dance. So they censored
that part because, intraditional ideology, surpanaka
(39:31):
was a bad woman. So I want tochange that whole this thing of
surpanaka, and I want totransform her into a beautiful
soul, not only a beautifulperson, a beautiful soul with a
(39:52):
beautiful soul who nurturenature. And understand the value
of labor. Labor means working.
So that story happened likethat. And with Ahalya another
(40:16):
instant, and with Renuka, somany questions when I pick up
the character from the Ramayanaand Yashodhara, particularly, it
is not a mythology, buthistorically, very little
information was there aboutashodhara. So the only image we
(40:45):
thought about a shodhara wassleeping with her newly born
child, and Siddhartha, like athief, is leaving the house.
That was the painting. Andmahabhi, Anish kramana, the
painting was titled, and thatwas a popularly known painting.
When I saw that painting for somany times, I have so many
(41:12):
questions. When Siddhartha wasleaving the palace or a house,
how can she sleep so peacefully.
The whole house was in turmoil.
Siddhartha's parents were cryinglike anything. And with in that
(41:33):
situation, how can she sleeppeacefully? And how can
Siddhartha, who is very kindperson, very kind to even to the
birds and animals and everyliving things can be so cruel to
her is to his wife. How can she?
How can he left without tellingher? No, this is not, I don't
(41:55):
believe this that Yashoda RAwill be so peaceful and
Siddhartha is so cruel. So Ithought that yashodara was part
of his nishkamana from thehouse, so Yashoda Ra was part of
(42:17):
his awakening as Gautama Buddha,because she, in those days,
women, has no spiritual opening.
They have to be in the house anddo household duties, no
(42:43):
spiritual they can't becomesannyasins or Munis maharshis
like other men. So Yara want toenter into the path. So she
cooperated with Siddhartha, andlater she also become a vehicle
like that. I at some point thatsomething triggered me, and from
(43:11):
there, the story started, andsavari also, as I told in the
first answer to the your firstquestion. So these things I
didn't sit at one time and startfrom this day on. I want to
write mythological stories. No,not like that. In liberation of
(43:37):
Sita, one story was written in2004 and another story in 2007
or eight, and the whole bookfive stories I took six years to
write. On and off I am writingso there is not a mission like
thing that I should retellmythology. Come on, sit and
(43:57):
write, not like that.
Tara Khandelwal (43:59):
I am also very fascinated by Yashoda story.
And, you know, because veryinteresting perspective that you
say that actually she wascooperating because she wanted
to get into that pathway, andthat was the end outcome.
Because what I found veryfascinating, and even I kept
asking, you know, here is thisGautama Buddha, and, you know,
(44:21):
like amazing person andeverything, but he's just left
his wife, and he's, you know,she has to fend for herself. And
also, then when the wife and awhole group of other female want
to become sannyasis, he actuallyrefuses. At first, he doesn't
let them, and then they, youknow, then later on, sort of he
(44:43):
agrees, but it's still differentrules for the men and the women,
which I found very interesting,given that all of the teachings
and everything, there's still adouble standard, you know,
Volga (44:57):
I think in those days, it's a very different. Difficult
for him to bring all the changesat one go. One cannot expect
everything from one person. No,he Yeah, so the circum that is
(45:19):
why I created a shodhara in thatway that he can understand the
problems of women from her
Tara Khandelwal (45:28):
Correct correct I really like that perspective.
And then another thing, I alwaysthink, even RAM is an ideal man.
But then what happens with Sita?
You know, at the end of thestory, she's again alone in the
forest with the sons love andpush. So there are all these
cognitive dissonances anddichotomies in these mythologies
and these histories andreligion, which I think are very
(45:50):
interesting to explore. And itcan just be an endless
exploration.
Volga (45:54):
Yeah, because epics are very much open ended, they never
end there, and the epics endingis the real beginning of a new
story. I understand like thatthey are very much open ended,
that we can explore the epicsRamayana and Mahabharata, and
(46:19):
can write so many, so manystories.
Tara Khandelwal (46:23):
Yeah, absolutely. And Purnama, you
know, you come from a techbackground, actually, and you
run an independent Telugupublishing house, which I really
want to know more about. It'scalled ilami publications. So
how did you sort of set that up?
And how has it been building aTelugu publishing house from the
ground
Purnima (46:43):
up? Yeah. So I am a techie, so that is my full time
job, and also my first passion.
Then I've started writing inearly 2008 and from then on,
I've I went on to run a websitecalled Sister come.net which was
exclusively for book reviews inTelugu, you can read any
language and write. And afterthat, I translated manto around
(47:06):
2018 to 2020, and then I wastrying to find publishers, and
couldn't find the one whichmatch with my thing. So
everybody wanted to see mandu asa sensational character, as some
controversial figure, but notthe human and not the person
(47:28):
that he was. So that led to mestart LMA publication. So we are
now three year old company, selffunded bootstrap thing, and we
have published around eighttitles. Volga garu did two
translations for us. Hamiddalvai, Marathi writer. He is
(47:49):
known for his non fiction andand he's an activist and those
things, but his fiction, webought like 12 short stories
together as one collection. Andshe also did another wonderful
book. Unfortunately, the Englishbook is now out of print, but it
is written by Vidya Rao Ji ofHindustani vocalist. She wrote
(48:13):
about her guru, Nana Naina Devi.
So it's part Memorial, partbiography kind of thing. So Olga
garu translated that for us andpublished it. And yeah, we are
looking forward to put out thefirst graphic novel in
translation this year, and wehave some interesting projects
(48:37):
coming up. Yeah, it's been hard,but, and as you know, anything
within publishing is very hardto run such low margins, hard to
reach readers, and distributeddistribution systems are all
here and there, so it's been achallenge, but also to try and
(48:57):
fill in the gaps. Now, there arethese big players, and they play
the big game, but sometimes itis very important to do some
quality work at small scaleconsistently, and that creates
its own impact, right? So, soyeah, that is what we are
looking forward to. We areplanning a series of books on
(49:19):
Indian partition, and we want totake multiple themes and do
fiction, non fiction in in that.
Yeah, it's going on pretty well,but sales are always a
challenge. I mean, the thehardest part is to crack the
marketing and
Tara Khandelwal (49:35):
sales. Yes, absolutely, I think definitely,
we need more readers in thecountry. But, yeah, I want to
know also, Volga, Ma'am, what,what was the What's your biggest
difficulty that you face whilewriting? What is it the
publishing process? Is it, youknow, coming up with the story
(49:55):
of the characters for you? Whatis your biggest challenge? And
what part do you. To, you know,find the easiest.
Volga (50:02):
The easiest part is writing, because we we have pen
papers within the reach so wecan write, and The urge is so,
so much to write, so we willdie. But after that, the
(50:23):
publication part, where to send,how to publish, is quite a
challenge for writers. Butfortunately for me, it is also
went went on Well, there is oneone challenge was when I wrote a
(50:47):
story called ioni that usuallymy stories were published in
those days when I sent to anymagazine. But this story, I only
when I sent to a magazine whichis very Actually, it is very
popular magazine they rejected,I am very much surprised, and
(51:14):
then I sent to another they alsorejected. So many magazines
rejected that story, and I sentto a only one feminist magazine
then, so I sent to thatmagazine. They also rejected it,
but they came to talk with me.
We will publish this story ifyou remove certain words and
(51:37):
certain sentences I said, noquestion of censoring my
sentences. I don't want tocensor them. Then after, after
one year after my writing thatstory, one in one magazine that
(51:58):
was published. That magazine wasalso run by a woman. So after
that story came also lot ofdiscussion about their story
controversies. How can thesefeminist writers write these
stories? But slowly it subsidedand it was remained as one of
(52:20):
the best story of mine andTelugu short story anthology was
published by katha. Thatanthology was named as ioni and
other stories, so many storiesnot of my stories, but an
(52:42):
anthology of different storieswith of different writers. That
was so that story was reallywent to the people after two
three years. Those two threeyears was really something like
a challenge, for the first timeto me and sweetcha. Lot of, as I
(53:06):
told, lot of discussions, lot ofthe whole left movement was into
it. How do you
Tara Khandelwal (53:18):
deal with all of those, like the discussions
that during Shweta time, like,how did you deal with that?
Volga (53:26):
Because during Sveta, not only on the novel, The
discussions are slowly centeredon my personal life, also by
that time, I am a divorcee. Somy divorce and the protagonist
divorce, they were compared, andthese, this novel and the writer
(53:54):
are also destroying family,institution of family, and
institution of marriage, allthese kinds of but I withstand,
withstood all that, all that,and slowly they change. The
whole scenario change. And Iedited the first feminist poetry
(54:18):
anthology in 93 before 93 late80s, in Telugu, there was very
powerful feminist poets, writingwomen writers, writing very
powerful poems. They are writingabout their bodies, about their
(54:39):
sexuality, motherhood, all thesethings they are writing until
that time. Poet means a malepoet. That area of poetry was a
male best and. Ah, novels, yeah,women can write about the family
(55:04):
life and their troubles. Sonovels, they don't care. Short
stories, they don't care men,when women are writing, but when
women wrote this powerfulpoetry, they were really
threatened. So they call thispoetry as pond poetry, blue
(55:26):
poetry. And this is about bodilyconsciousness, no social
consciousness in these poemslike this, these poets, writing
alone in different parts of thestates, are very much worried
how to encounter this alone.
Then we from an organizationcalled asmita, called for a
(55:46):
women writers meet about 100more than 100 women writers came
to that meeting. We discussedmany things for two days and
held a press conference and allthat. And we decided, then,
within a year, we have to bringa feminist poetry anthology. And
in 93 we brought it that time,until that time that the
(56:10):
criticism on women writers, andespecially on feminist writers,
is very much on then, after thisanthology, the whole situation
changed. Feminist writingsearned the legitimacy,
legitimate space in the literaryarea. So it is like a big
(56:32):
battle, big battle in mylifetime, and I am also part of
it.
Tara Khandelwal (56:41):
Yes, that's amazing. And you sort of, you
know, and your contemporariesmade that space for feminist
literature to have a voice.
Yeah, in
Volga (56:54):
in Telugu, I can, I did something, not much, but
Tara Khandelwal (56:59):
something I was telling, you know, like I was
speaking about this interviewand with my husband's family,
and everybody knows, you know,who all guys, because one of the
most prolific writers, I think,out there, in India today, so
that's just, it's justfantastic. And I think just
(57:20):
generally, also, I feel like,you know, it's always a battle
to get female issues to be takenseriously, yeah, whether it's
women's health, whether it'seven something like, you know,
people make so much fun ofromance novels or Chiclet or
whatever, you know, all ofthese, they have a space. So I
(57:41):
do feel like these battles. Ithink you know, everybody would
thank you for doing that work onour behalf. And thank you so
much. This is very interesting.
My last question for both of youis, what are you working on
next?
Volga (57:57):
Wow. My I have a no project to write a novel about
the contemporary issues offreedom from from the times I
wrote sweet Cha, there is lot ofchanges in the situation of
women and In the contemporarysociety also. So there is a lot
(58:22):
of new problems, new chains forwomen to encounter. So I want to
put them in the form of a novel.
That was a project I have in mymind, because this mythology and
historical novels occupy so muchwriting space of mine, now I
(58:47):
want to return to thecontemporary society,
contemporary Problems womenencounter in these times, in
these times like politicalturmoil, ecological turmoil and
lot of violence on women, howthis violence is increasing? Why
(59:12):
it is increasing, how to how tomake it disappear, how to
encounter it with thesequestions, mainly violence is
the main thing, and surroundedby many other things that that
(59:34):
was my project, I have to seehow I can complete it. It will
work out or not. Sometimes itwon't work out. Also, we can't
say
Tara Khandelwal (59:53):
and will it?
Will it get translated intoEnglish?
Volga (59:58):
And that depends. That depends, no
Tara Khandelwal (01:00:02):
what does it depend on to get it translated?
Does that sort of the decisionthat maybe Purnima you can
answer, is that a decision thatthe translator takes,
Purnima (01:00:13):
I think, especially if we are talking about translating
into English, then it depends onvarious factors. Because, again,
as I said, there are players,and those players create a kind
of market and, and they are veryconscious about picking and
choosing stuff that suits themarket and and how much it goes
(01:00:35):
it doesn't go that those kind ofconversations come into picture.
And, and also finding, sometimesthe right translator who can,
who can bring that whatever is,is there in the original, try to
get it with minimum loss toEnglish that? That could be
another challenge. So, yeah, itdepends on various factors,
(01:00:56):
factors like that, and and alsofrom my understanding of Pampa
theorem, and also as a publisherof translators that I'm working
it is about the synergy betweenthe original author, translator
and the publisher, all of themcoming together, totally
believing in the story andtotally committed to the readers
(01:01:17):
to bring the story In its finestform. So unless that kind of
magic combination happens,translations are bit hard. It is
hard in every sense. Yeah,usually, as a translator, I get
to ask when people ask mequestions about the craft, but
once the thing is ready, thetranslation is ready, and
(01:01:41):
putting it out is also achallenge in itself.
Tara Khandelwal (01:01:43):
Yeah. So do you do you translate the work first
and then go to a publisher? Ordo you sort of first go to the
publisher and then translate thework? Yeah.
Purnima (01:01:55):
So whatever I did in Telugu, I first translated and
then searched for publishers. Itdid not work. I ended up being a
publisher. When I'm translatinginto English. I have done two
books so far. One is Pampatheram, and the other is
maliswara Jim's memoir, NAMA tetupaki tota. It is a Telangana
arms movement leader her memoir.
So that also the publisheroffered me to translate, but I
(01:02:19):
would say I never do the book infull, unless you have a
publisher. Just do a sample,start pitching it, let people
know that you're working onthis, and when an interested
party comes and everything worksout, then only come into full
length project is my advice.
Tara Khandelwal (01:02:37):
Great, great.
That's That's great advice.
Thank you both so much for thisinterview. I really loved the
books, and I can't wait for moreof them to come out. Thank you
so much.
Purnima (01:02:51):
Thank you. Thank you for having us. Hope
Tara Khandelwal (01:02:54):
you enjoy this episode of Books and Beyond with
bound. This
Michelle D'costa (01:02:57):
podcast is created by bound, a company that
helps you grow through story.
Find us at pound India on allsocial media
Tara Khandelwal (01:03:05):
platforms. Tune in every Wednesday as we peek
into the lives and minds of somebrilliant authors from India and
South Asia. You.
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