In November 2017, Penguin India released the English translation of Yashwant Chittal's novel, The Hunt (Shikari), translated by Pratibha Umashankar-Nadiger, at Rangashankara, Bangalore.
Rangashankara has lately been having book events (they are more than just a launch) where the book is discussed by an erudite panel of writers along with the author (or translator, as in this case) of the showcased book. It may not be possible to read all the books you want to, or learn about all the books out there, but if you live in Bangalore, this is one event you should not miss. The next best thing to reading a good book, is being told why it's a good book; and that by a group that can be called the intelligentsia of the city.
Girish Karnad, who was a panelist, says that Chittal
was ignored by the upper echelon of great Kannada writers of the
Sixties and Seventies, like Anant Murthy and Lankesh, who wrote about
their towns. Unlike other Kannada writers Chittal lived in relative obscurity. Perhaps because his canvas was the busy by-lanes and the crowded apartments of Mumbai. What Chittal had to say needed that setting. The Bangalore of today with its corporate culture could have been the setting for Shikari, a novel ahead of its time.
Rangashankara has lately been having book events (they are more than just a launch) where the book is discussed by an erudite panel of writers along with the author (or translator, as in this case) of the showcased book. It may not be possible to read all the books you want to, or learn about all the books out there, but if you live in Bangalore, this is one event you should not miss. The next best thing to reading a good book, is being told why it's a good book; and that by a group that can be called the intelligentsia of the city.
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| L-R: MS Sriram, Pratibha Umashankar-Nadiger, and Girish Karnad |
Karnad went on to say how 20 years ago no city existed in Karnataka. And Chittal was a writer who inhabited the world of sipping beer in the Sea lounge, on one hand, and the intrigues of chawl living, on the other. For him the city was as an interior experience; not a physical space. Karnad feels that Chittal was Dickensian in capturing the pulse of the street, and among current writers, like Tom Wolfe in capturing the spirit of a city. And we still await a successor to Shikari.
MS Sriram, an IIM faculty and short story writer, the other panelist, said that he had seen Chittal etching out his novels: actually drawing circles and points to visually conceive his novel. Though written in 1979, Sriram says, the novel's dilemmas are still relevant. Chittal's novels were set in the English-speaking world of boardroom and air travel (a big deal in those days). His transactional world was English, which distanced him from his fellow Kannada writers.
Pratibha Umashankar-Nadiger, the translator, said that her translation of Shikari is not meant for Kannada readers but to take Chittal to a wider readership: it being a masterpiece that is still relevant. She said to herself when she started translating:"I'm not going to be intimated by his stature; his formidable creative genius." One challenge she faced while translating was that sometimes there were no culturally equivalent words, and also Kannada is rich in ornithological words. She feels that most of the time a translator's job is plain hard work. But after a certain point something magical happens; the original becomes a blur and another power takes over. And you feel a new work has been created.
