30 January - 3 February 2025 | Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur
Malashri Lal recently retired from her academic and administrative positions at the University of Delhi’s English department. She is a member of the English Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi and Bharatiya Jnanpith’s advisory committee. Her specialisation is in literature, women and gender studies. Her books include In Search of Sita: Revisiting Mythology, Tagore and the Feminine: A Journey Through Translations and Finding Radha: The Quest for Love. Lal has been a Senior Consultant to the Ministry of Culture, UGC nominee on Committees and a member of international book award juries.
Author and screenwriter Leesa Gazi’s intriguing novel Hellfire has been rendered into English from the original Bangla by translator Shabnam Nadia. A tale presented in taut prose, it revolves around the caged life of two sisters and introduces us to a carefully constructed web of secrets and deceit. Gazi is also the joint artistic director of a London-based arts company Komola Collective and has directed, performed and co-written critically acclaimed theatre productions. Nadia's work includes the award-winning translated manuscript of Bangladeshi writer Mashiul Alam’s story, Milk. In a conversation with Malashri Lal, they discuss the joys and challenges of translating HellFire and together unravel the heart of the narrative.
Deeply embedded in a certain kind of feminism, iconic Hindi poet Anamika’s work weaves together themes of politics, society and domesticity. Anamika’s first comprehensive collection of Hindi poems in English translation, My Typewriter is My Piano: Selected Poems has been edited and co-translated by internationally acclaimed poet Sudeep Sen. Anamika has also translated Sen’s My Body is the Stepson of my Soul: Selected Poems into Hindi as Sudeep Sen: Mera Sharir Meri Atma Ka Sautela Beta. Sen’s poetry is known for his formal construct, innovation, lyricism and intelligence. In conversation with Malashri Lal, they read from their work and speak of the sources, inspirations, contexts, philosophy and multilinguality of the poetic imagination.