30 January - 3 February 2025 | Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur

BNW Banner BNW Banner
Rakhshanda Jalil

Rakhshanda Jalil

Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a multi-award-winning translator, writer, and literary historian. She has published over 25 books and written over 50 academic papers and essays. Some of her books include: Liking Progress, Loving Change: A Literary History of the Progressive Writers Movementin Urdu (OUP, 2014); a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan ARebel and her Cause (Women Unlimited, 2014); a translation of The Sea Lies Ahead, Intizar Husain's seminal novel on Karachi (Harper Collins,2015) and Krishan Chandar's partition novel Ghaddar (Westland, 2017), among others. She runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture.

Session

Khwabnama

Arunava Sinha in conversation with Rakhshanda Jalil

The late Bangladeshi writer Akhtaruzzaman Elias’ novel, Khwabnama, weaves a tapestry of magical realism blending dreams and memory, legend and history with the struggle of marginalised people and the stories of their ancestors. Translated from Bangla to English by Arunava Sinha, the narrative is set in the time of the Tebhaga Movement within Bengal in the 1940s and explores the hopes and aspirations of a farmer as he cultivates his land. In conversation with historian, author and translator Rakhshanda Jalil, Arunava Sinha discusses the nuances of translating a text so heavily steeped in history and the essence of land as a harbinger of hope and the future.