Words’ Worth

Talking about her book,The Other Side of Silence,a product of more than 70 interviews,Butalia conducted with survivors of the Partition,she emphasises the role of violence against women in the collective experience of the tragedy. “Partition was a history alive in our family,yet it was during the ‘84 riots that I realised how deep those stories were in my psyche,and that’s how I began writing on it. I feel we are afraid to confront our past,thus a lack of literature on Partition,but we need to regret our mistakes,” says Butalia,who adds that the re-examination of history by younger writers is interesting and mentions poems like Na Junoon Raha Na Pari Rahi’ and Basti in this genre. Researching for the book,agrees Butalia was a tough process,as first the women did not want to talk. “Once they did,it was a catharsis for them,’ she says. Taking over from Butalia,Lakshmi Kannan,who writes in Tamil and in English,continued the interactions,which Manju Jaidka,chairperson of the Akademi,described aptly as a celebration of literature and an attempt to link people together with the help of the written word. Kannan’s book,Nandanvan,a collection of short stories published by Black Swan,was released here,as Kannan talked about how life around her gave both range and versatility to her stories. Rajee Seth,who has written and done translations in Hindi and in English,admits that she has not addressed major themes of her life in her books for she feels they are too personal and the time is not yet ripe for them to come into public view. As for the translation,the writers agreed that there’s now a need to invest in translators and train them too,for many a time great literature doesn’t reach out to the readers because of sheer lack of good translations. “Translation goes beyond just words,expression,feeling and research. There’s a lot that goes into the creative process,” agreed Seth.

Sanjukta Dasgupta,who teaches at the University of Calcutta,writes and translates in two languages,Bengali and English,spoke of women’s biographies,memoirs and diaries and focused on how it has not been easy for women to give a public expression to their emotions. Shafi Shauq,a distinguished critic and translator of Kashmiri language,author of numerous books in Kashmiri and a poet,shared with the audience how his poetry is committed to society.