Every Monday I post some of the books I have received in the previous week. Embedded in the book covers and post will also be links to buy the books on Amazon India. This post will be in addition to my regular blog posts and newsletter.
In today’s Book Post 21 included are some of the titles I received in the past few weeks and are worth mentioning and not necessarily confined to parcels received last week.
Enjoy reading!
3 December 2018
The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry
Edited by Sudeep Sen
HarperCollins Publishers, India, 2012. Pb. Pp.540. Rs. 599.
Panchali’s Pledge Subramania Bharti
Translated by Usha Rajagopalan
Everyman Classics, Hachette India, 2012. Pb. Pp. 274 Rs. 350
Dom Moraes: Selected Poems
Edited with an introduction by Ranjit Hoskote. Penguin Books India, 2012, Pb. Pp.282. Rs 499.
The River Speaks: The Vaiyai Poems from the Paripatal
Translated by V. N. Muthukumar and Elizabeth Rani Segran
Penguin Classics, Penguin Books India, 2012. Pb. Pp. 176. Rs. 250
These my Words: The Penguin Book of Indian Poetry
Edited by Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo
Penguin Books, India, 2012. Pb. Pp. 450 Rs. 499
In the company of a poet: Gulzar in conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir
Rainlight, Rupa Publications, Delhi, 2012. Hb. Pp. 206. Rs 499
2012 was a delicious year for poetry from and being published in India. There were plenty of books to choose from — anthologies, collections, translations and some even for children. The anthology edited by Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo (p.xxi) “comprises almost thirty languages and dialects, all translated into the English except of course those poems written in English. It includes poems, folk songs, and oral narratives that have now been transcribed. We have sought for a collection which tries to represent the breadth and diversity of Indian poetry – we wanted poems that surprised and delighted, poems that illuminated, and inspired further reading—a book for readers, not scholars and academics. We chose poems that worked in translation, those which crossed the boundary of language, which faithfulness to the original combined with adaptation to produced work that existed on its own merit.” It gives a good bird’s-eye view of what was written over the centuries, the various traditions that spawned poems and the transformation to the form over time. While reading it, you get a sense of the variety of poetry, the forms, the reasons why poetry is written and what can actually travel in translation. It is extremely difficult for me to even give a snippet of what is in the anthology since every poem is perfect. It forces you to engage with the content, takes you to a different world and time, and yet encourages you to move on to read the next poem. In no way is it dull to read such a volume.
In fact the editors achieve very well what Gulzar says in the absolutely delicious book In the company of a poet: Gulzar in conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir that poetry is about “direct communication” and “What a poem says on the surface is not all that it means. You have to unpick the lines and see the shadows of words. That what makes it poetry, otherwise it would be prose. You usually have to be less ambiguous in prose, which is often an elaboration of thoughts: whereas in poetry, thoughts are usually compressed. A poem has an element of mystery. You have to unravel that mystery. Of course it depends on every poet—how much they reveal, and how much they choose not to.” He adds, “when you understand a poem’s meaning, you can never forget it. You find yourself reciting it at some occasion and it is appreciated. The idea of writing poetry appealed to me because reciting poetry is so pleasurable and the appreciation I got made me happy.”
I wish though that Eunice de Souza and Melanie Silgardo had a longer note about the translation process. Or at least got a few of the translators to speak and then carry a transcript of it as an afterword on their experience at translating poetry. Obviously it takes a while for a satisfactory conclusion to be achieved. An insight into this is given by Sudeep Sen in his Aria introduction on translating poetry “Sculpting language, altering tongues, intoning arias” (p.4), “In almost all instances — whether it be Hebrew, Danish, Korean, Macedonian, Polish, Persian, Spanish or Portuguese — I have worked closely with poets of the source languages themselves. They would do literal translations of the original poems in very raw prose. Once I got down the contents in an accurate version, I would then enter the process more proactively and often singularly to sculpt and revise the jagged prose texts to give them a poetic shape in English. After every revision and draft, I would ask the poet to read aloud the poems in their original tongue, so that I got down the rhythm, rhyme, and the cadence correctly — getting them as close to the original as is possible. Once both the poet in the original language and I as a translator were happy with the versions we came up with — which happened through several working sessions over extended periods of time — we would let go of the poems in their new avatar, in a new language.” Maybe knowing this he chose to consciously create a useful anthology of English poetry by Indians (based in the country and from the diaspora). It was fifteen years in the making, but it is time well spent. Unfortunately that is not the case with Usha Rajagoplan’s translations of Subramania Bharti’s Panchali’s Pledge. I cannot read the poems in the source language but I realize that the translations are missing something from the original. 
Of the recent set of publications on poetry my favourites are the translations of Lal Ded’s poetry by Ranjit Hoskote (I, Lalla) and his selection of Dom Moraes poems. Even if you have never read poetry or been hesitant about taking a dip in it, start with Ranjit Hoskote’s introductions. His selection, translations and arrangement of the poems introduces you to the poets, their techiniques, form and evolution very well.
And if you have children. Then some of the anthologies that I absolutely enjoy reading out aloud to my daughter are The Rattle Bag edited by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes; The Puffin Book of Nonsense Verse selected and illustrated by Quentin Blake; The Puffin Book of Modern Children’s Verse edited by Brian Patten, illustrated by Michael Foreman (revised and updated); The Macmillan Treasury of Poetry for Children with a foreword by Charles Causley 
and A first poetry book selected by Pie Corbett and Gaby Morgan (published by Macmillan). As Charles Causley who used to be a school teacher till one day he discovered the joys of reading poetry to his students says, “A poet, of course, is not obliged to make a poem, whatever its form, entirely accessible at a first reading. A poem, by its nature, may hold certain qualities in reserve. It may not burn itself out, so to speak, in one brilliant flash of light. A poem is a living organism, capable of continuous development and the most subtle of changes. It may contain both a revelation and a mystery. We need to be aware not only of what is said, but of what the poet most carefully has left unsaid.” Pie Corbett says it aptly “Let the poems become shafts of sunlight to brighten up the day.” 
An article published in Asian Age , 9 Sept 2012
Bookmark Bollywood
September 9, 2012 By Jaya Bhattacharji Rose
Tags: Bollywood publications
Over the years fascinating behind-the-scenes documentaries about cinema have been made yet little literature has been published. Even veterans like Oscar-winner costume designer Bhanu Athaiya and choreographer Shiamak Davar have focused on their professions; only recently have they opted to write biographies. Or Kareena Kapoor’s forthcoming style diary of a “Bollywood diva” where she will give a peek into her life and reveal her beauty secrets. By comparison a relatively new entrant to films award-winning actress Tisca Chopra has taken the plunge to write a book that aims to demystify Bollywood from the perspective of an actor/model — with its many stories, anecdotes and first-hand experiences. All of which begs to ask the question — why are so many books being published on Indian cinema now?
Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, India’s first full-length film, was released in May 1913, so 2012 is being celebrated as Indian cinema’s centenary. In fact the theme for the World Book Fair, Feb 2012 organised by National Book Trust was Indian Cinema.
Udayan Mitra, Publisher, Allen Lane, Penguin Books India says, “There is more interest now than ever before in reading about the world of cinema — the making of films, celebrity lives, the reception of movies. This indicates a readership that is more clued in than ever, and curious about cultural productions.”
This statement is corroborated by Jerry Pinto, author of Helen, the life and times of an H-Bomb, “There is a new interest in Bollywood because we are now a nation that can be confident of our own cultural products. It takes self-confidence to be able to declare oneself for kitsch. To say that one appreciates kitsch, one must believe that others see us as having good taste and so we are capable of appreciating that which lacks good taste but with such bravura that it attains to the status of kitsch. This is what is happening to Bollywood right now; you can see it in films like Om Shanti Om, Action Replayy, Luck by Chance. And this has translated into an awareness of the possibilities of publishing.”
Some of the forthcoming books focused upon the industry are HarperCollins’ list of film monologues. It consists of commentaries, analysis, reading of the film subtext and the making of the film. Forthcoming are Amar Akbar Anthony by Sidharth Bhatia, Pakeezah by Meghnad Desai, Mughal-e-Azam by Anil Zankar, and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak by Gautam Chintamani. Other titles are a biography of S.D. Burman by Sathya Saran and of Sahir Ludhianvi by Akshay Manwani, plus A Southern View: Cinema of the South edited by M.K. Raghavendra.
According to Pradipta Sarkar, Commissioning Editor, Rupa, “Cashing in upon the success of superstar Rajinikanth’s 2010 film Enthiran/Robot that broke box-office records of all kinds and all notions of regional/ linguistic barriers led us to publish this year Rajini’s Punchtantra: Business and Life Management the Rajinikanth Way by P.C. Balasubramanian and Raja Krishnamoorthy — a unique self-help book and management guide that uses the superstar’s legendary punchlines as mantras for work as well as life.”
Penguin Books India is slated to publish the definitive biography of Rajinikanth by Naman Ramachandran; Conversations with Mani Ratnam by Baradwaj Rangan; Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Puokootty’s autobiography Sounding Off and a cinema diary for the year 2013 called A Sideways Glance at Hindi Cinema by Nasreen Munni Kabir.
Neeta Gupta, Publisher, Yatra Books, who recently announced a co-publishing agreement with Westland Books says, “I think Bollywood has been ignored for the longest time — and we as publishers are now in the process of addressing this lacuna. I found that there is a huge demand for books on musicians, lyricists and singers. We are now working on a biography of Mohammad Rafi (My Abba — A Memoir by Yasmin Khalid Rafi).”
Om Books has published film journalist Anna M.M. Vetticad’s Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic, a humorous look at the dynamics that drives the essential and fringe Bollywood; to be followed by Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema edited by Ziya Us Salam on cinema of the Fifties and the Sixties; Shammi Kapoor: The Untold Tale by Rauf Ahmed; and Anupama Chopra and Tula Goenka’s books on interactions with Indian directors, actors, with analytical pieces as well.
It is probably a coincidence that in 2012 publishing houses are suddenly producing several fascinating books on the industry. In fact R.D. Burman: The Man, The Music by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal won the National Award for Best Book on Cinema, 2011.
For a while now there have been books on Indian cinema across genres — biographies, memoirs, screenplays and academic commentaries. For instance, Om Puri: Unlikely Hero (which caused a few ripples with its scandalous revelations); Shaukat Kaifi’s memoir Kaifi and I; Dadasaheb Phalke: The Father of Indian Cinema by Bapu Vatave; Guru Dutt, A Life in Cinema by Nasreen Munni Kabir. Publishers, authors and film journalists are of the opinion that the centenary celebrations gave a boost to the number of books being produced on Indian cinema. But the readership for this niche market has been growing steadily. A strong indicator of this has been the establishment by Om Book Shop of India’s first exclusive cinema book store at PVR Director’s Cut, Delhi. According to Dipa Chaudhuri, Managing Editor, Om Books, “The constituency of readers interested in cinema titles is definitely on the rise, a sign that cinema is here to stay on a publisher’s list.”
Rachel Dwyer, Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema at SOAS, University of London feels that the centenary may be the immediate reason for a number of books appearing on Indian cinema but this has been increasing over the last decade. “I think publishing houses are looking for them because they sell well — or at least the biographies do — and also because I think they’re looking for a big book on Indian cinema — although no one seems to know what that would be.”
London-based documentary filmmaker and author of 12 books on Indian cinema, Nasreen Munni Kabir sums it up well when she tracks the recent history of publications on Indian cinema. She recounts, “When I first wrote a book on Guru Dutt in 1996, there were very few books in English on popular cinema, and this situation was largely unchanged till the early 2000s. I think the middle classes’ revived interest in Hindi cinema really took off by the mid-90s, perhaps with the popularity of the Khans, the middle-class youth found Hindi film ‘cool’. And it is most likely that this section of the audience would be the ones buying and reading English language books, so it was natural that a spate of publications on the subject would follow. Universities all around the world, including in India, also started courses on Indian film, so the demand for publications of film books grew. Today film celebrities wield a tremendous power, so learning more about stars and films has intensified.”
The writer is an international publishing consultant and columnist
