Regional gems

Take a peek into a medley of literary styles translated from regional literature

BY CHITRA SUDARSHAN

It is a great pity that most Indians seldom get to read works of fiction written in India’s many languages, simply because adequate translations are not available in English or Hindi for those books to reach a wider readership. As a result, several great books remain virtually unknown outside the languages in which they are written.

Fortunately, two recent translations of Tamil works came to this reviewer’s attention. One is Perumal Murugan’s Seasons of the Palm, translated by V Geetha in 2005 and which was later shortlisted for the Kiriama Prize. The other is a delightful translation titled Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction by Pritham Chakravarthy. Popular fiction in India largely comes out in regional languages, and most of us (even in India) remain blissfully unaware of the rich pickings available in them. This delightful and polished collection of short stories by 10 of the best selling Tamil writers “make Stephen King and Barbara Cartland look like amateurs,” says Mukul Kesavan. He is not wrong. Tamils and Malayalis are great readers compared to most other communities, and devour newspapers, magazines and perhaps pulp fiction too, by the millions. For several years the Tamil weekly Kumudam and Malayalam Manorama in Malayalam outsold all other