“An urgent yet protests against the destructive impact of borders, whether between religions, countries or genders.”
- The International Booker Prize
Geetanjali Shree is a New Delhi-based Indian author who writes in Hindi. She adopted her mother’s first name ‘Shree’ as her last name. She has been writing in Hindi Sahitya since 1987. Furthermore, she is the author of five novels and several collections of short stories. Her work Mai has been translated into various languages, with Nita Kumar's English translation winning the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize.
Her latest work ‘रेत समाधि’ which is translated as ‘Tomb of Sand’ by Daisy Rockwell: U.S based translator has won The International Booker Prize. This is great news for India and Indian writers especially, the writers who write in regional languages of India, that any literary work has the ability to move the readers across the globe.
एक कहानी अपने आपको कहेगी, मुकम्मल कहानी होगी और अधुरी भी, जैसा कहानीओ का चलन है। दिलचस्प कहानी है, उसमें सरहद है और औरतें, जो आती है जाती है, आर-पार। औरत और सरहद का साथ हो तो खुदबखुद कहानी बन जाती है, बल्कि औरत भर भी कहानी है ।
-रेत समाधि
The lines above are the first lines of the novel समाधि which suggests the novel premise of the novel. Tomb of Sand is a story of an 80-year-old woman suffers from deep depression after her husband's death and resurfaces to begin a new life in northern India. Her determination to go against her customs confuses her unconventional daughter who is accustomed to thinking of herself as too much "modern". To the disappointment of her family, Ma insists on traveling to Pakistan and dealing with the unresolved trauma of her teenage partition experience. The old lady wants to relive the history and partition. Despite its serious subject, the light touch and abundant wordplay of Geetanjali Shree ensure that the sand tomb is always playful and completely original. Shree has written a protest against the destructive impact of borders. Here, she discusses the importance of a global worldview in literature.
"Behind me and this book lies a rich and flourishing literary tradition in Hindi, and in other South Asian languages. World literature will be the richer for knowing some of the finest writers in these languages,"
- She said that in her acceptance speech receiving the award.
We at Atmiya University, Rajkot are acknowledging this tremendous effort of this creative writer who has put India and Indian stories on the world surface. We congratulate Geetanjali Shree on winning the prestigious title and making Indian proud. Now there is hope that the stories written by regional Indian writers would go in the world and may change the perception of India in more positive ways and the world would take a turn to read Indian Literature in regional languages also.
The writer Mr. Pankaj Shingrakhiya is an Assistant Professor, in the Department of English at the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, Atmiya University, Rajkot.
1- Image Courtesy- naiduniya; 2-Image Courtesy- Dawn; 3-Image Courtesy- current affairs Adda 247