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Tharoor: quality of translations a major issue

KOCHI: The beauty of being an Indian is being many things and one thing at the same time, said Shashi Tharoor, former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. He was speaking at the 4th DC International Book Fair and Cultural Fest in Kochi on Monday.

Quality of translations had been a major issue. Except for writers like O.V. Vijayan, who could translate their works to English, there are not many translators who can bring out the charm of the original in the translated language, Mr. Tharoor said.

The Malayalam translation of his work Bookless in Baghdad was released at the function. Linguist and translator R.E. Asher handed over the first copy to literary critic M.K. Sanoo.

In his address to celebrate the birth centenary of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, whose works he had translated to English, Dr. Asher said all of Basheer’s works easily passed the test for assigning classical nature to a literary work – that of being able to be read repeatedly.

K.V. Thomas, MLA, children of Basheer, Shahina and Anees, and Ravi DC of DC Books spoke.

Mr. Tharoor also participated in a reading session organised by DC Books. He read out a chapter from his latest work The Elephant, The Tiger and The Cell Phone.

Later, interacting with the audience, Mr. Tharoor said that the four decades of socialist rule in the country resulted out of a profound misreading of history and that stagnated development. Over these years, India had acquired many bad and vested habits, which will take quite some time to undo, Mr. Tharoor said.

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