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Magazine
FACE TO FACE
A good partnership
MITA KAPUR
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She writes in English but is into publishing in Indian languages. Meet author and publisher Namita Gokhale.
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Photo: Sandeep Saxena
Many voices: Namita Gokhale.
“I was thrown out of college when I was 18, because I wanted to study Modern Indian Literature as an alternative to Chaucer,” she said. “I love the way words rest on paper, what they become…”
The journey to Yatra began then. Maybe if Namita Gokhale had finished her graduation, we wouldn’t have had Paro: Dreams of Passion and Shakuntala: The Play of Memory.
“I’ve always been as much a publisher as a writer. I’ve loved reading and reacting in Hindi, despite my convent status. I resented the way Hindi was being marginalised.” Namita worked with Super, a film magazine in the 1970s and Super Sitara in Hindi. The seeds of publishing were sown before she wrote Paro. The writer and publisher interface emerged with Namita and Neeta Gupta beginning their yatra into the world of language publishing.
Shared vision
To combine a writer’s life with plots and characters with the nitty-gritty of publishing is easy since “we have a good partnership, like a marriage based on trust. Neeta Gupta, my partner, is a formidable multi-tasker with a deep background in translations. It’s a shared vision; we have the same sort of instincts and a wonderful partner in Penguin. Ravi Singh and Mike Bryan understand our vision and give us support and direction.”
Yatra Books is into translations because they are convinced that, despite being completely cosmopolitan in their outlook, some Indian readers are more comfortable reading in their mother tongue be it Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi or Assamese. It recognises the need to seriously address the needs of this growing population of young, urban, elite readers who are adventurous and globally sensitised. In the last two years, they have published more than 100 titles in Hindi, Urdu and Marathi. They aim to work on translating Indian literature into French, German and Spanish.
Instinctive choice
Namita trusts her instincts to choose a book which she feels will work. “It’s intuition and an understanding of the market for it. I sense who is a real writer and who is not. I read, take advice but, in the end, it’s gut instinct.”
Neeta Gupta joined us as we chatted in Namita’s cosy study, with the winter sun’s rays prying gently through the window. She said, “We are trying to discount Sanskritised Hindi promoted by hardcore bhasha followers. We tell our writers and translators not to shove in difficult words that sound pompous unless it’s a text that demands classical Hindi like Shakuntala. We used Bombaiya Hindi in Shobhaa’s Spouse. We want to throw away that baggage of having a rigid vocabulary, the Raj Bhasha angle and its tediousness has to go.”
Namita added, “Languages are evolving, whether through Bollywood, advertising or even our daily speech. They have a vibrancy of their own; we have to let them go where they want to. Like Indian English is already accepted as a language, it has also developed its own dialects.”
There is a refreshing buzz around the Indian publishing scenario but are we making headway with our marketing and distribution of books?
“We are just average to competent in distribution. For marketing, the book jacket has to make the reader want to pick it up. The potential of Hindi readers is much larger than we imagine. The key to distribution is through promotion. We lose out because books are being marketed in traditional ways. There are other points of sale, the second level of distribution and promotion but no one is looking outside towards the opportunities that exist.”
Publishing in India
At the Frankfurt Book Fair, India’s presence as a publisher’s resource was evident. “I loved the buzz,” said Namita. The Frankfurt Book Fair group is having a seminar in Delhi in early 2008, “showing that they are finding their feet in India. They recognise that India is a huge resource centre for publishing. We should be looking at creating a similar fair for South East Asian countries.”
With all this publishing talk, I wonder how Namita copes with being a writer in English and taking a vital stand for Indian languages. “I love English, it’s hugely sympathetic and flexible. It borrows, steals, absorbs, incorporates without too much soul searching. Yet, I want to follow the beat of the drum, which is moving Hindi to becoming a world language. We need to style it and support it with relevant infrastructure.”
Why a Mahabharata for young adults? “It’s the greatest story ever told. We have to transmit our traditions rather than merely run after second hand internationalism and consumerist globalisation. Why pretend to be what other people are? Even for children, it’s important to know stories that have been told for over 4000 years.”
Talking our way through translations and the future of Indian publishing, I saw once again, a little girl with a perky sense of humour peep out of her grandma spectacles. There is a search going on, which she herself can’t lay a finger on… finding herself in translation
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