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To desis, with love

The professor’s tale Ira Pande with Pushpesh Pant at the launch

Fostering someone else’s child” is how Ira Pande, chief editor, IIC Publications, describes the translation of literary works. At the launch of Manohar Shyam Joshi’s “T’ta Professor” translated into English by her and published by Penguin Books India, Pande was confident readers would relive the magic of the modern classic.

The decision to translate “T’ta Professor” was made because of its manageable size. Also, keeping the Kumaoni spirit alive, it is an outstanding piece of Indian literature. Pande said the difficulty she faced during these six dedicated months of “fostering”, was translating oral traditions. “I have kept the words of local Kumaoni as it is to maintain the momentum. Plus, they are so loaded and have a music of their own that readers will enjoy it.”

Remembering Joshi (who won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005 for his novel “Kyaap”) as one of the great post-modernist writers with an ability to change tracks (from fun to bleakness) and keeping alive every single strand so poignantly, Pande unwrapped the book along with Manohar Shyam Joshi and Pushpesh Pant.

The conversation that followed between Pande and Pant largely revolved around Kumaoni writers and their works, with Pande expressing her pride and love for the region and commitment to translate Kumaoni writers. She talked at length of the rich heritage, tradition of story telling, gappi nature, desire to communicate and cultivated eccentricity of the pahadis. “A cocktail is created due to a feeling of superiority and equal shame for not being sophisticated like the desis (people of the plains) in the minds of people of the region that is difficult to sustain and reflects through literary works,” added Pande.

Professor Pushpesh Pant who considers Joshi as his mentor was a companion during the times Humlog was being written. He mentioned the varying contributions by Barthwal, Sumitra Nandan, Namita Gokhle, Shailesh Matyani making it all the more complex to draw lines in the contributions to pahadi literature. “T’ta Professor”, which Khushwant Singh found disturbing and hilarious, is the story of a school teacher, an admirer of the English tradition. The character T’ta Professor is explored by the narrator in the novel. This “biting satire” on a professor who never finishes his stories is simultaneously crude, stylish and complex. And it’s now available for a wider audience.

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