Indian literature is rich and a virtual treasure trove of stories, plays and poems yet the fact is that it is known very less beyond its place of origin. The impediment is lack of translation of these works in English as well as vernacular to enable them reach a wider reader base.
Keeping this in mind LotusFeet Book Publication P. Ltd was recently launched in the Capital amidst great fanfare. According to Prabal Kumar Basu, its mentor, “The abundant high quality Indian literature of past and present is either getting lost or remaining confined to the area and people using the language. LotusFeet wants to break this by selecting quality manuscripts for translation. Besides original works too will be commissioned to promote talent.” He went on to add that emphasis will on content rather than the celebrity status of author or poet. “The aim is to showcase the best.”
Basu agrees that in numerous instances translations do not do justice to the original content. As to how will LotusFeet will take care of this, he says, “Translation is akin to receiving a parcel sent from far off distance with all the contents intact. My benchmark for a good translation is that emotions, nuances and essence of the content must remain intact.”
Initial line-up
The initial line-up planned by the publishing house this year includes the English translation of Bimal Lama’s well known Bangla novel “Rushika” which is about lives and times of aboriginal people and a original Hindi fiction by Geet Chaturvedi, the avant grade novelist and poet. A collection of five long stories by contemporary Hindi writers — Kiran Singh, Akanksha Pare, Manisha Kulshreshtha, Vivek Mishra and Ajay Naavria — too has been commissioned. Besides, these Basu will be editing an anthology of Bangla poems translated in English. “It will have around 250 poems by 60 well and lesser known poets from the period 1952 to 2010.”
Stating that in the beginning the focus will be on English, Hindi and Bangla, Amrita Bera, Managing Editor, informs “We want to take small but sure steps to achieve our objective instead of rushing head-on. In the coming years, we will include fiction, non-fiction and poetry from other Indian languages. We definitely want to tap Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Odisha literature.” Explaining the rationale, Basu adds, “English will give us access to local, European and the UK markets as we have an associate company in England; Hindi will provide a wide reach and Bangla enables catering to the immediate market in Bangladesh.”
With online shopping of books growing rapidly, LotusFeet intends to tap Amazon and Flipkart. “We will also make available Kindle version of the books,” informs Bera.
