For the past two years, a scuffed floor-level desk has been the workspace for retired headmistress Saroj Nagarajan at her residence in the Sundar Nagar suburb of Tiruchi. This humble piece of furniture has seen her write out six versions of the manuscript, in longhand, of what finally was published this week as the Tamil translation of Srirangam … Bhooloka Vaikuntam , a glossy coffee table book by local architect, mountaineer and photography enthusiast J Ramanan and his wife, Bharathanatyam exponent Vrinda.
At first, Saroj was a little nonplussed by when asked to translate the massive tome, which documents the religious significance and architectural heritage of Srirangam and its iconic Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple through photographs and literary contributions by Vrinda Ramanan, and scholars Dr Prema Nandakumar and Dr Chitra Madhavan. “I felt a little overwhelmed by the responsibility of bringing such a heavy subject to the lay reader in Tamil,” says Saroj. “It took me about a month to get into the flow, and start translating in earnest.”
Arts appreciation
Born on January 1, 1947 as the eldest of nine children in Ettyapuram, Tuticorin District, Saroj grew up in an atmosphere where literature and arts were a shared passion. “With Ettayapuram being the birthplace of poet Subramania Bharathi, it used to feel as if the air was filled with literary appreciation,” says Saroj.
“We used to celebrate Bharathiyar’s birth anniversary twice in a year and all our weekends were spent reading books in his memorial library.”
Deeply impressed by the work of the Tamil poet, Saroj started participating in elocution competitions by the age of 12, and in a few years, started writing on different subjects for the vernacular press. “My parents were very progressive, and encouraged all of us to follow our dreams. My father, Dr R Srinivasan, often used to tell us, madhil kaaval alla, manam kaaval (it’s not the wall, but your mind that protects you). It is a thought that has kept me inspired to this day,” says Saroj.
Among her cherished memories is meeting former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at her official residence in New Delhi after winning an essay-writing competition organised by the Tamil Nadu Government to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s centenary in 1970.
“I was doing my Bachelors in Education (BEd)at the time; we were all awestruck to see Mrs. Gandhi, and then also attend the Republic Day parade and visit the Raj Ghat, where I sang Bharatiyar’s ‘Kaani Nilam Vendum’ at the prayer ceremony,” says Saroj.
Working on accuracy
While her career as a teacher took off, creative writing remained in the background. Srirangam … Bhooloka Vaikuntam is the septuagenarian’s first published translation, and what makes her achievement more special is the fact that she has achieved it all without the help of computers.
“My right eye was damaged in a traffic accident in the 1980s, and since then I have been managing with sight only in my left eye.
The light of the computer screen doesn’t agree with me, so I never bothered to learn how to use it,” says Saroj.
Eager to bring out all the nuances of the English text into the Tamil version, Saroj says she read up at least 30 additional sources on the historic temple and the town. “I am grateful to the authors and my sister-in-law for sharing their reading materials with me. I have been thumbing through books and pamphlets to set the right tone for this volume.”
Looking for verbal authenticity, she tapped into dialects and usage common to certain communities so that nothing would be lost in translation. “I studied the Vaishnavite texts and their lingo, and also the Seerah Puranam (the biography of Prophet Muhammad in Tamil written by Ettayapuram-born poet Umaru Pulavar). I was amazed by the richness of Tamil even as I did the translation,” says Saroj.
Proficiency in more than one language is an essential skill for translators, she says. “If the translator doesn’t understand the original text, the quality of its translation will definitely suffer.”
Srirangam … Bhooloka Vaikuntam came together with weekly sessions with the authors where edits would be discussed.
Music lover
A lover of Carnatic music and an occasional performer (she is a certified B-Grade artiste at All India Radio, Tiruchi), Saroj lets off steam from lengthy writing sessions with a little bit of singing.
Her teaching career has taken her to private educational institutions in Sivakasi and Thiruppuraithurai, and from 1981, the Central government-run Kendriya Vidyalaya schools in Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu. She retired as a headmistress in 2005. She credits her husband, S Nagarajan, retired assistant foreman at the Ordnance Factory Tiruchi (OFT), and her in-laws, for helping her pursue her love for the arts.
“Growing up in newly-independent India, I feel young women in those days had more opportunities. But more importantly, they were safe in public places. This is missing now,” she says.
