Works of mother tongue, Basheer soon in Kashmiri language

KOCHI: Professor Zaman Azurdah knows very well the perils of translating regional literature from English and then to one's own mother tongue. He recounts and interesting anecdote wherein a Hindi writer mistook a line "he was shot in the temple" and wrote it as "Usko mandir mey goli mari gayi".
Professor Azurdah and his team of scholars are likely to face similar challenges as they begin translating the works of famous Malayalam authors.A team of seven translators have been travelling around Kerala to get a feel of the rich and composite culture of the state, before they sit down to translate works of major writers like Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Karoor Neelakanta Pillai and MT Vasudevan Nair into Kashmiri.
"We have already translated 18 short stories and we could feel the pulse of a vibrant culture and its underpinnings," says Azurdah who is part of a Kendra Sahitya Akademi project, which has been undertaking the work of translating vernacular literature into other regional languages as well.
While translating, the scholars realised that many rural games like Vattukali were also played even in Kashimir and there are many common aspects of cultural moorings among both the states. "For instance, we could connect to the works of Punathil Kunjabdulla as he had deftly woven his work within the framework of Muslim society. Though we could see lot of external differences, the fact that the people were preaching one thing and yet practising another thing seemed uncannily similar in both the states," he says.
Kashmir, they say, has always been a fountainhead of multiculturalism, but today, politicians have destroyed the state. "People have stopped thinking and they are being used by communal forces," says writer Imayat Gull. He says when every protests in Kashmir is branded as anti-national, it sets a dangerous precedent. "Kashmir has become a saleable commodity for our politicians," he says. Azurdah says literature is a great way to understand the strivings, hope and dreams of other cultures and that is one reason that the team has been persisting to give people in Kashmir an access to the works of literary giants of Malayalam literature.
Kashmiri Muslims have been grossly misrepresented in many ways in the media, to indicate that they, on the whole, do not like India, Azurdah says. "We love India and its cosmopolitan culture but it is unfortunate that politicians have to go harping on the fact that Kashmir is an integral part of India every now and then," he adds.
Writer C Radhakrishanan, the resource person for the project, said philosopher and author S Radhakrishanan had said that Indian literature is one though it is written in many languages, in the sense they share the same ethos.