Bonjour, new guests from small-town India
Puneet Dhawan of Accor is brimming with ideas on ways to revive the hospitality sector
Girish Karnad's memoir, which was to be translated from Kannada into English by the actor-playwright himself but could only finish a part of it before his death in 2019, will now be out in May after final touches by award-winning translator Srinath Perur.
"This Life at Play: A Memoir by Girish Karnad" will be released on the director's 83rd birth anniversary on May 19 by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Karnad, considered one of modern India's greatest cultural figures, first published his memoir in Kannada in 2011.
Covering the first half of his remarkable life, from growing up in Dharwad and engaging with local theatre, to his education in Mumbai and as a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, his career as a publisher, his successes and travails in the film industry, and his personal and writerly life, Karnad's inimitable voice shines through it all.
The no-holds-barred account provides a glimpse into the life-shaping experiences of this towering figure on India's cultural scene, and a unique window into the India in which he lived and worked.
"Our father lived through every decade of independent India - his writing and thinking were a mirror of the life of the country, and especially its arts," say his children Radha and Raghu.
"As we told him all the time, in the later years, his career had to culminate in a memoir reflecting on that journey, and here are those reflections - brought into English in part by Appa himself, and in part by the exceptionally skilful writer and translator Srinath Perur, who was our father's own preference to complete the work," they say.
According to Perur, Karnad usually translated his own writing.
"He had started work on the English translation of his memoirs, but his health did not allow him to give it the time it required, and he called me to ask if I could help him with it. I had not read the Kannada book at the time, but I knew it had been well received by readers, and I knew it had generated some excitement in the media," he says.
"When I mentioned this to Girish, he said, 'Yes, that is because I say the things that others don't say.' That honesty and plain-spokenness, qualities he was known for in his public life, also run through his book," he says.
HarperCollins India Publisher (Literary) Udayan Mitra terms "This Life at Play" an extraordinary account of an extraordinary life - the life of a pioneer and luminary of the literary and cultural world who shaped many of our contemporary perspectives on theatre, film, literature and society, and whose impact will be felt for decades to come.
Puneet Dhawan of Accor is brimming with ideas on ways to revive the hospitality sector
Citroen’s first vehicle sports a novel design and European interiors. It is also meant to be as comfortable as ...
The pandemic is only the tip of the iceberg that the country’s cash-poor airlines — both regional and national ...
The government is yet to specify the framework of its recently announced old vehicle scrappage policy
With initial public offerings galore, we give you a cheat sheet to score some good grades
Biggest risk in selling funds in a rising scenario is exiting early and missing out on further gains
Go for a standard vector-borne diseases policy if you don’t have a regular health plan
No credit risk is an attraction, but note the nuances
After facing severe droughts for several years, farmers in western Maharashtra have turned the corner through ...
A toast to a traditional drip irrigation system still going strong in the Northeast
Raza Mir’s ‘Murder at the Mushaira’ works well as a historical novel that captures the sunset years of the ...
If you see garbage lying on the streets, remove it, says a dedicated plogger on a clean-up drive
Its name is the starting point of a brand’s journey and can make a big difference in the success sweepstakes
Sober spirits are the in thing
A peek into where ad spends went last year and where they are headed tomorrow
Can Swiggy Instamart disrupt the ecommerce groceries space, currently ruled by the Amazons and Big Baskets? ...
Three years after its inception, compliance with GST procedures remains a headache for exporters, job workers ...
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of companies are altering the prospects for wooden toys of ...
Aequs Aerospace to create space for large-scale manufacture of toys at Koppal
And it has every reason to smile. Covid-19 has triggered a consumer shift towards branded products as ...
Please Email the Editor