By Matters India Reporter
Darjeeling, Nov. 15, 2018: A hill college in Darjeeling has started the translation of short stories written by Indra Bahadur Rai, father of Indian Nepali language who died in March.
The 3-day translation workshop is christened “Indra Bahadur Rai and Translation: Taking Indra Bahadur Rai Beyond Nepali.”
The November 15-17 workshop was organised by the Translation Centre of Salesian College Sonada and Siliguri.
Explaining the reason for this effort, college principal Salesian Father George Thadathil said, “We, as an educational institution would like to offer Rai’s literary legacy beyond the hills.”
Divided into eight groups of three each, the students, faculty and translators translated eight short stories of Rai into English, Bengali as well as one story into Mizo language.
Luminaries present at the inaugural session included chief resource person Salesian College alumnus (1972 batch) A J Thomas, an Indian poet writing in English and acclaimed translator of poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction prose from his mother tongue Malayalam, the language of Kerala.
He is also editor of Indian Literature, the 200-page bimonthly English journal of Sahitya Akademi, (The National Academy of Letters, India).
Other literary figures included Sujata Rani Rai, head of the department of Nepali language of Government College Darjeeling, and Uday Gorkha Subba veteran litterateur of the hills former Principal of Shantirani High School and president of Sonada Sahitya Sanstha.
Born in the Balasun valley of parents hailing from Eastern Nepal Rai was one of the most prominent writers in the Nepali language. He was the author of 13 books—apart from the novel Aaja Ramita Chha—spanning the genres of short fiction, memoir, literary criticism and drama.
He is credited with introducing fresh modernist aesthetics of the ‘Tesro Aayam’ (third dimension), as theory and in practice to Nepali literature, and also played a major role in having the Nepali language officially recognized by the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, in 1992.
Rai is also the recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Jagadamba Shree Puraskar and the Agam Singh Giri Smriti Puraskar.