Sharjah :
Indian writer Geetanjali Shree, whose Hindi-language novel Ret Samadhi –
translated into English as Tomb of Sand by Daisy Rockwell – won the International
Booker Prize this year, discussed her writing process and the art of translation with
a multicultural audience at the 41st Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF).
Shree, whose Tomb of Sand is the first book originally written in an Indian
language to win the Booker, spoke about the world’s most prestigious fiction
writing prize, the process of inhabiting and fleshing out different characters, and
the art of translating work to today’s multicultural readers.
Ret Samadhi is about an 80-year-old woman who sets out on a journey of self-
discovery after the death of her husband, and is set partly during the 1947 Partition
of India.
Speaking to the SIBF audience, Shree said: “Winning the Booker changes
something, yet it has changed nothing. The Prize didn’t make me a writer, I have
been one for many years. The Booker or any recognition is a wonderful moment of
elation and encouragement for any writer. But I am a writer who is still going to
write, with or without a Booker.”
The 65-year-old writer says Ret Samadhi was 8 or 9 years in the making. “To quote
another writer, ‘I don’t go chasing the poem, I place myself in that position and
situation where the poem will find me’. The stories are all around us and they are
there within us.”
In the case of Ret Samadhi, what worked as a trigger was a very ordinary image of
an elderly person who had just lost her husband and no longer had any interest in
life, she added.
“Writers and their characters are shaping each other. Like sarod maestro Ali Akbar
Khan said, ‘When I start, I play the sarod, but after some time, the sarod plays me”.
That’s how it is with the writing process,” said the Booker winner.
Discussing her seminal book’s translation into different languages, and the
challenges of capturing its nuances in those languages, Shree said: “Language has
no borders and it is not rigid. If anyone says this is how things have to be done,
they are wrong. Creative writers reinvigorate language with new usages and
coinages. People bring in their own flavours from all over the world – that is what
makes language richer and it is one of the most miraculous things.”
Geetanjali Shree has begun work on her new book. “At the moment, I’m still the
‘Booker baby’. But I will go back and pick it up again,” she said.
The author would also love to see her prize-winning work translated into Arabic,
she told the SIBF audience. “The Arab world is vast, and I’m lucky to have the
chance to interact with Arabic speakers here in Sharjah, so I would love for the
book to be read in the language and receive more feedback.”