Articles and Reviews

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Bara Andre Ellarigu Ishta, translated by G.N. Mohan


   G. N. Mohan, tr. Bara Andre Ellarigu Ishta 
Bengaluru: Abhinava, 2012                    pp. 504; price: 350/-
               “yahan admi aur bail me kya pharak hai?”

     People like Medha Patkar, Baba Amte, and Teesta Setalvad  are very different from others –because they choose to tread a ‘path not taken’ by the ‘brightest and the best.’   Palagummi Sainath is one such in the field of journalism: he gave up his prestigious jobs in such periodicals as The Daily and  Blitz, got a Times fellowship, and, during 1993-94, toured  two of the poorest districts  in each of the five  states: Orissa, Bihar,  Madhya Pradesh, Uttara Pradesh, and Tamilnadu.  During this challenging tour lasting 15 months and, roughly, 80,000 km,  he filed a series of reports based on his experience, published in the Times of India.  Later, he undertook another trip to some of those and other districts in order to write a book based on those reports; and the book, Everybody Loves a Good Drought, was published by Penguin Books in 2000.  Immediately,  it became a best-seller and got translated into many other languages.   G. N. Mohan, another committed journalist and Sainath’s friend, has ably translated this book into Kannada.

Bhargavi Narayan -Naanu, Bhargavi


Bhargavi Narayan,   Naanu,  Bhargavi
Ankita Pustaka, 2012                 pp. 415; price: Rs. 250/-
               “Poignant Tale of a Gutsy  Artist”

       What is it that drives one to the stage and don the role of some one else
for a brief period,  against all odds?   Money? –there isn’t any in the Kannada theatre; fame? –very short-lived; inner urge to be somebody else?  Such questions  haunt one while  going through the autobiographies of  theatre-persons—like   CGK , BVK,   Prema Karanth, and others.  The most recent one in this illustrious group is the autobiography of  Bhargavi Narayan – the famous stage-film-TV artist.