“At this time of ‘Operation Sindoor’ of conflict, we also have ‘Operation Saree’ of bonding…”

This 2025 year of our Lord, a Kannadiga writer Banu Mushtaq of Hassan, Karnataka, has won the coveted International Booker Prize for her book ‘Heart Lamp.’ The whole world loves the winner. Congratulating her many times over. She has become the literary celebrity of the English-speaking world. And the pride of Karnataka.

‘Heart Lamp’ is a Kannada book of 12 short stories. It is translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, a daughter of Kodagu, Karnataka. She too has become a celebrity and  is much acclaimed as a translator.

This Prize is awarded by the Booker Prize Foundation, UK, annually to honour the best translated work of fiction into English language from any language. For this reason, the award amount (50,000 British Pounds) is shared equally between the author and the translator. So here is my congratulations to Deepa Bhasthi too.

Banu Mushtaq, 77, (born 3rd April 1948) is a prolific writer, social activist, a lawyer and perceived to be a person who is ideologically left of centre. She herself is an acknowledged translator, her major translated work, along with B. Jayacharya, from Persian to Kannada, is a 18-Volume book, ‘Tarikh-e-Farishta,’ about the Adil Shahi Sultanate of Bijapur (now Vijayapura district).

When I first heard of the news about this translated work winning the award, I thought of James Boswell, famous for his biography of  Samuel Johnson — ‘Life of Samuel Johnson.’

Samuel Johnson was the author of Johnson’s English Dictionary, the first one of its kind — “A Dictionary for the English Language.” However, he became known all over the English-speaking world only after James Boswell wrote his biography, considered a literary classic. It is said, but for James Boswell writing the biography with great literary flourish and scholarship, Samuel Johnson would not have become famous at all.

Reading the news of Booker Prize I said to myself: Ah! Here in Deepa Bhasthi, Banu Mushtaq has found her Boswell. Such serendipitous events happen in people’s life that make them unexpectedly, suddenly famous and known to the world. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa came to be known world over only after the famous French author Romain Rolland wrote his biography. Let it be.

Comparing the biography by James Boswell to this translated book might be odious here as it is not compatible. However, the reality here is the fact that but for Deepa Bhasthi translating Banu Mushtaq’s stories into English in a competent manner, to the level of winning a prize, this book would not have won the award at all.

Remember, Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa, a towering name in Kannada literature, one of the most productive writers in Kannada, whose books are translated into many Indian languages, also got translated into English. So also Dr. U.R. Ananthamurthy’s. They could not get the award — either this or any other. Therefore, one extra hurrah to Deepa Bhasthi who made possible what seemed impossible for Kannada.

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