Not Flowers of Henna

The Hindu, Literary Review

(Sunday, 1 April, 2007)

TWO months after his death, Katha has come out with a translation of 15 short stories penned by Kamleshwar in a literary career that began in 1946. Though the collection has been in the making for sometime now, it was hastened after his death in January this year.

All fresh translations by Jai Ratan, the collection is testimony to Kalmeshwar's belief that "life is not made up of a sequence of big catastrophes, but is woven out of the warp and woof of small everyday experiences". And, in each experience lies a story — be it as a signboard painter, night watchman, and scriptwriter for All India Radio or editor of a literary magazine. Only it requires a good narrator.

With 200 short stories, 10 novels, several film scripts including "Aandhi", "Mausam" and "Mr. Natwarlal", besides reams of editorial writing to his name, this collection is only representative of the corpus of work written by Kamleshwar.

For further details, go here.

To order your copy, write to us.

Sleepwalkers

A story of migration, oblivion and strange forgetfulness, Sleepwalkers is a moving tale of shifting identities and locales. Revolving around the two cities, Lucknow and Karachi, it depicts the predicament and misery of post-Partition refugees, uprooted from their homeland.

This is Lucknow ...tilting their caps in the Lucknavi style, several street converge upon the square ... the mohajirs had transported an entire city within the folds of their hearts ... Who knows what remains at the spot where this city had earlier stood! Here it has acquired such splendour that any visitor to Karachi repeatedly asked, "Have you seen Lucknow in Karachi?"

So starts this much-acclaimed novella about migration. Simple, suggestive, subtle, Joginder Paul's Sleepwalkers makes for a satisfying read.

The Hindu
(June 7, 1998)

"Throughout this amazing tale of the real and the imaginary, what is and what was, paradise lost and paradise regained only to be lost again, there is a compassion, a sense of complete empathy with these troubled, night-walking souls. Joginder Paul has obviously trod similar ground and experienced at first hand the bewildering uncertainty of the migrant sensibility. Reading the novels in English one feels truly in a world transported, not created or re-created as most translations attempt to do."

The Statesman
(1 June, 1998)

"This collection is multifaceted and worth buying. The translators give the reader a taste of the richness of Urdu literature."

The author

Joginder Paul

The Translators

Sunil Trivedi and Sukrita Paul Kumar

The Editor

Keerti Ramachandra

Publishers: Katha
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan
Cover Painting: Sanjay Bhattacharya
Courtesy: Neera and Rakesh Malhotra
Category: Katha Urdu Library/Novel
Statistics: 5.25" x 7.5" HB 128 pages
ISBN 81-87649-14-3
Price: Rs 120 [India and the subcontinent only]

Mapping Memories

Mapping Memories bring together writers from India and Pakistan. The powerful Urdu short stories written by eminent writers, after 1960, reflect the common sensibility evolved through a shared linguistic and cultural heritage.

The Statesman
(June 29 1998)

"All the stories in the collection, from the serious to the light-hearted, the poignant to the bizarre, the surreal to the frightening, are welletched vignettes that transcends all caste creed, language barriers to create a language of their own."

The Pioneer
(June 13 1998)

"Katha's Mapping Memories ... in the fiftieth year of Independence, appears as a timely panacea for the divisive ills festering in the nuclear heat of the current political imbroglio. This exquisitely produced collection of fifteen Urdu short stories has been fastidiously and lovingly put together in accordance with the laudable editorial principle of capturing the 'human predicament in the subcontinent' and telling 'the tale of the shared cultures nourished by India and Pakistan.' Perhaps the signal achievement of the collection is that it opens windows to a vista hitherto closed to non-Urdu speaking readers ... With apparent effortlessness, the translators have accomplished a marvellous job in capturing the idiosyncratic resonances of the spoken language. In becoming the vehicle for the message of peace and harmony, these stories acquire a 'godly' character and, as a body, take on the appearance of a welcome 'bridge over troubled waters.' ''

The Authors

Anwar Qamar
Bano Qudsia
Enver Sajjad
Farkhanda Lodhi
Gyas Ahmed Gaddi
Intizar Husain
Jeelani Bano
Joginder Paul
Mohammad Mansha Yad
Qurratulain Hyder
Salim Agha Qazilbash
Surendra Prakash
Syed Muhammed Ashraf
Umrao Tariq
Zaheda Hina

The translators

Rashmi Govind
Tahira Khan
Shobhana Bhattacharji
Neshat Quaiser
Krishna Paul
Naghma Zafir
GIllian Wright
Rashid
Qurratulain Hyder
Atanu BHattacharya
Sara Rai
Saleem Kidwai
Anupama Prabhala Kapse, P L Narasimhan
Ayesha Sultana

Publishers: Katha
Cover Design: Roma Sinai Mukherji
Cover Detail: Detail from Sheba Chhachi's cleave/to, photo-text-sculpture installation
Courtesy: Eicher Gallery
Category: Katha Urdu Library/Short Fiction
Statistics: 5.5" x 8" Pb 234 pages
ISBN 81-85586-76-4
Price: Rs 175 [India and the subcontinent only]