8.21 Volga & Purnima: On Why Mythological Women Deserve More

How does mythology change when we look at them through women’s lives?

In this episode, Tara chats with P. Lalita Kumari, also known as Volga, one of the most influential feminist voices in Indian literature, and Purnima Rao, the translator of On the Banks of the Pampa, Volga’s retelling of Shabari’s story from the Ramayana.

Volga shares how the idea for Shabari’s story first took shape, reflecting on the many women in mythology whose voices have been silenced. She talks about nature, womanhood, and the connection she sees between the two. Purnima speaks about the process of translating Volga’s lyrical Telugu prose into English while preserving its essence.

Volga also explores her journey as a reader and poet, the challenges of writing as a feminist in the 80s, and how storytelling became her weapon. Purnima discusses her shift from tech to writing, the hurdles of setting up an independent Telugu publishing house, and the need to fill gaps in the literary ecosystem.

Together, they look ahead to their upcoming projects, and to Volga’s return to contemporary narratives.

Tune in to dive into their creative process and literary brilliance.

Books mentioned in the episode:

1. Yashodhara: A Novel by Volga
2. Swetcha by Volga
3. Liberation Of Sita by Volga
4. Na Maate Tupaki Toota (in Telugu) by Mallu Swarajyam

Painting mentioned in the episode:

1. The Great Departure (Mahabhinishkramana)

‘Books and Beyond with Bound’ is the podcast where Tara Khandelwal and Michelle D’costa uncover how their books reflect the realities of our lives and society today. Find out what drives India’s finest authors: from personal experiences to jugaad research methods, insecurities to publishing journeys. Created by Bound, a storytelling company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social media platforms.

Transcript

Tara Khandelwal: 0:02

Hi everyone. We're in the middle of festival season, and today's book fits perfectly with the mood of reflection and of stories passed down through generations. But before we dive in, if you enjoy this podcast, do us a favor. Follow and read books and beyond on Spotify and Apple podcasts, it really helps us bring you conversations with brilliant authors like the one we're about to have today. And today's author is iconic. I have with me, Volga. She is one of India's most important voices in literature. Her work reimagines mythology through the lens of gender and social justice, and with her is purnamara, who is her translator, who translates from Telugu into English, and she is beautifully carried out volgas Telugu novel on the banks of the Pampa, which we are going to be speaking about today. So this book tells the story of Sabari. She is a character from the Ramayana, who is usually remembered only for offering berries to Rama. But in this story, we see her whole life, her childhood, her struggles, her escape into the forest, escape from the cruelty of the city and an eventual life of wisdom and freedom on the banks of the Pampa. And she really embodies this transformative power of devotion in the Ramayana, so I cannot wait to explore this with you. More welcome, Volga, ma'am and Poornima.

Volga: 1:26

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having

Tara Khandelwal: 1:29

us here. So let's start with the book, with the banks the Pampa, right? In case, in most retellings, as I mentioned, savari only appears in this one episode, but you've crafted a whole book about this. You know, we see her as a child who loses her home, a woman who escapes oppression, and then a seeker in the forest. And I just love it's so serene. It's so beautiful her life in the forest, and that's such a huge shift in the way we see her. So what made you want to retell this story? Why do you think Sabari is so important for us today?

Volga: 2:07

I think Sabari is very important character in Ramayana, but in Valmiki Ramayana, her character was only in four slokas. So this is very puzzling to me, from the times immemorial, saburi was the household name for the devotion. For many things, the story of sabary was told to all of us from our childhood, but when we go into the original text, it was only four slokas. Why Valmiki didn't write about her life, even in 15 or 20 slokas, where did she come from? What she is doing in her life and all that. Then I thought, why Sabari is waiting for Rama? All we know is Sabari is waiting for Rama, unending waiting, and that waiting and that longing was described beautifully by many poets in many languages of India. So while she was waiting for Rama, that was the question that bothered me very much, because sebari, how come Sabri knew about Rama? Rama at that time was not known by even Hanuma or Sugriva. He just came into the forest on exile and killing some dasya kings. That's all what he is doing. There is no question of hearing about Rama in the far south. So why? Why she is waiting? How she knew about trauma? These questions bothered me and I, and I know that Shabari was a tribal because of the whole description of that Pampa forest in Valmiki Ramayana was very beautiful. Sabari was described in four slokas, but the forest was described in many 100 or 150 slokas. Why? Why Valmiki did this. This also puzzled me so I thought, as a forest dweller sabary Want to ask Rama some questions, why these bars? Why these state control? Why? Invasions on forest dwellers. Why deforestation? All these questions she wants to ask. How come she knew about all these as a forest dweller, she underwent all these experiences. So then I created a story. This is my imagination at that time. Also, the kingdoms are there, the invasions are there, wars are fought. So I created this story. And Matanga Muni was the guru of Sabari that was also in balmy Ramayana. So I picked up that Matanga Muni as an untouchable and Sabari as a tribal woman, how they become guru and shishya, and how their bond was so strong for so many years. And after Matanga Muni died, Sabari was alone in the forest, and she is waiting for Rama. So somehow she heard that Rama left the kingdom and came into the forest, that she understood in a different way, that Rama didn't like kingdoms in wars and all that, and she waited that her message she want to pass on to Rama and want, she wants to. She wants Rama to stood against these wars and invasions, but disappointing to her dreams and waiting Rama was not for her mission. He has a separate mission of his own, invading the south and establish Arya Dharma in the South, in my opinion, and in many scholars opinion also. So this whole story fall into place, and this novel came into came into be in this form

Tara Khandelwal: 7:19

that's really beautiful. And, you know, I genuinely didn't know that it was a work that, you know, you had sort of added so much of your storytelling as well fictional elements to it, yeah, and that is very, very fascinating, because it really does read like this beautiful retelling of this myth. And I want to ask you about your other books, because you are really one of the most prolific writers out there. And I've read your previous books as well. I loved yashodra, which is the story of Buddha Gautama, Buddha's wife, and, of course, liberation of Sita. But you've also written other books. Your book switch has published in all Indian languages by the National Trust of India. And what I really liked about this book because I love books by female protagonists. I love the retellings of myths that showcase female characters that have been sidelined and you have opened the floodgates for a host of women writers. So how I want to know a little bit more about you as a person. How did you get into writing, and how did you decide that? Okay, I'm going to write about women. I'm going to write about these female characters that have been overlooked, and I'm going to write about

Volga: 8:35

mythology. No, there is no specific decision at one point that I am going to write about women. I am going to write about women, protagonist or retelling. It's not that decision making previously and start writing is not there, but as a woman, I am reading many novels in Telugu and in other languages, and the women characters are there, but many women characters were shown as victims only. So that victimhood is bothering me. Why always they are victims. These writers are showing even women. Writers show women characters as victims. So I Yeah, women suffer a lot in life, in workplace, in every way. They suffer a lot, but their agency is there in bringing the change in the society and bringing a change in the atmosphere and bringing a change in the history. Also why nobody is speaking about their agency and why many, many great. Characters also control women, characters in some borders and boundaries. So I want to explore the real life, characters who made change in their lives and the surroundings. Also, when I read about women's history, there are wonderful, wonderful women whom I encountered in the history of India, in the history of other countries also. So when I see my immediate surroundings, also, women are fighting. Women are struggling. Women are going for ahead of time. So I want to portray them as fighters for change. I want to portray their struggle, not only for small changes in their family life, but for a bigger change in the society. That's how I started writing sweater was my second novel, and when I wrote that, there was lot of commotion in Telugu literary circles for a whole year and half the literary discussion means discussion on svetcha. So that was a turning point in understanding gender questions, in understanding women's rights and so many things.

Tara Khandelwal: 11:48

Why was it such a contentious

Volga: 11:52

because the heroine was very normal, woman, educated women, a working women, and her husband was a very good person, very loving person. His only objection was her work for the society she wants to enter into some organizations which are working for the benefit of downtrodden people or workers and women, Dalits like that. So she wants to work in those organizations. The husband. We are happy with our family. We have a lovely daughter. We can build our own house and we will live. We both are working, earning enough money to live happily. Why you bring all those issues into our home? Please stop all this. But she wants to bring a change in the society. Her life goal was that. So there are a lot of struggle between them, and finally, she left her home, Husband, Daughter and organization also told, stop coming to the organization. Don't sacrifice your family. So organization is also patriarchal in their world. So these questions arised, if the husband is a bad person, if he is a drunkard or beating or harassing her, like any thing everybody sympathizes with the heroine of my novel, but he is a very ideal, good person, loving his wife and daughter very much so for for other reasons, how can a women do This? But I think I put a discussion on wifehood and citizenship. Citizenship is also important for women. Nobody consider women as citizens. I they are daughters, they are wives, they are mothers, but nobody ever see them as citizens of the society, who are responsible to correct the society, to bring change in the society. Those roles were always delegated to men. Men were the leaders. Men were the agents. Men bring change. Men change history. Men fought bottles, everything, everything men will do. Women as daughters, as wives, as mothers, have to do their duties in the home. The public is away from them. This public. Private dichotomy, I try to bring in that novel.

Tara Khandelwal: 15:04

Thank you. Just that's what makes you you, and that's what makes you so prolific, because you push those boundaries. And it was almost ahead of its time, right? And, you know, because it's ahead of his time, it was doing something new. It was doing something radical, yeah, I think you became that voice for a lot of women, and that's why I'm also so excited to have you here today as well. But you know, before we get to you, Purnima, I would also like to know a little bit, Volga, ma'am, about your background and how you got into writing in the first place.

Volga: 15:40

I'm a lover of literature and a prolific reader, reading everything I came across, every book, every piece of paper. From my childhood, I used to read, read, read, and when I was 19 years old, I started writing poetry and my with my friends and classmates and the four men, we wanted To bring an anthology of poems, five poets, one anthology, and we called ourselves by gumber poets. That's all like, very engaged and all that. But the poems are very powerful at those times. Those times are very critical. Times are also 6970, like that. That is the axilary movement, the left politic, political discussions and all are very vibrant in Andhra Pradesh. So then we started writing poetry and working with revolutionary movements, revolutionary writers movements and all that. But after working for so many, many years, means around 10 or 12 years, I am disillusioned with revolutionary organizations. Also, there also the gender question, well remained as a question. There were not even a question. We cannot speak about patriarch TR male domination and all that in the organizations. So I came out and want to and enter into feminist politics, and I am very much alone at those times in the 80s, the beginning of the 80s, and started writing. The writing was only my weapon, because, you see, I am very much alone. No one was ready to be a feminist or in favor of feminists. So how can I do my work. I can't conduct meetings. I can't conduct other things. Only tool is writing. So I started writing. I started writing poems, stories, novels, translating feminist literature into Telugu and feminist literary criticism everything under the world. I started writing, began writing and every day trying myself to put new ideas and about the women's agency, about women's rights, and how to look at from the Women's point of view, and how we are missing the women's point of view and lost humanity. So the since the 80s and writing as a feminist,

Tara Khandelwal: 19:27

I love what you said about writing is your weapon. And I think you know, like for all of us, when we feel like, Oh, we don't have any other weapons, this is such a good thing to put these stories out there. So Purnima, I want to bring you in here, because Telugu is such a lyrical language, like my husband. Is this Telugu? So I hear his family speaking all the time, and I wish I understood what they were saying. But I want to speak about your approach to translating this book, because you also. It retain some words, instead of flattening them into English equivalence, which has really kept a flavor of the original alive. So what was your approach and what was the hardest parts of the process?

Purnima: 20:14

Yeah. So this book, like when you see it, it reveals, like a really short book. It is a small, compact size book in that sense, but it's a dynamite there's so much happening in it, in that, in that small space, and, and, and also, it is kind of upending our understanding of the world, right? Like whatever we we understand as knowledge, we understand as wisdom, progress, development, it is kind of upending all of that and and making us question ourselves so in we right now in the world of artificial intelligence and worried about what, what dangers and what kind of impact it will create on us, but, but Olga garu is taking us one step Back and questioning human intelligence itself on On what basis those things are taken? So like whenever I translate for the first thing I'm trying to replicate is my reading experience. So when I read the text very closely, what are the things that I have taken, what kind of emotions I have felt, where and how, certain things like this, this particular book, it was like here and there. It was like slapping. It's like somebody is in deep slumber, and it kind of hits you hard and helps you wake up. So it is that kind of voice, right? So getting that voice in translation was really important for me. Then the second part is about the heavily loaded philosophical and cultural words that that are like, like the entire premise of the book is is based on them. So for in my first draft, I did translate them to into English, all of those. But when we had a discussion between Noura garu editors and Harper Collins and me, we thought it would be better to retain the words. So I the reason I hesitated to retain the words in the first draft was because these, all these words have sanskritized truths, which means they are available in almost all Indian languages. But because of usage over the centuries and many other cultural aspects coming in, each may mean different things, like nagarikata in Canada, or Telugu will will hint towards civilization. The first thing that comes to your mind is civilization, but say in Bengali or Hindi, it comes to citizenship. So I did not want to create that confusion. When someone is speaking up, a pan Indian reader is speaking up, and first and get confused. So when I did the second draft and when I tried to retain the words, I ensured that the single word is not bearing all the burden of the meaning, but it is distributed across the story, so that even if I'm leaving some things unexplained, like I tell what is Jnanam, but I won't say what is so. And I expect, and my hope is, that the any discerning reader will latch that and and therefore I don't have to over explain. So yeah, in that sense, in that particular process, I have put a lot of trust in the reader, that even if someone unfamiliar with Ramayana, or the nuances of Ramayana, someone unfamiliar with the philosophical concepts in India will still have enough meat to get extract out of this text, and it will also make them furious. Go look up or have have a discussion with friends and things like that. And the third hardest part of this text was Olga garu prose, as you said, Telugu is very musical. It has a wonderful rhythm. Even the plainest and simplest of sentences can can sound so beautiful. And on top of that, Olga garu is a poet. You You just heard her saying that she has journey started with poetry. For me, she is a poet first and then anything else. So she, and the way she has created all those imageries of Pampa forest in in like very compact sentences and not too much flowery language, but, but, yeah, she literally takes you onto the banks, right? So my effort was also to retain the lyricism as much as possible and also focus on the Imagine imagery. So her poetry is more visual in the sense that it is almost like. Cinematography. So she is, she is literally taking and giving the top view, side view, and all of those angles that a cinematographer would do. So I tried to bring in that into the translation, so that it will be a wholesome so the poetics and politics of this book, which are so intertwined. So the challenge as a translator, I mean, I'm just still hoping and praying that readers get that, because it is such a beautiful amalgamation of these two and and I tried my best to bring them into English. I agree.

Tara Khandelwal: 25:38

I like what you said about politics and politics, because even though it's a very short book, it took me a really long time to read it, and it's not because of the language and not because of the story. It's a very easy story. The language is also, you know, simple. You know, it's not very but I think it's because it's so rich, there is a lot of information about the surroundings, where you just feel like you're there in that beautiful forest. There is so many ideas, the philosophies, you know, even though even the idea about the Raja and the you know, for the Rajam borders were of paramount importance, and how they start cutting all the trees out, and then how they start treating those forest dwellers and sabaris family. So with very few sentences, we have conveyed a lot in this book. And I did not expect that it would take me so long to read it, because I'm a very, very fast reader, but you know, to really take it in, it does require that, and it's a very enjoyable read. It's not a hard read, but it's a read that makes you think. And it's not just a feminist retelling. I feel like it's very deeply ecological. It almost is like, yeah, it almost is like climate fiction. You can smell the birds you see. You know where, as civilization and humanity, we have gone wrong, and where our priorities have gotten mixed up. And I think those ideas have really come out in this book. So yes, I wanted to ask, you know it's, it's kind of its own genre. So I actually wanted to ask you, and Volga Ma'am, you know how much of your own connection to nature has fed into this story?

Purnima: 27:31

Yeah, for me, the reason I picked up this book, I mean, any opportunity to work with who is a great blessing and and I'm fortunate that I have worked with her in terms of Publisher of her translations. She is a wonderful translator, also, and, and then I translated her work. So for me, the there was an urgency about when I read this book, right? So the I felt a kind of urgency that I have to tell about this book to many folks. I have to in the sense that actually, as soon as the Telugu version came out in Bangalore, we had a little get together celebrating oldest, latest novel of Pampa JIRA and and then in that gathering, because most of them were non telegus, and we were discussing the ideas in this book. And, and when there were questions, I was super tempted to translate impromptu layer and give, give them insights into the books. So, yeah, I have mainly read this book as psychological fiction and, and that is, that is what my driving force was. So so far I have the other text I have translated into Telugu are based on partition, on Telangana moment, those kind of very historically heavy and and, and kind of chromatic events, in some sense. But this book, my main drive was ecological fiction. And yeah, we have been getting some beautiful reviews. And one reviewer on Insta, sorry that I can't remember her name, but she said reading this book is like walking on barefoot in a forest. There is no way you can rush through it. You have to savor each and every moment there. So yes, and and another delightful thing for me and older Guru is that how the younger generation is is catching up with this book and how it is reading the book in this in the context of what's happening right now in Himalayas, the flooding, the cloud outburst, and also trying to question our choices. Basically, it is more than anything else. It is about our madness in viewing the universe in a very self centered fashion, right, the human, the supreme and everybody else, all other creatures are subservient, kind of. Of attitude that we have towards nature. It is questioning that, and right now, that is a very important question for us and the next generations, I think,

Volga: 30:10

in our country and in many countries of the world also, we think women as nature, Sri prakriti, prakriti purusha, that ideology, Prakriti is woman. Purusha is purusha. And what is this purusha? That means man will do is to conquest the nature. So this the whole development and civilization was conquesting the nature and conquesting the women, conquesting women's right as mothers, conquesting women's reproductive rights. So that prakriti Purusha question is a patriarchal person and a patriarchal struggle. So when we are talking about nature, we are also talking about women, if man stop conquesting nature of his own, not nature means his characteristic. He wants to conquest everything, everything in his surroundings. And the whole development was the idea of conquesting the nature, going and controlling the nature that control that conquest are really worsening the ecological situation. So as nature women should talk about this concept. Yes, we are nature. We are the providers. We are the birth givers. So we have to protect this earth with its diversity, with its all living things and non living things working together in harmony to protect this earth. So this is also in I tried to put in this novel. So when we are protecting nature, means we are also talking about protecting women. Women were undergone for so many conquests on their wombs, in every war was fought on the wombs or on the character of women. So that is the feminist and ecological. They are not two separate things, in my view. So I took sabary. There are continuations for sabary When we look at the modern history, all of us know about Chipko movement. It is women who went and embraced trees and stopped the deforestation at one time, then the many women like Vandana, Shiva, Jahan, so, so many women who are fighting to protect the nature. So it is their story. Also they can own this story. Sabari was the, maybe the first one. Maybe there is. There are characters previous to sabary, I don't know, but maybe sabary was the first woman to to make a decent statement on the whole civilization, on the whole nature of the kingdoms and the invasive nature of the state. So from sabary to the tribal women today, there are lots of voices who are raising their voices and not heard properly. So we have to make them heard by the new generation, by the young people who has this valuable Earth in their hands. Is, and it is their responsibility to protect this earth, to protect this nature and to protect it from all the calamities. Now we are seeing those calamities in the very beginning stages. So we have to wake up now and be careful about the earth.

Tara Khandelwal: 35:25

And I love that perspective of, you know, conquering, because you see that in the book as well, right? Like mankind wants to conquer, women wants to conquer, nature wants to it's just that unending greed that you showcase so well in this woman. And I like how you're drawing a straight line between Sabari to, you know, the tribal women and women of today. And I actually quite a new perspective. So coming to your other books, because I did really enjoy your other books as well. You know, Sita, yashodra, Sabari, you've chosen these women who are central in mythology, but whose voices are muted in the traditional telling. So what do you look for in a character before deciding to tell her, retell her story? Specifically with regards to mythology, let's say,

Volga: 36:21

and even you, talk about liberation of Sita stories, the first story surpanaka was the main character along With Sita, so that surpanaka was very known character, very familiar character, a household name, and it her name was gone into proverbs. Also, if any women was looked as fierce and like ugly, like we thought, surpanaka and envious women, also as chuppanati surpanaka in Telugu, chupanati means jealousy kind of thing. So that surpanaka was only in one chapter in few slokas and so powerful we cannot forget her, and she was showcased as the beginning point of Rama Ravana battle without surpanaka interfering here, the Rama Ravana battle were not happen in this way, Maybe in another way, so, but after that, after the mutilation of her nose and ears and there was nothing about her in Ramayana, what happened to her, how he how she struggled with the mutilated body of her, how she understood the beauty and ugliness before mutilation and after mutilation, how she understood her own self. So all these questions bothered me, and when I actually I wrote a dance ballet, war and peace, and in that I made Sita and surpanaka dance together for three minutes or four minutes. The ballet was 70 minutes. The ballet was so popular that durdarson Want to telecast it, and they recorded, but at the time of the telecast, the higher officials, when they saw surpanaka character, how can surpanaka portray with Sita? Sita was a pativrata, very chaste women, and surpanaka was a bad, bad woman. She desired a married man. So for that, her decision, she suffered. Hers is not at all suffering. So they start argued with us, and they want to censor that character from the ballet. It is a three minutes dance. So they censored that part because, in traditional ideology, surpanaka was a bad woman. So I want to change that whole this thing of surpanaka, and I want to transform her into a beautiful soul, not only a beautiful person, a beautiful soul with a beautiful soul who nurture nature. And understand the value of labor. Labor means working. So that story happened like that. And with Ahalya another instant, and with Renuka, so many questions when I pick up the character from the Ramayana and Yashodhara, particularly, it is not a mythology, but historically, very little information was there about ashodhara. So the only image we thought about a shodhara was sleeping with her newly born child, and Siddhartha, like a thief, is leaving the house. That was the painting. And mahabhi, Anish kramana, the painting was titled, and that was a popularly known painting. When I saw that painting for so many times, I have so many questions. When Siddhartha was leaving the palace or a house, how can she sleep so peacefully. The whole house was in turmoil. Siddhartha's parents were crying like anything. And with in that situation, how can she sleep peacefully? And how can Siddhartha, who is very kind person, very kind to even to the birds and animals and every living things can be so cruel to her is to his wife. How can she? How can he left without telling her? No, this is not, I don't believe this that Yashoda RA will be so peaceful and Siddhartha is so cruel. So I thought that yashodara was part of his nishkamana from the house, so Yashoda Ra was part of his awakening as Gautama Buddha, because she, in those days, women, has no spiritual opening. They have to be in the house and do household duties, no spiritual they can't become sannyasins or Munis maharshis like other men. So Yara want to enter into the path. So she cooperated with Siddhartha, and later she also become a vehicle like that. I at some point that something triggered me, and from there, the story started, and savari also, as I told in the first answer to the your first question. So these things I didn't sit at one time and start from this day on. I want to write mythological stories. No, not like that. In liberation of Sita, one story was written in 2004 and another story in 2007 or eight, and the whole book five stories I took six years to write. On and off I am writing so there is not a mission like thing that I should retell mythology. Come on, sit and write, not like that.

Tara Khandelwal: 43:59

I am also very fascinated by Yashoda story. And, you know, because very interesting perspective that you say that actually she was cooperating because she wanted to get into that pathway, and that was the end outcome. Because what I found very fascinating, and even I kept asking, you know, here is this Gautama Buddha, and, you know, like amazing person and everything, but he's just left his wife, and he's, you know, she has to fend for herself. And also, then when the wife and a whole group of other female want to become sannyasis, he actually refuses. At first, he doesn't let them, and then they, you know, then later on, sort of he agrees, but it's still different rules for the men and the women, which I found very interesting, given that all of the teachings and everything, there's still a double standard, you know,

Volga: 44:57

I think in those days, it's a very different. Difficult for him to bring all the changes at one go. One cannot expect everything from one person. No, he Yeah, so the circum that is why I created a shodhara in that way that he can understand the problems of women from her

Tara Khandelwal: 45:28

Correct correct I really like that perspective. And then another thing, I always think, even RAM is an ideal man. But then what happens with Sita? You know, at the end of the story, she's again alone in the forest with the sons love and push. So there are all these cognitive dissonances and dichotomies in these mythologies and these histories and religion, which I think are very interesting to explore. And it can just be an endless exploration.

Volga: 45:54

Yeah, because epics are very much open ended, they never end there, and the epics ending is the real beginning of a new story. I understand like that they are very much open ended, that we can explore the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and can write so many, so many stories.

Tara Khandelwal: 46:23

Yeah, absolutely. And Purnama, you know, you come from a tech background, actually, and you run an independent Telugu publishing house, which I really want to know more about. It's called ilami publications. So how did you sort of set that up? And how has it been building a Telugu publishing house from the ground

Purnima: 46:43

up? Yeah. So I am a techie, so that is my full time job, and also my first passion. Then I've started writing in early 2008 and from then on, I've I went on to run a website called Sister come.net which was exclusively for book reviews in Telugu, you can read any language and write. And after that, I translated manto around 2018 to 2020, and then I was trying to find publishers, and couldn't find the one which match with my thing. So everybody wanted to see mandu as a sensational character, as some controversial figure, but not the human and not the person that he was. So that led to me start LMA publication. So we are now three year old company, self funded bootstrap thing, and we have published around eight titles. Volga garu did two translations for us. Hamid dalvai, Marathi writer. He is known for his non fiction and and he's an activist and those things, but his fiction, we bought like 12 short stories together as one collection. And she also did another wonderful book. Unfortunately, the English book is now out of print, but it is written by Vidya Rao Ji of Hindustani vocalist. She wrote about her guru, Nana Naina Devi. So it's part Memorial, part biography kind of thing. So Olga garu translated that for us and published it. And yeah, we are looking forward to put out the first graphic novel in translation this year, and we have some interesting projects coming up. Yeah, it's been hard, but, and as you know, anything within publishing is very hard to run such low margins, hard to reach readers, and distributed distribution systems are all here and there, so it's been a challenge, but also to try and fill in the gaps. Now, there are these big players, and they play the big game, but sometimes it is very important to do some quality work at small scale consistently, and that creates its own impact, right? So, so yeah, that is what we are looking forward to. We are planning a series of books on Indian partition, and we want to take multiple themes and do fiction, non fiction in in that. Yeah, it's going on pretty well, but sales are always a challenge. I mean, the the hardest part is to crack the marketing and

Tara Khandelwal: 49:35

sales. Yes, absolutely, I think definitely, we need more readers in the country. But, yeah, I want to know also, Volga, Ma'am, what, what was the What's your biggest difficulty that you face while writing? What is it the publishing process? Is it, you know, coming up with the story of the characters for you? What is your biggest challenge? And what part do you. To, you know, find the easiest.

Volga: 50:02

The easiest part is writing, because we we have pen papers within the reach so we can write, and The urge is so, so much to write, so we will die. But after that, the publication part, where to send, how to publish, is quite a challenge for writers. But fortunately for me, it is also went went on Well, there is one one challenge was when I wrote a story called ioni that usually my stories were published in those days when I sent to any magazine. But this story, I only when I sent to a magazine which is very Actually, it is very popular magazine they rejected, I am very much surprised, and then I sent to another they also rejected. So many magazines rejected that story, and I sent to a only one feminist magazine then, so I sent to that magazine. They also rejected it, but they came to talk with me. We will publish this story if you remove certain words and certain sentences I said, no question of censoring my sentences. I don't want to censor them. Then after, after one year after my writing that story, one in one magazine that was published. That magazine was also run by a woman. So after that story came also lot of discussion about their story controversies. How can these feminist writers write these stories? But slowly it subsided and it was remained as one of the best story of mine and Telugu short story anthology was published by katha. That anthology was named as ioni and other stories, so many stories not of my stories, but an anthology of different stories with of different writers. That was so that story was really went to the people after two three years. Those two three years was really something like a challenge, for the first time to me and sweetcha. Lot of, as I told, lot of discussions, lot of the whole left movement was into it. How do you

Tara Khandelwal: 53:18

deal with all of those, like the discussions that during Shweta time, like, how did you deal with that?

Volga: 53:26

Because during Sveta, not only on the novel, The discussions are slowly centered on my personal life, also by that time, I am a divorcee. So my divorce and the protagonist divorce, they were compared, and these, this novel and the writer are also destroying family, institution of family, and institution of marriage, all these kinds of but I withstand, withstood all that, all that, and slowly they change. The whole scenario change. And I edited the first feminist poetry anthology in 93 before 93 late 80s, in Telugu, there was very powerful feminist poets, writing women writers, writing very powerful poems. They are writing about their bodies, about their sexuality, motherhood, all these things they are writing until that time. Poet means a male poet. That area of poetry was a male best and. Ah, novels, yeah, women can write about the family life and their troubles. So novels, they don't care. Short stories, they don't care men, when women are writing, but when women wrote this powerful poetry, they were really threatened. So they call this poetry as pond poetry, blue poetry. And this is about bodily consciousness, no social consciousness in these poems like this, these poets, writing alone in different parts of the states, are very much worried how to encounter this alone. Then we from an organization called asmita, called for a women writers meet about 100 more than 100 women writers came to that meeting. We discussed many things for two days and held a press conference and all that. And we decided, then, within a year, we have to bring a feminist poetry anthology. And in 93 we brought it that time, until that time that the criticism on women writers, and especially on feminist writers, is very much on then, after this anthology, the whole situation changed. Feminist writings earned the legitimacy, legitimate space in the literary area. So it is like a big battle, big battle in my lifetime, and I am also part of it.

Tara Khandelwal: 56:41

Yes, that's amazing. And you sort of, you know, and your contemporaries made that space for feminist literature to have a voice. Yeah, in

Volga: 56:54

in Telugu, I can, I did something, not much, but

Tara Khandelwal: 56:59

something I was telling, you know, like I was speaking about this interview and with my husband's family, and everybody knows, you know, who all guys, because one of the most prolific writers, I think, out there, in India today, so that's just, it's just fantastic. And I think just generally, also, I feel like, you know, it's always a battle to get female issues to be taken seriously, yeah, whether it's women's health, whether it's even something like, you know, people make so much fun of romance novels or Chiclet or whatever, you know, all of these, they have a space. So I do feel like these battles. I think you know, everybody would thank you for doing that work on our behalf. And thank you so much. This is very interesting. My last question for both of you is, what are you working on next?

Volga: 57:57

Wow. My I have a no project to write a novel about the contemporary issues of freedom from from the times I wrote sweet Cha, there is lot of changes in the situation of women and In the contemporary society also. So there is a lot of new problems, new chains for women to encounter. So I want to put them in the form of a novel. That was a project I have in my mind, because this mythology and historical novels occupy so much writing space of mine, now I want to return to the contemporary society, contemporary Problems women encounter in these times, in these times like political turmoil, ecological turmoil and lot of violence on women, how this violence is increasing? Why it is increasing, how to how to make it disappear, how to encounter it with these questions, mainly violence is the main thing, and surrounded by many other things that that was my project, I have to see how I can complete it. It will work out or not. Sometimes it won't work out. Also, we can't say

Tara Khandelwal: 59:53

and will it? Will it get translated into English?

Volga: 59:58

And that depends. That depends, no

Tara Khandelwal: 1:00:02

what does it depend on to get it translated? Does that sort of the decision that maybe Purnima you can answer, is that a decision that the translator takes,

Purnima: 1:00:13

I think, especially if we are talking about translating into English, then it depends on various factors. Because, again, as I said, there are players, and those players create a kind of market and, and they are very conscious about picking and choosing stuff that suits the market and and how much it goes it doesn't go that those kind of conversations come into picture. And, and also finding, sometimes the right translator who can, who can bring that whatever is, is there in the original, try to get it with minimum loss to English that? That could be another challenge. So, yeah, it depends on various factors, factors like that, and and also from my understanding of Pampa theorem, and also as a publisher of translators that I'm working it is about the synergy between the original author, translator and the publisher, all of them coming together, totally believing in the story and totally committed to the readers to bring the story In its finest form. So unless that kind of magic combination happens, translations are bit hard. It is hard in every sense. Yeah, usually, as a translator, I get to ask when people ask me questions about the craft, but once the thing is ready, the translation is ready, and putting it out is also a challenge in itself.

Tara Khandelwal: 1:01:43

Yeah. So do you do you translate the work first and then go to a publisher? Or do you sort of first go to the publisher and then translate the work? Yeah.

Purnima: 1:01:55

So whatever I did in Telugu, I first translated and then searched for publishers. It did not work. I ended up being a publisher. When I'm translating into English. I have done two books so far. One is Pampa theram, and the other is maliswara Jim's memoir, NAMA te tupaki tota. It is a Telangana arms movement leader her memoir. So that also the publisher offered me to translate, but I would say I never do the book in full, unless you have a publisher. Just do a sample, start pitching it, let people know that you're working on this, and when an interested party comes and everything works out, then only come into full length project is my advice.

Tara Khandelwal: 1:02:37

Great, great. That's That's great advice. Thank you both so much for this interview. I really loved the books, and I can't wait for more of them to come out. Thank you so much.

Purnima: 1:02:51

Thank you. Thank you for having us. Hope

Tara Khandelwal: 1:02:54

you enjoy this episode of Books and Beyond with bound. This

Michelle D'costa: 1:02:57

podcast is created by bound, a company that helps you grow through story. Find us at pound India on all social media

Tara Khandelwal: 1:03:05

platforms. Tune in every Wednesday as we peek into the lives and minds of some brilliant authors from India and South Asia. You.