The Tenth Rasa - An anthology of Indian Nonsense...


The Tenth Rasa is finally out! It's a really interesting book, and I'm not saying that only because I'm involved ;) I translated some Marathi and Gujarati literary and folk nonsense for the book. And it was great fun - the translation part of it was immensely satisfying, of course, but even more delightful was the spirit of fun and rigour that the editor Michael Heyman brought to the whole project. What I really loved about the book is the sheer range of material that Mike, Anushka Ravishankar and the others have brought together - there are poems and prose pieces from practically every Indian language, and also bits from Hindi films (Amitabh's monologue from My name is Anthony Gonsalves and his I can talk English, I can walk English... speech from Namak Halal)!

Lots of original poems too, by Anushka and Sampurna and others. But more than anything else, a wonderful bhel puri of the many kinds of nonsensification in India... Go take a look - am sure you'll like it!


Comments

Anonymous said…
Thanks for writing about this. Sounds like a great book!
Space Bar said…
you know, this book hasn't turned up in bookstores yet. can't wait to see sampurna's translations! youhave story? or poems?
Unknown said…
If it's not in your local bookstore, demand it!!

Fight for your nonsense!

Your podsnapper,
Earbrass
SUR NOTES said…
just went through the book. lovely. delicious.
Anonymous said…
Great work.
sukumar thakur said…
This book would not have been possible if Mike had not met someone called Sumanyu Satpathy at a Children's Lit Conference at the University of Calgary in 1999. Until then, many of the people involved in the project did not know of Lear's 1972-73 visit to India and the Indian Journal he wrote during the visit., which was published eventually. Nor did they know of Lear's reception in India. It was only after that Sumanyu and Mike conceived of the project.
Just to put the records straight.
Sukumar Thakur
Hi Sukumar,
Thanks for that wonderful detail - I came in really late in the project and only interacted with Mike and Anushka. This certainly broadens my undrstanding of the project. Thanks so much!
Anita

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