Reviews | 5 Stories, Konkani and Kannada anthologies raise the bar for Indian translations

Two recent anthologies titled 5 Stories, in Konkani and Kannada, are part of a series edited by that tirelessly formidable champion of Indian stories in English translation — Mini Krishnan. With these two collections, he makes an ace – translated by Vidya Pai and Susheel Punitha. Together they raised the bar for translated stories.

Goan life

A sincere, respectable and simple couple prays for a child and a son is born to them. Delighted parents pamper the child into adulthood. However, this son dies in a plane crash on the way to Kuwait. How do you think the parents would react? Read Damodar Mauz’s chilling story with a twist – “Cry, Now”. He will stay with you. Either you are that parent, or you certainly know of some such parents.

Jayanti Naik’s ‘Ceremonial Bull’ and Mahabaleshwar Sail’s ‘The Potter’s Kiln’ show the pain of a well-ordered interdependent community of simple-minded people, rooted in their traditional employment structures, caught in the transition between abandoning their gods and filling their stomachs.

Konkani translator Vidya Pai

How can one protest against the powerful when all alternatives are blocked? Pundalik Naik’s ‘Victory’ plays out the issues of seeking justice through resistance. The lesson: “We have no right to snatch stale bread from someone’s hand unless we have arranged to give them fresh bread,” may be an eye-opener for a youth resistance movement fueled by idealism rather than a pragmatic Plan B.

The latest story in this collection is “Man of the Forest” by Prakash Parienkar. Here we have a neutral space devoid of peculiarity. This story could easily have been written by Naga poet Easterine Kire or any environmentalist without any changes in the topography. This story signals a growing erasure of specific regional identities.

Kannada flavor

Female shoppers take a break in Mysuru, Karnataka. | Photo credit: Getty Images

Baluvate Narayana in Vaidehi’s ‘Worlds Within Worlds’ is a parasite who shamelessly throws off everyone around him, takes advantage of their hospitality while pretending to be an important person. The suffering of his wife Mankaliyamma is like that of Dorothea who is bound to Casaubon in George Eliot’s Middlemarch. Such character sketches are rarely found in short stories.

“The Spinning Top” by Mogalli Ganesh takes a completely different route. What begins as a child’s innocent fascination with spinning wheels soon develops into an intense portrayal of life in the Shudra community. Grief for a child is a lost peak; for an animal trapped in a pit, it is a struggle for survival; and for the dalit community it is a struggle for dignity. The final image of the story—of a child clinging to its mother and seeking refuge in the body of an abused woman, “Take me back to your womb, Avvo,”—leaves the reader unsettled for a long time.

The 1999 Kargil War and the India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup final provide a charged backdrop to the rumors of a Hindu girl’s elopement with a Muslim boy in Amaresh Nugadoni’s This Heart Wants More. Much of the story’s tension comes from the seemingly ordinary setting of the tea stall, which becomes a meeting place for political debate and a window into how ordinary Hindus and Muslims respond to the anxieties of the moment. The result is a narrative that captivates.

Kannada translator Susheela Punitha

A step further, Bolwar Kunhi (“Worship”) and Booker International Prize winner Banu Mushtaq (“Not a Woman”) take us to the heart of the Muslim experience. The role of jamaat, convenient interpretations of the Qur’an, the miraculous powers attributed to Auliyas, the traditions of Sharia, the obligatory mehr reduced to a paltry sum, the misuse of triple talaq and finally the corrosive influence of money are all portrayed with non-judgmental honesty in these two stories.

Everyday localization

Three cheers to the translators for tackling English to match Indian rhythms. A mother calls out to her son, “Where are you?” Scrubbing the dishes is pata pata, dousing the head with well water dala dala, one grumbles, gona gona. A pig falls into a pit — daddakh. Someone is being beaten with a stick — hut.

Editor and translator Mini Krishnan | Photo credit: R. Ragu

Local words are left untranslated: marasinge leaf, namagorate buds, chaddi dost, ahirat, balpa.

Curious expressions are also preserved in the original: “Nazir spoke as if deftly pulling a strand of hair out of butter”; “if a wolf falls into a pit, everyone throws a stone at him”; “You need to see how big the sheet is before you stretch your legs.

“Why do you want to be a Brahmin, Manji-gulaganji,” Gundakka asked, fondly rhyming her name with those shiny red seeds that children used as pawns in indoor games. One suspects the translator’s extrapolation to explain the rhyme.

The Konkani translator’s note is comprehensive – it can be used as a blueprint for other books in the series. The source of stories from magazines like Jaag, Prajavaani, Patrike and Kannada Prabha is a value statement for regional publications. It would be helpful to know how these five stories were chosen.

Finally, it’s refreshing to read stories that are unassuming. The “long shorts” in this series show that fiction is really underground social history.

5 Stories: Konkani

Bunch of Vidya Pai; ed by Mini Krishnan

Bloomsbury

₹499

5 Stories: Kannada

Susheel Punitha’s Bunch; ed by Mini Krishnan

Bloomsbury

₹499

The reviewer is a Sahitya Akademi Translation Award winner and editor of 250 Years Of Jane Austen: Indian Responses.

Published – 11 Sep 2026 17:15 IST