StoryWeaver Spotlight aims to shine the light on members of the wonderful community of translators who help bring stories alive in new languages through their translation efforts. This week, we turn the spotlight on Sarita Sharan. Sarita is a passionate teacher, who uses stories to pass on information in a fun way to her students and her two kids. She works at a primary school in Badami Taluk, Bagalakot district. She often visits underserved communities and strives to convince drop-outs to continue schooling. Science, English and Maths are her favorite subjects. She has translated 11 books to Kannada for Pratham Books including Whpopee Hyperloop, Neelumbera on a Full Moon Night and  Anna's Extraordinary Experiments with Weather.

Q:  What type of person do you think makes the best translator for children’s stories?

A:  Someone who works closely with children: teachers and storytellers, for example.   

Q: Do you have any advice for anyone interested in becoming a translator?

A: If you can revisit your childhood and think and narrate like a child you are almost half way towards becoming a translator.

Q: A Book you'd like to recommend to other translators?

 I don’t see any set rules for this, it really depends on each piece of work and the way you want to communicate. For me, reading updated STEM curriculum, boosts my efficiency.

Q: What is your personal relationship to language and/or translation?

A: It is just like the relationship between a student and a teacher. A language is so rich, so versatile, so essential to communication.

Q: When you’ve been given a story to translate, what’s your process, and how long does it generally take?

A: I read the whole story a couple of times. And, imagine narrating the same to my students before I begin. How long? Ha ha! It depends on my schedule,

Q: What do stories in translation bring to young readers?

I think the highlight of translated stories is that they bring diversity, and introduce readers to different cultures and places. Kids really just enjoy the variety.

Q: You’ve translated stories for us. Which has been your favourite to work on?

I liked Neelambara on a Full Moon Night, Sailing Ships and Sinking Spoons, Who Made Tomato Chutney and the Annamani story. They were were my favourites. I really liked the concepts and the way they were told as stories.

  

Q: What is the hardest thing about translating from English into Kannada? How do you navigate words or phrases that are tricky to translate??

A: I think common sense quotient works here. It’s just about the concept as a whole and the way you narrate in your language. I think my profession has equally helped me in this regard.  

Q: How do you feel when your story reaches the child?

Wow! That’s an amazing feeling. I feel like a student who’s waiting for results.

Q: Translating stories must have required research when it came to STEM related terms and concepts.. How did you explore new objects and concepts?

Like I said, I refer to the latest curriculum related to STEM concepts. So, it clears my confusion and difficulty while translating too. 

Q: How else do you think we can join hands to take more stories to more children in more languages.

My wish is that we reach almost every school in every nook and corner as a group till books reach the last child. I personally prefer print formats for this , as the feel of a book is sacred.   

Q: As a passionate teacher, story teller what do you think is the best way to approach a child?

Be a child while translating, narrating. That’s all!!

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September 30th is celebrated around the world as International Translation Day. We're very fortunate that some of our wonderful translators and language reviewers shared their thoughts on translation with us on this occasion.

Madhu B. Joshi prefers to be known as a communication practitioner. She sees a great need for demystification in daily life and has been trying to work towards it. She has taught translation and a short, self-designed course of Indian Culture; mentored content teams of major education NGOs and designed educational audio-video programmes for CIET, NCERT. Joshi is a translator of Hindi poetry and short fiction in English and has presented major black feminist writers in Hindi. She is also a prolific and visionary collaborator of StoryWeaver. All of this, and we also know and love the other मधु बी. जोशी (in her own words)... जो खाना पकाना, इलाज करना, पौधे और कुत्ते पालना, राय देना.. जैसे बहुत से मुफ़्त काम करती हैं। उन्हें सब से ज़्यादा मज़ा बच्चों के लिए काम करने में आता है और वह इसका कोई मौका नहीं चूकतीं।

My interest in translation is the result of two socio-political accidents. A very courageous father and a supportive family allowed me to turn crisis into opportunities; I shudder at the thought of my contemporaries who suffered what I did.

I was in school in Delhi. Teaching science in Hindi in Government run schools was high on the agenda of the government at that time. In 1969, when I needed to choose the medium of instruction as a science student, coming from the hardcore Hindi-Hindustani following family, I chose Hindi over English. I had been educated in Hindi Medium government schools, most of my English came from my father, an ex-Royal Navy man in rough circumstances he had never expected to be in.

In earnest I (and hundreds of thousands other Delhi students) began to study science subjects in Hindi. The catch was, except for about three volumes of Biology books published by the NCERT, there were few CBSE syllabus compatible science textbooks available in Hindi. I remember our maths, chemistry and physics teachers who had studied in UP and Madhya Pradesh recommending some books that were compatible with the Intermediate/Secondary Board syllabi of those states; we supplemented that list with available books in English. As a result, we ended up reading in English and writing our answers in Hindi.

I had a good command of written and spoken English and Hindi, still my grades fell. I passed my Higher Secondary exam with not exactly flying colours. But I had unwittingly acquired translation skills and a deep respect for, and interest in facilitating communication.

Years earlier, seeing my interest in singing, my closet music-lover father sent me to the neighbourhood aunties who taught music and dance to about a dozen Bengali girls. The aunties were shocked to see a Garhwali girl wishing to be their student. In that gormint clony of Dilli, whoever had heard of a Garhwali girl wishing to sing? They refused point blank, “we only teach Bengali girls.” That was the end of my music dream. In school, the dumbest of children chose music and art as subjects. There was no other music education available in the vicinity. I followed the only course available to me - AIR was giving so much music for free, I learnt my music from Manna Dey, Mohammad Rafi, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar, Asa Singh Mastana, Salil Chowdhury, Madanmohan......

Much later I guessed the good aunties had not been able to communicate that they only taught Raubeendro Shaungeet which no one else in our colony showed the least interest in. I am sure they would have taught me just as well as they taught the rest of their students had they only known I wished to learn music irrespective of the brand.

These two incidents made sure I did a certain amount of translation besides other things.

 

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Almost seven weeks ago, we asked YOU the question “Who is Ameena?” and now, we have an answer!

The contest to find an illustrator for What is Ameena Up To?, a cheery story written by Roopa Banerjee, gave StoryWeaver a great collection of merry, adventurous, whimsical, curious girls. But the Ameena-est of them all was the character drawn by Preetam Dhar. 

Having received over 50 fabulous entries, the task of selecting a winner was not easy. At the final stage, it was down to four contenders -- Sangeeta Das, Preetam Dhar, Rahil Mohsin and Alankrita Amaya -- who had all created splendid work. 

But something about Preetam’s Ameena struck Vinayak Varma, the contest judge - “Preetam's Ameena looks friendly and approachable, but also slightly strange and quirky -- this is exactly the right mix of traits for an appealing children's book character. His illustration is very well drawn, shows detail without being overdone, and demonstrates good command of colour and composition.”

Preetam’s understanding of the crux of the story and the character is clear from his vision note, where he says, “Aspirations bigger than her size and gleam of curiosity in her eyes -- that's Ameena for you. She's the girl who lives an ordinary life like you and me, made extraordinary by her imagination and inquisitiveness.”

We’ll all be able to see Preetam’s take on the story in a few months, because winning this contest has earned him a paid contract with Pratham Books!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest. Keep an eye out for how your delightful illustrations are being used by our community on StoryWeaver!

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