Latest news with #AbhiruchiPrakashana
Time of India
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Once a bicycle bookseller, publisher Ganesh now basks in Booker glory
Bengaluru: Little did A Ganesh, a small-time bookseller pedalling through Mysuru with bundles of Kannada books in the early 1990s imagine that decades later, he would become the publisher who brought Booker recognition to Kannada literature. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Forced by circumstances to leave home, Ganesh began his career by learning proofreading. "I was drawn to stories. I read K Shivarama Karanth, Poornachandra Tejaswi, Anupama Niranjana, even Phantom comics and Balamitra. I was crazy about stories," he recalled. Over the years, Ganesh dabbled in nearly every corner of the publishing world — as a proofreader at the desk, a reader and customer passionate about Kannada writing, a cycle-based bookseller connecting literature to households, and eventually, as a publisher nurturing voices like Banu Mushtaq through his own imprint, Abhiruchi Prakashana. By 1993, he was cycling around Mysuru, calling out "pustaka, pustaka" (books, books), selling Kannada novels like those of Anupama Niranjana, Triveni, and AN Murthy. "Just like people sold saris or newspapers on cycles, I sold books," he said. Known in the lanes of the city as the man who brought literature to doorsteps, Ganesh would later be christened 'Abhiruchi' Ganesh — a name coined when someone asked him for a bill and publisher DVK Murthy (whose books he sold on the cycle) suggested, "Abhiruchi." Back then, Kannada Book Authority was encouraging Kannada book stores. GT Narayan Rao, a science writer who saw Ganesh pedalling daily, helped him secure books worth Rs 25,000 under the Kannada Pustaka Pradhikara scheme. "That support allowed me to open a store," he said. In 1995, Abhiruchi Prakashana was officially born. He published works of Devanooru Mahadeva and Baraguru Ramachandrappa among others, including Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Ganesh's long association with Banu Mushtaq began in 2002, during a protest in Chikkamagaluru over Baba Budangiri. "She was detained, and activist K Ramdas and I went to speak to police. Once she was released, she gave me a script — a set of stories," he recalled. The result was Safira, Banu Mushtaq's first published short story collection, which sold out its first 1,000 copies and was reprinted. To him, her bold, woman-centric writing — dealing with abandonment, clerical injustice, and social marginalisation — stood out. "There are very few Muslim women writing in Kannada — maybe three or four. But her voice was powerful," Ganesh said. He went on to first publish Badavara Magalu Hennalla (2002), which sold 2,000 copies, and in 2013, brought out Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu, a five-collection compilation. In 2023, it was expanded with 'Hennu Haddina Swayamvara' to include 47 stories across six compilations. The reprint of 1,000 hardbound copies on April 30 sold out within days after the Booker shortlisting. On May 21, with the prize announcement, demand surged. "We've placed a reprint order for 2,000 more," he said. Ganesh was among those waited for the award announcement at 2.30am. "Banu sent me the link to the event. We got on a call about half-an-hour later — only for 59 seconds — her worried about missing medicines, but filled with joy. She said, 'Kannada and India won today.' I felt like a small-town boy who is overwhelmed when told about having won a big prize," he said.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Heart Lamp's 12 stories to be published separately in Kannada
Mysuru: The 12 short stories featured in 'Heart Lamp', which won the International Booker Prize 2025, will be published as a book in Kannada. Abhiruchi Ganesh of the city-based Abhiruchi Prakashana, who originally published 'Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu', the Kannada story collection of acclaimed writer Banu Mushtaq where these stories were first published, said he will publish the 12 short stories in 'Heart Lamp' separately. These stories include Black Cobras, Be a Woman Once, Oh Lord, and Heart Lamp (Edeya Hanate). Meanwhile, the demand for 'Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu', which brought Booker laurels to Kannada, has skyrocketed with 450 copies sold on May 21, hours after the announcement of the award. Around 700 copies of this book were sold in two days. According to Ganesh, the Kannada short story collection, a 584-page book, was first published in 2013. Ganesh, who came to the publishing industry as per the advice of the late activist and Kannada professor K Ramdas, said he did 17 odd jobs before becoming a publisher. "I took this responsibility to support the progressive movements in Karnataka," he explained to TOI. "Banu Mushtaq's work was first published in 2013 with 1,000 copies. A few weeks ago, we published the second edition with 1,000 copies. As all copies sold in 15 days, the third edition is coming out this Wednesday. In this edition, we are printing 2,000 copies. But the demand is for over 3,500 copies. So, a fourth edition will also come," he explained. Ganesh explained that a few more books of Banu are also lined up in the coming days. "The latest edition will also include her latest story collection Hennu Haddina Svayamvara. The book will have 776 pages," he explained.
The Hindu
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Lady with the lamp
Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq has been lending expression to the voiceless for five decades, and when Deepa Bhasthi came on board as translator, her stories leapt across linguistic barriers and provincial borders. On Tuesday (May 20, 2025), Mushtaq's Heart Lamp, translated from Kannada to English by Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize for 2025. This is the first honour for Kannada, a language Mushtaq says has 'cosmic wonder and earthly wisdom', on this stage. It's also the first time a collection of short stories has been feted, and the second time in three years an Indian writer has gotten the top prize. Geetanjali Shree had won for Tomb of Sand, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell in 2022. Heart Lamp (And Other Stories/Penguin) is a selection of 12 tales, written between 1990 and 2023. An array of characters have walk-on parts — maulvis, thuggish brothers who flex muscles on their whims, grandparents, uncles, broods of children — but the spotlight is firmly on Muslim girls and women on the margins, searching for a toehold in a claustrophobic patriarchal world. It was published originally in Kannada (Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu) by Abhiruchi Prakashana, Mysuru. One of the stories in Heart Lamp, 'Black Cobra', was made into a feature film, Hasina, by Girish Kasaravalli. A lawyer and activist based in Hassan, a town on the leeward side of the Western Ghats and a gateway to coastal Karnataka, Mushtaq, now 77, was inspired by the Bandaya Sahitya movement of the 1980s, which urged women to write about their lived experiences. An empathetic observer and listener, Mushtaq began documenting stories from unheard corners, jotting down every aspect of the women's lives, their drudgery, anxieties, as well as their joy. 'This book is my love letter to the idea that no story is local. [It] was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience every thread holds the weight of the whole,' she said in an impassioned acceptance speech high on grace and gratitude. Most of the women she writes about lack agency over their bodies. They are often powerless, financially dependent, and have little say over any other aspect too, particularly education. Girls are withdrawn from school at the drop of a hat. Dash of wry humour If they are married, like Mehrun in the title story, it means they can never return to their parents' home; whatever the husband's misdemeanours, Mehrun is asked to bear it or look away. When she can't take it anymore, it's her daughter Salma who pulls her from the brink. When this spirit of sisterhood works, women extend a hand to others; when it doesn't, there's misery and silent tears deep into the night. Her stories have wry humour too — in the last, a mother weary after giving birth, appeals to god: 'Be a woman once, Oh Lord!' Like Sara Aboobacker, who wrote about Muslim women in coastal Kerala and Karnataka and was critical of patriarchy and other issues, Mushtaq too has been outspoken about women's lack of choice in matters of faith and reproductive rights. Both writers faced the wrath of fundamentalists. For making Mushtaq's stories gain a global readership, Bhasthi's 'radical translation' has come in for praise. Bhasthi writes in the translator's note that between them they know more than six languages. Bhasthi retains the rhythms of the many Kannadas spoken in the region. For instance, Mushtaq speaks Dakhni at home, whose base is Urdu with loan words from Persian, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu — but her language at work and on the street is Kannada. Readers will break into a smile on hearing the words mothers often spit out in shock — 'thoo, thoo.' Booker Jury Chair Max Porter said the radical translation hits 'viscerally.' Both writer and translator harped on the richness of Kannada and hoped it would lead to more translations from other 'magical' languages of South Asia. Calling literature one of the 'last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other's minds, if only for a few pages,' Mushtaq hoped her win would 'light the way for more stories that defy borders.' The finest of literature offers an honest mirror, and surely Mushtaq holds a luminous one.
The Hindu
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
1,000 new copies of Banu Mushtaq's Kannada original to be reprinted
The demand for the Kannada book, 'Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu,' the original compilation of short stories of whose English translation won the International Booker Prize for Kannada writer and advocate Banu Mushtaq, has increased since the announcement of the award. This has prompted the Mysuru-based publishers, Abhiruchi Prakashana to reprint 1,000 new books of the original collection. The book was first published in 2013 by Abhiruchi Prakashana and has been sold out over the years. 'After 'Heart Lamp' was shortlisted for the Booker Prize about 15 days ago, 1,000 new copies were reprinted. While 300 copies sold out after the shortlisting, the rest were sold out in the last two days after the announcement of the award. 'Now, 1,000 new copies will be made available from Tuesday, and they will have 'Booker Prize winner' on the cover page,' said Ganesh M., founder of Abhiruchi Prakashana. He also said that there is a huge demand for the book in the stores as well as online markets. With the book being sold out in major bookstores, readers are borrowing it from others. 'I wanted to read all the works of Banu Mushtaq and went to buy it, and could not find it anywhere. I have asked a friend who already has a copy to give it to me after he finishes reading,' said Chandrakanth J., an avid reader of Kannada literature from the city. 'Heart Lamp' is a collection of 12 short stories of Banu Mushtaq written between 1990 and 2023, translated into English by Deepa Bhashti.
