4 days ago
Geet Chaturvedi reflects on reading, writing and translations in his new book
Geet Chaturvedi's novel Simsim (2023), translated from Hindi by Anita Gopalan, introduced his richly evocative style to English readers. The Master of Unfinished Things, his recent collection of non-fiction, conveys a flavour of his cerebral genius, fed and nurtured by many tributaries of world literature.
Whether he is writing about the cats he grew up with or reminiscing about his stint as a fast bowler in school, Chaturvedi casts a magical spell of familiarity in the reader's mind. His prose triggers memories, real or imagined, filling us with an uncanny sense of deja vu, at times with epiphanies.
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Dejected by his exclusion from the cricket team in spite of bowling beautifully at the trials, only because he didn't hit the stumps each time, Chaturvedi writes, 'In every walk of life… I've met people for whom bowling—any form of it—merely meant the ball hitting the stump." All of us face such googlies in life, betrayed by convention and belief systems. Chaturvedi holds up his late friend, the Dalit poet Bhujang Meshram, and the Iranian poet Sabeer Haka, who is also a construction worker, as voices of protests against such injustices, big and small.
Chaturvedi's enthusiasm for books and writers is as palpable as it is contagious. There are more reflections on his life as a reader than writer in this volume. He is just at ease writing about Dante and Jorge Luis Borges, two of his foundational influences, as quoting from the Vedas and Sanskrit poets. Books, for him, are not just abstract founts of knowledge, but sensual objects, to be possessed and protected, a theme that he explored in Simsim too. As he writes in an essay recounting his brief career as a book thief, 'Books are also a kind of lust."
With his favourite writers, too, Chaturvedi shares an intimacy of mind and heart. He likes to write surrounded by great books because these extraordinary testaments act as the North Star for him. As for the portrait of Nirmal Verma that hangs on a wall in his study, Chaturvedi says, 'The thought that my favourite writer is watching over me when I write fills me with so much love—and responsibility."
Gopalan's flawless translation gets the cadence of Chaturvedi's prose, the friendly, charming, confiding voice that endears him to his reader. In the end, it is his ability to forge bonds with strangers, who may one day chance upon his writings, that shines through. As Chaturvedi puts it, explaining the etymology of the word sahitya (literature) in Hindi, it 'comes from 'sahit,' meaning togetherness. One interpretation of literature therefore can be the togetherness of two entities. That is to say, literature finds its meaning and existence in the interaction between creator and audience."
'The Master of Unfinished Things': By Geet Chaturvedi, translated by Anita Gopalan, Penguin Randon House, 208 pages, ₹399.
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