THE MADHOUSE: PAGALKHANA
ISBN: 978-81-19626-27-4
PUBLISHER: NIYOGI BOOKS
Latest from Niyogi Books ‘The MadHouse: Pagalkhana’ originally written in Hindi by well-known litterateur Gyan Chaturvedi has been translated into English by Punarvasu Joshi.
Not new to the world of translation, Punarvasu holds a PhD in nanotechnology from Arizona State University. He decided to take up Pagalkhana as he believed that this allegorical satire pulls back the curtain on the vicious cycle of consumership. It holds a mirror to today’s society and is story that needs to reach a wider audience.
The translator has managed to beautifully capture the zeitgeist of today’s consumerist society in the four hundred odd page book which chronicles the jarring transformation that occurred in the psyche of the Indian society by the onslaught of liberalisation.
The collection of stories are woven around two characters, the omnipresent character being ‘The Bazaar’, and then there is the hapless ‘The Citizen,’ continuously trapped in the vicious cycle of ‘The Bazaar’ where ‘The Citizen” is robbed off his dreams, aspirations and memories even when he is constantly trying to lock himself away from the prying eyes of the Bazaar – who is out to get him! He writes: ‘It was a flood. Life was surrounded by the Bazaar, everywhere.’ He goes on to further elaborate, ‘It was the Bazaar that was flowing everywhere. Laughter, conversation, day-to-day dealings among people, literature, culture……’
It is in this free-market economy and excessive consumption that nameless characters of The Madhouse find themselves trapped, day in and day out, ‘The Bazaar kept expanding…. When it spreads, it swallows everything that comes in its way. The bazaar had spread so far and so fast…’
In this game of pursuit and escape between the Citizen and the Bazaar, the author Dr Chaturvedi has done a fantastic job of showcasing the pain, the plight, the psyche, the pride, the breakdown and the dynamics churning within our society post 1990s liberalisation. As he writes, ‘Personal relationships were the first to dissolve. Friendships found themselves neck-deep in the muddy waters.’
Punarva Joshi has done justice to the original, as it a tale that needs to be told, and retold. The translator’s love for both the languages, Hindi and English makes the book a reader’s delight. Light and breezy, the translator keeps his sentences short and crisp. The Madhouse is a befitting tribute to the original work and to the skill or passion or maybe both, of the translator who has brought it to a wider readership.
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