“Gender, mother tongue, religion or caste of the writer are irrelevant. What matters is her world view and ability to transcend personal experience to make it universal. “- Mridula Garg (Author)
2 min read
Team Kitaab is in conversation with prolific writer Mridula Garg on the release of her translation of her own novel originally released in 1979, Chittacobra (Speaking Tiger Books, 2023).
Mridula Garg is an Indian writer who writes in Hindi and English languages. She has published over 30 books in Hindi – novels, short story collections, plays and collections of essays – including several translated into English.
Equally proficient in Hindi and English, Mridula Garg has written in almost every genre—eight novels, four plays, four collections of essays, two memoirs of fellow writers, a travel account, twenty poems in Hindi and English, and eighty-six short stories.
Of the number of accolades, she has received over the years, Kathgulab (1996) was awarded the Vyas Samman in 2004 and Miljul Mann (2010), the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013. She also received the Hellman-Hammet Grant from The Human Rights Watch, New York in 2001. Five of her novels, Chittacobra (1979), Anitya (1980), Kathgulab (1996), Main Aur Main (1984) and Miljul Mann (2010), have been translated into many Indian and foreign languages.
Recently, Speaking Tiger released Chittacobra translated in English by Mridula Garg (originally written in Hindi by author in 1979 with the same title).
Sharing the book’s blurb as found on Amazon.
In 1979, Mridula Garg released her third Hindi novel, Chittacobra, the story of an intense love affair between a young Indian woman—disconnected from her home, social milieu, marriage and husband—and a gypsy missionary from Scotland. There was an uproar—the novel was branded obscene, and the police came to arrest her. But the controversy also took this remarkably frank and sensitive exploration of love and desire to many thousands of readers. It became, and remains to this day, one of the most celebrated works of contemporary Hindi literature.
