Geetanjali Shree is the author of Tomb of Sand, which won the International Booker Prize in 2022. (Image: Shutterstock)
‘Ret Samadhi’ was later translated by Daisy Rockwell into ‘Tomb Of Sand’ which won millions of hearts worldwide, read on to know what the author has to say about the book and much more-
Author Geetanjali Shree made history when her novel ‘Tomb Of Sand’ became the first ever Hindi novel to win the once prestigious International Booker Prize Award. The book first published in Hindi as ‘Ret Samadhi’ was later translated into English by the phenomenal Daisy Rockwell. With five novels, a biography of Mushi Premchand, two short stories and several awards to her credit, Shree is not only a prominent name in the Hindi literary world, but has also left a lasting impression across the global literary spectrum as well, place the Booker Awards.
Since the Booker Prize took place in 2022, this top writer has been busier than ever, touring literary festivals and attending lectures. In an exclusive conversation with NW18 when she attended the Jaipur Literature Festival, Shree revealed what her life was like after the Booker Award, her book ‘Ret Samadhi’, the realm of Hindi literature and much more.
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It’s been quite some time since you received the Booker Prize. Looking back, how do you think it has changed your life and the work you do?
Every experience we have, not just the Booker Prize, if you are a sensitive person, will add a dimension to your life. So Booker has been a great experience and it has opened up my world and introduced me to a larger community of interactions. A world has opened up for me and that’s great. One thing that I don’t like very much is to become such a public person. I’m very grateful for all the recognition, but in a way so many performances and conversations have come to feel like an obligation because I like to keep to myself and I like my life to be private. I’m happy to do all this for a little while, but a writer is a writer first and foremost, my life revolves around writing, so I’ll get back to it slowly.
When you were writing ‘Ret Samadhi’, did you ever think or expect that you would receive the kind of love and honor that both the book and you later received?
Not really. I’m definitely not the kind of writer who thinks about the results. The world is such a mysterious place, you don’t know your readers, so it’s not like I have the formula that I know is going to work. One book will get me certain readers and another book will get me a little more, the previous group of readers might not like my new work and the newer ones might.
There’s always a little bit of mystery a little bit of risk about where your work is going to take you and to determine who your readership is going to be so in a sense I’m prepared for any work I start to fail but I try to be as honest as I can writing, as sincerely as I can and trying to find that soul and voice of that particular work and just work with it. The finished product then goes out into the world and I’m ready to take whatever comes. ‘Ret Samadhi’ is such a ‘crazy’ book, I thought people would reject it.
The kind of honor bestowed on you and your book has instantly drawn attention and brought to light the kind of work being done in contemporary Hindi literature. What do you have to say about that?
That’s fantastic. I mean if you become the medium through which something like that is realized, that you belong to a rich world and you belong to India, then a lot more is happening and a lot of good literary work is happening in our country, not just in Hindi but also in other languages and it actually happens all over South Asia. It is very well written. I am very happy to have become the excuse for which attention has been paid to the Hindi literary spectrum and I hope that more and more of this world will be discovered by people who do not have direct access to it.
Often people shy away from writing in their mother tongue or other regional languages, but you are someone who feels extremely comfortable writing in Hindi. Was that comfort always there? Why do you think people are hesitant to express their creativity in regional languages?
To be quite honest, I was too. But regarding the second part of your question, we are from an ex-colonial country and there is a language problem that is a result of colonialism. We live with a hierarchy where English enjoys beautiful compositions, but other languages don’t so much. Again, this is not the same everywhere as there are states like Bengal, Kerala and Maharashtra where the mother tongue is highly valued so it is an uneven story. But overall, the truth is that English in India is praised higher than the rest.
However, more people are becoming aware of this situation and are slowly starting to write in regional languages again. Also, our native language tends to put itself through our blood, so when it comes to something as intimate as creative writing, we almost spontaneously rediscover its values. I hope we come to understand the importance of our rich regional languages. We can continue to celebrate English, but we also need to stick to the diverse regional languages across the country and works as well.
What do we expect to see from you in the near future and what is at stake for you?
Writing more and more, that’s what I have to do and love to do.
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