Golchakkar: Mother Tongues in a Global Context
Golchakkar Series - The March panel of our virtual literary talk featured Benyamin, Pankhuri Sinha, Ramesh Karthik Nayak, and Neelam Saxena Chandra: Mother Tongues in a Global Context. Hosted by Kiran Bhat.
The Chakkar welcomes to our reading series, GOLCHAKKAR. Every month, we will host an online panel discussion of Indian artists in conversation with the world.
Mother Tongues in a Global Context - Benyamin, Pankhuri Sinha, Ramesh Karthik Nayak, and Neelam Saxena Chandra
This month on Golchakkar, we were joined by multillingual authors Benyamin, Pankhuri Sinha, Ramesh Karthik Nayak, and Neelam Saxena Chandra to discuss mother tongue Indian writing in a global context. How can languages transcend the boundaries of their regionalities? How does our global and interconnected way of life change the parametres of regional literature in India? The session was hosted as ever by world traveler, polyglot, and author Kiran Bhat.
Participants
BENYAMIN is a Malayalam novelist and short-story writer, publishing 24 books, including nine novels. Aadujeevitham (Goat Days) won the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award and was translated into multiple languages. Jasmine Days won the JCB Prize for Literature (2018) and the Crossword Book Award (2018) for Translation.
PANKHURI SINHA is a bilingual poet and short-story writer who has published poetry collections in English and Hindi. Her work has been published in journals and anthologies home and abroad and she has won a number of prestigious awards, including the best correspondence prize for her short story in the Chekhov literature festival, the Kumud Tikki Award, the Mathura Prasad Gunjan Award and more. Her poems have been translated in over 22 languages.
RAMESH KARTHIK NAYAK is a poet based in Jakranpally Thanda, Telangana. He has published the Telugu poetry collection Balder Bandy and his English collection Chakmak (Flintstones) is forthcoming. He is from Banjara (Lambadi), a scheduled-tribe community in Telengana/Andhra Pradesh.
NEELAM SAXENA CHANDRA has authored 5 novels, 1 novella and 7 short story collections, 32 poetry collections and 14 children’s books. She holds a record with the Limca Book of Records (2015) for being the Author having the highest number of publications in a year in English and Hindi. She has received Sohanlal Dwivedi Puraskar for children’s literature by Maharashtra state Hindi Sahitya Akademi for the year 2018, Humanity International Women Achiever Awards 2018, Bharat Nirman Literary award in 2017 and other awards and honors.
KIRAN BHAT is an Indian-American novelist, short-story writer, and educator. He is the author of We of the Forsaken World, Afora Adentro, Autobiografia, Kiran Speaks, Tirugaatha, and more. An avid world traveler, polyglot, and digital nomad, he has currently travelled to over 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. He currently lives in Melbourne.
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