Overview

From the hundreds of short stories written by Gangadhar Gadgil, this representative collection has fourteen in English translation. There is fable and fantasy, humour and poignancy, sentiment and cynicism, sharp comment on society and human behaviour that is tender as well as brutally exploitative. Every character lives and breathes in Gadgil's stories whether they struggle in the middle-class chawls, crowded restaurants and streets of suburban Mumbai, or even on the beach at Mahabalipuram. His language is playful, acerbic, alliterative, sometimes even poetic, never effusive, always clear and precise. Gadgil's stories are relevant, long after they were first published in Marathi, since the changing social structure, the pace of life, the tension in interpersonal relationships and the consequent angst that he depicts, remain essentially the same.

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Reviews

'Gangadhar Gadgil has been called the Napoleon of modern Marathi literature . . . The fast pace of life and the ability to absorb internal contradictions are the qualities of Mumbai that he brings out starkly in his stories. His tone is apparently sarcastic, and sometimes even bitingly critical, but it cannot hide the deep sympathy he has for his characters who are more often than not the victims of their suffocating circumstances . . . 'Keerti Ramachandra has displayed exceptional skills in getting the essence of each story in the English version along with the tone of the writer.' USHA TAMBE, Writer 'Gangadhar Gadgil represents the New Short Story era by being a pioneer in bringing about fresh literary awareness into Marathi literature of the time. His style is deceptively simple, which at times turns satirical . . . Keerti moves fluently in both languages with a creative mind; she can hear the inner voice of a writer.' SANIYA, Writer 'Gadgil is a master of narratives of the chawls, ushering of love stories during hustle and bustle of local train travel, crowded restaurants and constant struggle to get financial security. 'Keerti Ramachandra, is a professional translator . . . She has taken great care to keep the flow of stories intact without making any compromises on the way author has depicted the characters with minute details.' PRAKASH BAL JOSHI, Free Press Journal 'Gangadhar Gadgil's stories open up not a region and its people, but also a time. Keerti Ramachandra's translation is an important effort to know that place, people, and time.' HANSDA SOWVENDRA SHEKHAR, National Herald

"'Gangadhar Gadgil has been called the Napoleon of modern Marathi literature . . . The fast pace of life and the ability to absorb internal contradictions are the qualities of Mumbai that he brings out starkly in his stories. His tone is apparently sarcastic, and sometimes even bitingly critical, but it cannot hide the deep sympathy he has for his characters who are more often than not the victims of their suffocating circumstances . . . 'Keerti Ramachandra has displayed exceptional skills in getting the essence of each story in the English version along with the tone of the writer.' USHA TAMBE, Writer 'Gangadhar Gadgil represents the ""New Short Story"" era by being a pioneer in bringing about fresh literary awareness into Marathi literature of the time. His style is deceptively simple, which at times turns satirical . . . Keerti moves fluently in both languages with a creative mind; she can hear the inner voice of a writer.' SANIYA, Writer 'Gadgil is a master of narratives of the chawls, ushering of love stories during hustle and bustle of local train travel, crowded restaurants and constant struggle to get financial security. 'Keerti Ramachandra, is a professional translator . . . She has taken great care to keep the flow of stories intact without making any compromises on the way author has depicted the characters with minute details.' PRAKASH BAL JOSHI, Free Press Journal 'Gangadhar Gadgil's stories open up not a region and its people, but also a time. Keerti Ramachandra's translation is an important effort to know that place, people, and time.' HANSDA SOWVENDRA SHEKHAR, National Herald"

Author Information

GANGADHAR GADGIL (1923-2008), writer, economist and teacher, received the Sahitya Akademi award in 1996 for his autobiographical work Eka Mungiche Mahabharat (An Ant's Mahabharat). He wrote novels, plays, travelogues and a large number of stories. He was one of the pioneers who ushered in a new era in the art of the short story in Marathi literature during the 1950s and 1960s. His craft breaks fresh ground in the structure, theme and narrative of storytelling in that his stories do not follow the largely romanticized vision of life. Rather, they deal with day-to-day situations faced by the urban middle-class and its efforts to cope with them. He treats his characters with empathy, making them likeable if not always admirable. His narrative style differs from story to story, and is rich with unorthodox imagery. KEERTI RAMACHANDRA is a teacher, editor and translator from Marathi, Kannada and Hindi into English. Her translation of Vishwas Patil's Marathi novel, A Dirge for the Dammed, was shortlisted for the Crossword Prize in 2015. She has received the Katha A.K. Ramanujan award for translating from more than two languages, and also the Katha award in 1997.

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