Food Tales for Nostalgia

Arunava Sinha on translating Kallol Lahiri’s Bengali novella,
“Indubala Bhaater Hotel”

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Food Tales for Nostalgia — Book Cover: “Indubala Bhaater Hotel”

First Draft is a monthly column in our features section, where we invite translators to give us a glimpse into their process. They share a first draft of a single paragraph – no more – from a translation they are currently working on, accompanied by a brief reflection on the decisions, challenges, and discoveries that shaped that particular version.

The first draft occupies a unique place in the life of a translation: it is where intuition meets craft, where meaning begins to find its form, and where the translator's voice first enters into conversation with the original text. It is provisional yet revealing, carrying within it the possibilities and tensions that later revisions may smooth over.

We think of this column as a translator’s diary: a space where translators let readers into the negotiations, dilemmas, interpretations, and choices that shape the work of translation.

‘Someone planted an idea in Lochhmi’s head. She marched up to Indubala, took an eight-anna coin from her pouch, put it on the ground, and said, I’ll have something to eat at your house today maaji. Don’t mind, all right? The 12.25 to Canning has left, I won’t get home before dusk. I need some…

Pause here for now.

Arunava Sinha

Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern, and contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from Bengali and Hindi into English. He also translates fiction and poetry from English and Hindi into Bengali. Over 100 of his translations have been published so far in India, the UK, the USA, and Australia. He teaches at Ashoka University, where he is also the co-director of the Ashoka Centre for Translation. He mentors early-career translators, and runs Chowringhee Press, an imprint for young translators to publish their work.