Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Translating Mandela.........




Presently, I’m working on a book, by and about Nelson Mandela, a living legend of Africa. A person no need of any further introduction. It’s really a unique book that has very large span. It focuses on the life of Nelson Mandela as well as the development process of South Africa as a free nation. ‘Confession with Myself’, the title of the book, explores many aspects of Mandela’s life. Here, he appears, primarily, as a person rather than a politician. His struggle against colonization in Africa is a part of widely known history, but his growth and development as a father of nation to his country, is really worth to know.

The book has not typical biographical structure. It is a compilation of letters, speeches, interviews, pages from his personal diaries, comments by others, some unknown moments of anger and happiness in his life, his limitations as a man, his love for his people, and, of course, the path he adopted- a Gandhian path of Satyagraha.



Devastating experiences could not move him from his goal. Twenty-seven years long prison could not kill his thrust for freedom. Finally, he, Nelson Mandela emerged as a nation builder. His homeland, South-Africa, became an independent nation. He was the first president of free South-Africa. He was the modal for entire Africa continent; most of the countries of Africa were struggling for their independence. One of the most important features of this book is that Mandela himself had shared a lot from his personal things which was yet unknown to the world. His relationships with his family, his friends, his colleagues others are explored here.

When I was asked by my publisher, Mr. Saket Bhand about to translate ‘Confession with Myself” into Marathi, I was not very sure to do it, but when I just gone through the book and found it astonishing. Within few moments, I my intuition forced me to response affirmatively.

Within few months, this book has touched every nuke of the world. I am informed that, the process of translating the book in more than thirty languages of the world is going on. U.S. President Barak Obama’s article on Mandela is one of the important aspects of this book.

Let’s see how it works in regional languages. Because, I heard that it is appearing in five to six Indian languages soon.





No comments: