ನೆನಪು ಅನಂತ: UR Ananthamurthy
Esther Ananthamurthy with Vanamala Viswanatha
Esther Ananthamurthy
Bio
Esther Ananthanurthy grew up in Hassan and attended college in Mysore and Bangalore. In 1960, while in college, she married U.R. Ananthamurthy and then accompanied him to Birmingham, UK when he won a Commonwealth scholarship to do his doctorate. She worked as a lab technician for some time at the Birmingham Technical College. After returning to Mysore, she completed her B.Sc. at Sarada Vilas College, and then her B.Ed. at St. Joseph's Teachers Training College and M.Ed. at Mysore University. She began her teaching career in Mysore at the Royal English School. Later, at the Manasa Gangothri High School, she taught Science and Mathematics for 18 years. She was also the Principal of this school for over a decade.
Esther is interested in music and theatre and was an active member of Mysore's Samatento theatre group. She acted in Kadu Prani (The Bear) by Anton Chekhov, Avahane by U.R. Ananthamurthy, Tayi (The Mother) by Bertolt Brecht, Ghashiram Kotwal by Vijay Tendulkar and other plays. She has translated several children's
home in Mysore was always open to visitors, and this tradition of hospitality continued wherever she and her husband moved, including Bangalore where she now lives.
Vanamala Viswanatha
Bio
An acclaimed academic and an award-winning translator, Prof. Vanamala Viswanatha taught English language and literature for over four decades in premiere institutions in Bengaluru such as the Indian Institute of Science, Regional Institute of English, PG Centre of Bangalore University, and Azim Premji University. Deeply engaged with various facets of Kannada culture, Prof. Vanamala Viswanatha anchored the Kannada news on Doordarshan from 1984-94. She was Associate Director, Katha Regional Academic Centre, Bangalore, an initiative that promoted Indian literatures in translation. She also worked as Honorary Director, Centre
for Translation, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Prof Vanamala Viswanatha served as a member on the National Translation Mission as well.
Working between Kannada and English over the last four decades, Prof Vanamala Viswanatha has translated and introduced several well-known Kannada writers such as Sara Aboobacker, Lankesh, Tejasvi, Vaidehi, and Ananthamurthy. The Life of Harishchandra (Harvard University Press, 2017), her translation of a medieval Kannada poetic classic in the Murty Classical Library of India Series, is a landmark publication. Prof Viswanatha’s translation (with Shivarama Padikkal) of Indira Bai, the first social novel in Kannada, published by Oxford University Press (2019), is yet another milestone in presenting the literary treasures of Kannada to a global readership. This novel in English translation received the Best Translation award in 2020 from Kuvempu Bhasha Bharathi Pradhikara, Government of Karnataka.
Kannada text from the Jain tradition (forthcoming, MCLI, Harvard University Press) and Malegalalli Madumagalu, an epic novel by Kuvempu, the literary colossus from Kannada (forthcoming, Penguin Random House).