The Lightness in All Things | Outlook's Editor Chinki Sinha in Conversation with Vikram Seth

"Sit, drink your coffee here; your work can wait awhile.
You're twenty-six, and still have some of life ahead.
No need for wit; just talk vacuities, and I'll
Reciprocate in kind, or laugh at you instead.
The world is too opaque, distressing and profound.
This twenty minutes' rendezvous will make my day:
To sit here in the sun, with grackles all around,
Staring with beady eyes, and you two feet away."
- Sit by Vikram Seth
We both laughed. We drank coffee. I am not twenty-six. But there is a lot of time ahead. Outside, the world continued being profound and distressing. A red book glowed in the lamplight. It is poet Vikram Seth’s translation of the Hanuman Chalisa that’s recently been published by Speaking Tiger Publications.
After some point, the poet picked up the mango and smelled it.
“Ripe,” he announced.
There was the implied sense of smell and touch and taste of the Digha Malda in the notebook and in the camera that recorded the interview.
He had jokingly said the entry fee would be five Digha Malda mangoes. He had spent some years in Patna in Bihar long ago and had first recited a part of his translation of the Hanuman Chalisa almost a decade ago at the first edition of the Patna Literature Festival.
“To steel yourself against mangoes showed a degree of iciness that was almost inhuman,” Seth had written in his novel A Suitable Boy.
Mangoes arrived. Strangers from Bihar sent them. They know the longing for that taste of those mangoes from home.
Seth is a wanderer accumulating material for future nostalgias. That’s what he said in one his books. Mangoes are nostalgia.
We sat on little stools surrounded by hundreds of books about thousands of people and places and emotions and animals and birds.
We spoke about translating the most beloved poem of Indians, the rising intolerance and how Seth started writing.
"If I am such a beneficiary of translations, who am I to hug my translations close to myself?”
That’s what Seth said.
He had first translated the Hanuman Chalisa for his now 90-year-old aunt and at her insistence, he agreed to publish it a decade later.
“I don't share the vision to misuse it-a great, wonderful, sacred text-to do unkind, cruel, arrogant things because Hanuman was not an arrogant person; he did it in the service of someone else,” he said.
There was a lot more.
But there is always another time for it.
In the meantime, the green of the mangoes alongside the red of the book stood out.
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[@anuradhamaitra8791]

Delightful interview! Vikram was the most relaxed I’ve ever seen him in such a setting and for the task at hand. Good job, Chinki, for drawing him out as you did!

[@binaviswanathan1319]

Yes , as Usha mami said, " Many people don't understand Hindi." Myself love to listen to Hanuman Chalisa.Loved them for their music n soothing voice of legendary singers. Looking forward to reading this book. Was a delight to listen to the conversation.

[@meret99]

What a sweet, gentle man and what a delightful conversation❤❤

[@anarchicdrifter]

just the kind of interview (or conversation) I had missed for so long.... thank you Chinki & Vikram :) btw, aside from the above, after Vinod Mehta left, I had given up on Outlook (which I absolutely loved reading)... but I guess I must give it a try again, maybe you folks have kept the torch of independent, courageous and yet light/buoyant & un-academic sounding journalism burning :) take care & best wishes

[@inaayatjewels6780]

Both my favorite people from patna ❤

[@arvindbhanumurthy]

Chinki ji 💐💐💐,it takes a child,to interview another 😊

[@___1Ss-_-.sS.____]

Truly delightful conversation❤

[@anand4244]

What a delightful convo :)

[@camelkarma]

Lovely conversation

[@ranjibmazumder9507]

This was such a fine conversation.

[@unnatikumari4321]

Lovely lively interaction

[@rishabharora5504]

Delightful conversation

[@randomdesi3271]

loved this, saw Vikram Sir for the first time, have long been a fan of his work

[@camelkarma]

Saw him for the first time and you call yourself a fan? lol. 😂

[@manuvedwan4700]

Great . Oh such a new perspective!

[@gitadasgupta7488]

It is the colour of sindoor, the cover

[@PriyankaSharma12483]

❤❤❤❤

[@user-hw2yf9wu4q]

Such a charming and fascinating conversation. Thankyou

[@aamiatmaja1668]

🥭🥭🥭

[@user-xw6ky8ob4l]

Vikram Seth is unknowingly patching Indo-Pak divide by story telling with common Urdu-HIndi arrative.His choice of colour is Saffaron , Bhuddist philosophy , multilayered meanings Koran like Bhagwat Geeta style.Yet one finds neutral landscape,no mention of hell-fire or Houri of paradise.Bhuddisim impose no compulsion of reward or punishment.Bengali politicians are master of their craft to oust colonialist from Hindustan.Rest is History !

[@gitadasgupta7488]

She's an editor?

[@lkjhgasdfa]

As a genuine inquiry and not a facetious provocation: would Outlook still interview the translator had they advocated for a more strident or aggressive version of Hinduism?

[@Shokunin_Spirit]

In spite of your disclaimer, I have a feeling that the answer you're hoping for - or at least one that would satisfy you - is that probably they wouldn't have. However, for what it's worth, I believe that not taking a strong enough stance in the face of an existential crisis is cowardice. Btw, I have no idea about the explicit political leanings of Outlook, and this comment is not an attempt to convince you of my viewpoint.

[@lkjhgasdfa]

@@Shokunin_Spirit I believe you are engaged in an ongoing conversation with yourself - this is never a bad thing, and I would not like to interfere too much. Your assumption of what I would like to hear - if true - opens up far more essential questions about the various realities the contemporary artist finds themselves entangled in; courage or not is a banal reduction of this circumstance.

[@bling97]

The gooe thing abt Islam is that nobody can dare to question it...

[@puneet1111]

The interviewer is so irritatingly interrupting. Let the man talk. I sympathise with the husband.

[@rohitkarir2168]

The interviewer didn't let Vikram talk, kept butting in and badgering him. He wanted to read Chalisa but ended up shying away. She came across as somewhat controlling - perhaps the side effect of being his friend. The fact that he gives interviews rarely and the interviewer managed to snuff out even this opportunity by her wayward style made it doubly painful viewing.

[@rajshreeK1]

So true

[@suryanarayan848]

hypocrisy