Amritasya Narmada

A passionate reader himself, my husband first introduced this book, Amritasya Narmada and its first volume, Saundarya ki Nadi Narmada, authored in Hindi by Sri Amritlal Vegad, to me, something like in the year 2000. The sheer simplicity of expressions and how they overawed me with a unique experience of pleasurable emotions, as I read through each chapter, was a thrill intensifying within. What I sensed with each reading then, checking me to keep the book aside, before I completed it, was how a work of art holds and stirs.

That I would be translating it into English, was not an obvious thought that could have crossed my mind. I was not qualified to do so. But an invitation from Madurai by SIASN to present a paper on comparative multicultural aspect in literature, and the ensuing events, became, the defining moments in inspiring me to take up this wholesome task.

The one person to encourage me to shoulder the assignment at Madurai was none other than my husband again. Imaginative with an unusual and exceptionally creative mind, he, Mr. Mukul Tiwari, was the one to suggest; to venture upon a comparative study of Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and Amritlal Vegad’s twin volumes on Narmada parikrama.

I plunged into it eagerly, popping-up with the presentation of it on time, in Jan 2004. I owe my earnest gratitude to Prof. V Richard, Retd. Prof. and Head of English Department, St. Joseph’s Convent College, Trichy, who sat all through, listening to the presentation. He was the one to initiate me into translating the book Amritasya Narmada, and also the one to remove all qualms about my being the most unsuited for this debut. An unwearied and self-less aid like him was one of the most fortunate blessings.

But the most affectionate blessings came from the author of the book, Sri Amritlal Vegad. The book in Gujarati has fetched the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award for him in 2005. His persevering attitude and childlike passion towards his creativity had enthused an aura of vigour in me. Time and again, my dialogues with him had further stirred me into effecting and unceasingly improving upon it.

I would also like to register my deepest gratitude for Mira Behn, the fervent English devotee of the Narmada River. She has also performed parikramas and has translated Sri Vegad’s books in English, by her real name, Marietta Maddrell. Subtle insights into the English language, which helped me to discover and to add to whatever little English I know, I owe to her.

This book in translation is before the readers as a symbol of that indelible faith, which such individuals help cultivate in the hearts of flimsy entities like me. They are those rare beings who epitomise endeavour, wedded with "they also serve who only wait." Communicating the culture and ethnicity of a not so familiar region of India, in a foreign language, has been an experience of being blessed with individuals like them around. This way, the potentials of a language move beyond limits and its current global stature is enhanced by translating the regional culture, to be made known to global readers.

Sri Amritlal Vegad is a professional Narmada artist and writer. He has circumambulated the entire course of the Narmada. Based on his Narmada parikrama (circumambulation), his collages and sketches have been invited in various art exhibitions and also awarded on multiple occasions. The three travelogues or travel accounts of journey by foot (padyatra), that Sri Vegad has penned, is the outcome of his interest in art, along with his penchant for writing. The aim of the author is to inaugurate the awe-inspiring beauty of the Narmada. Together with Narmada attractiveness, the books also embrace an intimate glimpse of the life of inhabitants along the river banks. At present, Narmada is not just for Vegad, but is also a pleasing visual for all of us. This is the strength of his writing.