Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey flips through the pages of Abar Mahabharat.Picture by Gopal Senapati

Diplomat-turned-author-turned-politician Sashi Tharoor was more than delighted to have his The Great Indian Novel translated into Bengali 25 years after it was written. Had Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey not approached Tharoor directly in 2013, he would probably never have thought of translating his work into Bengali. Although he could not attend the launch of the translation at the Calcutta Book Fair on January 30, Tharoor sent his wishes through a letter that was read out at the launch.

Jhimli, a journalist for 19 years, raced against time to complete translating The Great Indian Novel. “It is a difficult piece of work because it is a mix of mythology, politics and history. Political leaders have been named after characters from the Mahabharata. Gandhi has been called Bhishma, Nehru Dhritarashtra and so on. The novel is set in a time frame of 50 years from pre-Independence India to the first three decades after Independence,” said Jhimli.

The thought of translating The Great Indian Novel occurred to Jhimli when she was interacting with Tharoor regarding a report on Calcutta University. “I had to keep in touch with him about details of the report and I happened to ask him what he was writing at that time. In the course of conversation, I asked Sashi about his favourite work and he said it was The Great Indian Novel. So I asked if he was interested in getting it translated to Bengali. He asked me who would do it and I said I would,” said Jhimli.

Burning the midnight oil and writing through breaks at work, Jhimli managed to complete the work in time for Patra Bharati to publish Abar Mahabharat for the Book Fair launch. Since Sashi could not come for the Calcutta launch, he plans to re-launch it in Delhi later this year.

Jhimli’s debut as a writer happened when she had to take her young son to school in Calcutta and drop him back at home in Howrah. “He studies in La Martiniere and I waited for him at Minto Park. Sitting there, I got into the habit of writing and started translating works. Gandharbo, a publisher, asked me to translate three short stories by Sirshendu Mukherjee and another long poem by Jogen Chowdhury into English,” said Jhimli. Her first translation was published in 2008. Sirshendu Mukherjee’s Bipin Babur Kando was titled Blame it on Bipinbabu.

Jhimli’s next venture was a children’s novel, titled Hidden Treasure Trove published in 2009. In 2010, Jhimli did another set of translations, a collection of 10 Nonte Phonte stories into English. “Apart from translations, I was also writing stories for Kishore Bharati, Suktara, Femina Bangla and other publications. Along with that I had to juggle my job,” said Jhimli. She has also done the script for a comics book on Sirshendu Mukherjee’s Gosaibaganer Bhut.

Jhimli with Sankar, film director Shekhar Das and Sirshendu Mukherjee at the launch of Abar Mahabharat at the Calcutta Book Fair

Juggling a demanding profession with her passion needs a lot of time management. “I try to reach office early and start writing before meetings start. Sometimes, when I am under pressure, I also have to stay up at night. Of course, I get a lot of support from my husband, Ramesh Pandey and my mother,” she said. However, Jhimli says that she is now living her father’s dream. “He always told me to do something more than my profession and he was happy that I was writing my own novels and doing translations,” reminisced Jhimli.

More about Jhimli

• DoB: June 10, 1972
• Born in: Howrah
• Family: Mother, husband, son
• Education: BA
• Loves: Travelling, cooking, reading
• Hates: Watching TV