'Emotional Explosions, Turmoil Are Universal': International Booker Winner

Journalist, lawyer, author and activist Banu Mushtaq, whose "Heart Lamp" won the International Booker Prize, said her stories of Muslim women from traditional south Indian families had resonated with the global audience because they think they reflect the universal condition of women. 

Asked about the matter in an exclusive interview with NDTV Banu Mushtaq said her readers feel that the stories "can be applied to wherever women are there".

"These types of issues, turmoil, emotional explosions - it can be traced universally in all parts of the world. -- that is their opinion," she said.

As to why her anthology of 12 short stories appealed to the Booker Committee, she said from what the members said at various press conferences they attended with her, she has come to the conclusion that it is a "new thing" they have experienced. 

"The stories in heart lamp are socially committed pieces. They are individual experiences which have been documented by me," she said. 

But at the same time, they are not just experiences. "It has grown in my mind, in fiction, in form, which have been accepted by the global audience," she said. 

The stories in "Heart Lamp" exquisitely captures the everyday lives of girls and women in Muslim communities of south India - characters and experiences she has come across while championing women's rights and her protest against caste and religious oppression.

The anthology contains 12 short stories she has written over 30 years and the book came together after she won a short story contest in 2022. "That was what started it... part of the package was one book of the author would be published in English, she said.

The Booker Committee, she said, was highly impressed by characterization, the picture presented and the way of story-telling. 
"They are impressed by the style. They say it starts in an innocent way and gives an abrupt shock in course of the story," she said. 

Translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, "Heart Lamp's rich colloquial style, while not a first in India, fits the narrative and drops naturally from the lips of the characters that populate her stories.

Asked why she, as a multi-lingual person, chose Kannada as her medium, Ms Mushtaq said as a Muslim woman brought up in a traditional family, her mother-tongue was Dakhni Urdu, which is not as sophisticated as the north Indian Urdu and colloquial influences from all over south. 

But she was later taught Arabic and Urdu by her grandfather and studied in a Kannada-medium school. "It was the language I felt most comfortable in, she said. 

"Heart Lamp" received the International Booker Prize - meant for English translations of works in other languages - on Tuesday. Ms Mushtaq called it a "victory for diversity" as she accepted the prize at London's Tate Gallery.