Amader Shantiniketan, the memoir of late Hindi writer Gaura Pant ‘Shivani’ (1923-2003) will be out in a English translated version by her daughter Ira Pande in May. Published by the Vintage imprint of the Penguin Random house, the book was written by the acclaimed author some 50 years ago, and encapsulates her perspective as a young girl studying in Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. An homage to gurus and grand institutions, the memoir also captures the spirit of the place.
Ira Pande, who started as a lecturer in Panjab University and later moved to editing and publishing, is a 2011 Sahitya Akademi winner for her translation of Manohar Shyam Joshi’s T’ta Professor. She has also written a memoir of her mother titled Diddi: My Mother’s Voice, in 2005 documenting the life and times of her mother, Shivani.
“Amader Shantiniketan has always been the favourite of my mother’s works,” Pande says, adding, “Apart from recording an important part of the fashioning of the Bengal renaissance, the book is written from the perspective of a child. It captures the innocence and the pristine, pastoral world that Tagore created, and brings alive people in a way that only a child can portray them. This book was born to be translated into English now, at a time when that Bengal and that life has almost vanished. Today, when I see the legacy of Tagore being fought over, I think that the world needs to be remembered, and that school needs to be preserved in our memories.”
Rajkot-born Shivani was sent to Shantiniketan at the age of 12, where she spent nine years. Throughout her life, Shivani lived by her gurus’ teachings at the ashram, and looked at Bengal as her second home. Awarded the Padma Shri in 1979, her literature showcases numerous imprints of Bengal and Kumaon. Shivani went on to write several travelogues and a three-part autobiography before she passed away. A lot of her novels were serialised in the popular magazines of the time and created a vast readership; something that her contemporaries.
Elizabeth Kuruvilla, Executive Editor, Ebury Publishing & Vintage, Penguin Random House India, says, “Shivani is a masterful storyteller, and in Amader Shantiniketan, she transports you to the carefree world of the childhood she spent at Shantiniketan. Witty and filled with warmth and laughter, this is a rare, intimate view of life in Tagore’s experimental school, which shaped the most creative minds of the age. These are stories that need to be read by adults and children alike, of a school that allowed its students to not just dream but also, importantly, to day-dream.”