For Now, It Is Night: Stories by Hari Krishna Kaul - A Conversation with Translator Kalpana Raina

Hari Krishna Kaul, one of the most celebrated Kashmiri writers, published most of his work between 1972 and 2000. His short stories, shaped by the social crisis and political instability in Kashmir, explore – with a keen eye for detail, biting wit, and deep empathy – themes of isolation, individual and collective alienation, corruption, and the social mores of a community that experienced a loss of homeland, culture, and language. His characters navigate their ever-changing environs with humor as they make uncomfortable compromises to survive. Beautifully translated in a unique collaborative project, For Now, It Is Night brings many of Kaul’s resonant stories to English readers for the first time.

This event will feature translator Kalpana Raina in conversation with Professor Sonam Kachru and Professor Sunil Amrith.

SPEAKER BIOS

Kalpana Raina was born in Kashmir and lives in New York. She is a senior executive with extensive financial, management and advisory experience internationally. Raina is currently the Vice Chair at Words Without Borders, a premier online journal of translations. Her collaborative translation project of stories from the Kashmiri language, For Now, It Is Night, is her first work of translation.

Sonam Kachru is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University. Kachru specializes in the history of premodern South Asian philosophy and literature, with an emphasis on Buddhist philosophy. He is also active in translating the lyrical archive of Lalla of Kashmir.

Sunil Amrith is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History at Yale University, with a secondary appointment as Professor at the Yale School of the Environment. He is also the current Chair of the Council on South Asian Studies at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. Amrith’s research focuses on movements of people and ecological processes that have connected South and Southeast Asia.