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Heart Lamp, a collection of short stories by Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq, has been awarded the prestigious International Booker Prize for translated fiction. The English translation by Deepa Bhasthi marks a historic win — not only is Heart Lamp the first short story collection to claim the honour, but Bhasthi also becomes the first Indian translator to win the prize.

Presented at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London on Tuesday evening, the £50,000 award is shared equally between Mushtaq and Bhasthi. A video of actor Ambika Mod reading an excerpt from the book was screened as part of the celebrations.

Originally penned in Kannada, the official language of Karnataka, the 12 stories in Heart Lamp delve into the interior worlds of women living in patriarchal communities across southern India. Bhasthi selected these stories from a larger body of work spanning six collections and three decades of Mushtaq’s literary career.

Max Porter, author and chair of this year’s judging panel, praised the book as “something genuinely new for English readers: a radical translation” of “beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories.”

Bhasthi, who has long been an advocate for translation that carries the rhythm and resonance of the source language, described her approach as “translating with an accent.” In an earlier interview with Scroll.in, she explained: “It reminds the reader that they are engaging with a world set in another culture, without exoticising it. So the English in Heart Lamp has a very deliberate Kannada hum to it.”

The International Booker Prize annually celebrates outstanding works of fiction translated into English from other languages. This year’s shortlist featured:

• On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland
• Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson
• Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda
• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes
• A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson

Past laureates of the prize include Jenny Erpenbeck and translator Michael Hofmann (Kairos, 2023), Olga Tokarczuk and Jennifer Croft, Lucas Rijneveld and Michele Hutchison, and Han Kang with Deborah Smith.

With Heart Lamp, Mushtaq’s vivid portrayals of women’s lives — and Bhasthi’s textured, culturally sensitive translation — offer international readers an intimate look at a deeply rooted Kannada literary tradition now receiving global recognition.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

Over 200 underprivileged children have got a new lease of life through affordable liver transplants at a private hospital in the city.

Through its affordable paediatric transplantation initiative — an effort that combines corporate social responsibility (CSR), government health schemes, and crowdfunding to make life-saving care accessible to underprivileged children — Aster CMI Hospital in Bengaluru and Kochi has successfully facilitated 200 transplants since 2016.

With this, the hospital has emerged as one of the largest facility in the country that supports paediatric liver transplants at affordable costs.

Sonal Asthana, lead consultant – Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) and Liver Transplant Surgery at the hospital, said liver transplants are expensive and usually cost around ₹20 lakh to ₹25 lakh. 

“However, we have created a mechanism that combines philanthropy, CSR, and government support to reduce the financial burden by nearly 80%. Families now only bear around ₹4 lakh to ₹5 lakh per transplant. This initiative is now the largest-of-its-kind in the country,” said Dr. Asthana.

The affordable liver transplant programme is driven by a specialised transplant team led by Dr. Asthana. The team includes Mallikarjun Sakpal, consultant – HPB and Transplant physician; Vachan S. Hukkeri, consultant – Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery, and  Ashritha A., consultant – Pediatric Hepatology and Liver Transplant.

The hospital’s work has also drawn national attention, being featured as a case study by IIM Ahmedabad, and recognised by Harvard Business Publishing, for redefining how philanthropy can fund high-end medical care in a scalable, accountable way.

Hospital chief operating officer S.G.S. Lakshmanan said the hospital’s CSR model is structured to create lasting impact and scale nationally.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)