Feb 13 2026 to Feb 13 2026 6:30 p.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

In Tell Me A Story About Our World, academic and translator Vanamala Viswanatha speaks to novelist Kavery Nambisan about the art of fiction and how she combines story-telling with a portrayal of the world in which the story is set.

Kavery‘s recent novel Rising Sons is as much about the Word as it is about the World. In telling the story of a single family from a small village in Karnataka, it implements language in its multilingual capacity, thus enabling the reader’s sensibility to percolate society at different levels. Thus, Kannada coexists comfortably within the English novel and enriches the reading experience, not with novelty but realism. The story begins in pre-independent India and while staying true to the arc of a family’s fortunes, it grapples with the complexities of caste and colonialism. It paints the landscape of rural and urban life of a bygone era, ending in the 1970s.

The session will conclude with a Q&A with the audience.

Speakers

Kavery Nambisan
Author
Kavery Nambisan has written seven novels including The Scent of Pepper, On Wings of Butterflies and A Town Like Ours. She has also written several works of non-fiction including a medical memoir titled A Luxury Called Health and Cherry Red, Cherry Black: The Coffee Story. She was a Fellow at the International Writers Workshop in the University of Iowa in 2007 and was also one of the thirteen writers from various countries invited to Greece for a Fullbright-sponsored symposium on “Home/Homelands” in 2008. A trained surgeon, she has worked in rural areas in Bihar, UP, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Kavery was married to the late poet and writer Vijay Nambisan.

Image credit: Joseph Kozhithara

Vanamala Viswanatha
Scholar and Translator
An independent scholar and translator, Vanamala Viswanatha has taught English language and literature for over four decades in premier institutions in Bengaluru. She has translated into English well-known Kannada writers such as UR Ananthamurthy, Sara Aboobacker, Lankesh, and Vaidehi. The Life of Harishchandra (Harvard University Press, 2017), her translation of a medieval Kannada poetic classic, has been published by the Murty Classical Library of India. A Translation Fellow at Ashoka University, her current work includes the translation of Vaddaradhane, a 10th century Jain text in Kannada (forthcoming Harvard University Press); Tolpady’s essay collection Meditating on the Mahabharata, and Kuvempu’s novel Bride in the Hills. (both for Penguin Random House).