Happy to hear non-controversial response: Roy

New Delhi: Her debut novel was a rip-roaring success and her second book of fiction is punching above its weight in translations. No wonder author Arundhati Roy looks pleased as punch.

In just over one and a half years since its publication, Roy's second novel “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” has been translated into 49 languages and is going strong.

At the launch of the novel’s Hindi and Urdu translations here on Saturday night, the Booker Prize-winning author said she was very happy that the book had not courted any controversy. “I feel very happy that the book was read as a literary text across the globe and did not get embroiled in crude politics,” Roy, 57, said.

“It would be galactic stupidity to ban this book as it has already been translated into 49 languages and is sold at traffic lights,” the Delhi-based writer said in response to a question.

Roy, who is also a political activist, won the prestigious Man Booker Prize for her debut novel “The God of Small Things” in 1997. The novel, which became the biggest selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author, has been translated into more than 40 languages, according to Penguin Random House.

Published in June 2017, the 445-page second novel's (“The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”) Hindi and Urdu translations have been done by Rajkamal Prakashan Samuh. Noted poet Manglesh Dabral has done the Hindi translation ‘Aapar Khusi ka Gharana’, whereas Delhi University professor Arjumand Ara’s Urdu translation is titled ‘Bepanah Shadmani Ki Mumlikat’.

“In this novel, translation is also a primary active creation. In a way, the translation of the novel is also the continuation of the process of translation that is the novel,” Roy said.

The celebrated writer said she did not think of people in terms of categories and attempts to include what has not been included. “Roy’s narrative is poetic her characters have their own languages. There are many new words in the book that were very difficult to translate,” Dabral said.

Ara said her principal objective was to stay loyal to the original characters. “You can’t do justice to Roy’s magnificent language all the time.

I had to invent some of my own words to compensate for it,” she said. Roy's second novel came after a gap of 20 years and was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.