Tully stresses on translation of books from regional languages

Veteran journalist Mark Tully has stressed on the need for more and more writings in regional languages to be translated into English saying there is lot to be explored.
"There are some excellent writings in regional Indian languages. There should be more attempts to translate these regional works into English," Tully, who has covered India for over 30 years for the BBC, said.
"Translations are very important as English language readers do not have any idea about the wonderful writings in Indian languages," he told PTI.
Tully is the chair of the jury for the DSC Prize for South Indian Literature 2016, the longlist for which was announced recently.

"The DSC Prize includes translated novels written in South Asian languages. This is most important for the fulfilment of the prize's ambition to show the best of South Asian writing to the world. There is so much excellent writing in the languages of the region which we should all be aware of," he said.
While judging the books for the longlist, 79-year-old Tully said though there wasn't any criterion, he was particularly keen on good stories.

"I was keen on clean and clear writing. I did not want the writings to have too many descriptions and adjectival statements," he said.

The DSC Prize longlist includes works by several Indian and India-born writers like Amit Chaudhuri, Neel Mukherjee, Akhil Sharma; Anuradha Roy and K R Meera.
The shortlist will be announced on November 26 in London and the winner will be named at the Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka on January 16, 2016.
Tully, who is also impressed with the writings from the northeast, is penning a book of short stories.
"I am finishing another book on short stories. It is about rural India," he said.
Tully, who would love to be gifted musically if he were to born again, said he is also keen on writing a book on Indian Railways.

"I have written several forewords to books on railways. But I would love to write a book about Indian Railways and share my experiences," he said.