Puffin Classics: Timeless Tales from Mar: Timeless Tales from Marwar

As a Rajasthani the book is a source of enlightenment. Detha sa has precisely bought the Rajasthani aspirations to the limelight.The race of Rajasthanis have abandoned their language for a Mughal language. The abandonment of Rajasthani is a peculiar example of how Hindi eats up the regional languages in the name of nationalism.The gap of 70 years has polluted our minds and our mother language waits for her son's and daughters to rise again and preserve the language from the threat of extinction in the upcoming decades.Hail Rajasthan Hail Rajasthani!Thank you Detha sa for the enlightenment

Vijayadan Detha , popularly known as Bijji , was one of the popular authors in Rajasthan who immortalized oral folktales and stories by writing them. Starting off as an author in Hindi, the pull for his mother-tongue Rajasthani, led him back to his hometown where he would hear tales from everyone and then ink them. Sometimes giving his own twists and perceptions, he talks on how the best tales come from women and why he would sit around and listen to their stories. Also a Nobel prize nominee in 2011 and recipient of numerous awards form Sahitya Akademi to Padma Shri, many of his stories were adapted to movies. One of the recent ones being SRK starrer, Paheli.'Tales from Marwar' translated from Rajasthani are picked from various volumes of Batan Ri Phulwari (Garden of Tales). Translated by VIshes Kothari , he has tried to maintain the nuances of the languages by keeping intact the local words evoking sounds and of the local fauna.What is beautiful about the stories is how along with humans he also gives a voice to animals and inanimate things like sun, stars, trees etc. The stories are simple and meaningful , a mix of prose and poetry/couplets here and there. The story starts with that of a king and his wives - 'tell' and 'don't tell'. There are stories of ghosts, of joo i.e lice, of dreams , about the origin of constellations, of selfishness, of cheating, of parent child relationship , of brother - sister relationship and so on. My favourites were ' Naagan, May you line prosper' about a man who has a snake coiled around his neck and 'The Kelu Tree' about a sister who gets killed by her brother but with elements of magic in it.Each stories begin with some anecdote or introduction about the origin. Though I feel certain elements get lost in translation, the translator has tried to retain the humour and essence of the original stories. Bijji himself was a master storyteller and retold the folktales. A great way to carry forward the age old stories and traditions in the digital age is by preserving them by writing them. Kamakshi who read the original stories, told me how his language was his strength. Luckily for us translations pave way for an insight into different land and cultures. A few of the stories I have also heard in my childhood albeit a little different probably the local influence.Highly recommend this treasure house of stories and the author Vijayadan Detha. I finished the book in a day and was left feeling warm and fuzzy.

This book is a must read for all those who loved to hear stories from their parents, grand parents in their childhood.Beautifully translated such that the essence of the story doesn't dilute even a bit.Read all the stories with a smile on my face!

what a book!

It is a nice book. But the original story (hindi/rajasthani would be much better)

I would suggest every book lover to buy and read it...

very good book for young generation

A very interesting book and will give you hearty laughs