I chose 'T'Ta Professor' because the text was fantastic and the book was nice and short.'

To Pande, 'T'TA Professor' is one of the 'most brilliant post-modern texts' in Hindi. 'All those people who regard Indian writing as only writing in English should be aware that it is our 'bhasha' (language) writers who deserve to be read by the world outside,' she said.

The only bumps that Pande found along the way were the 'Kumaoni words that Joshi dropped into his text.

'These were tough to translate. As for the characters, there was no problem.'

Pande has a natural affinity for translation. 'I can sight-translate. That is I can read in Hindi and can translate to English straightaway. Then I go back and edit the translation,' she said.

The writer is now translating three books, 'all of my late mother Shivani'.

Pande belongs to a family of writers. Her mother Shivani and sister Mrinal are well-known Hindi writers.

'I am fiercely attached to Kumaon, where Joshi's novel is set. I have so far only translated writers from that region because that part of the world is my own and I want to bring it into the mainstream of writing in India,' she said.

Pande objects to the word vernacular. 'It suggests as if these are inferior to the 'main' writing from India, whatever that may mean! To me, it is the regional languages that represent the finest writing coming out of India because of their strong sense of location and experience of life outside the metro cities and English speakers.'

But things are changing. 'Publishers Penguin, HarperCollins and Random House are gradually waking up to the wealth of regional writing and its great potential'.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)