1. Your journey to the literary world...

I am more than a consultant. .it is just a convenient label to pin on my collar. I source and edit literary translations from 15 Indian languages, all genres for Oxford University Press for whom Ive so far I've done 63 full - length novels, short stories, novellas, biographies, autobiographies and anthologies (notably collections of Dalit writing). I select the work, I find the translators and work closely with them and hand over edited scripts to OUP head office to publish. I help write textbooks for translation study courses, conduct the occasional workshop on translation. I also write a monthly column for the Literary Review of The Hindu on Translation called This Word for That. I've worked with OUP since 2001 and was with Macmillan before that where I was series editor of the Modern Indian Novels in Translation project of that company (38 volumes). 

2. What is the role of translation in literature?

Translation is pivotal to literary production in a multilingual country like ours forging links and releasing the double force of two languages. The unique factor in translation is that we are not only listeners to the original author's text but readers of a second text--the translated work. We have the privilege of hearing/ reading it in another language, a language with its own literary tradition, its own cultural wealth all of which must be treated with respect. It is a double gain for everyone : readers, writers and the literary pool of words and images

3. What do you think is the role of literature festival ?

The role of LitFests is to ensure that creativity and writing skills receive the importance they deserve in a world which usually has time only for sports and cine-stars. Nor does the audience have to be 'qualified' in any sense. Anyone may enter and listen to a writer or poet and benefit from direct and spontaneous exchanges.