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Mithun Number Two and Other Mumbai Stories
About the Book
A BRILLIANT COLLECTION OF STORIES BY THE AWARD-WINNER AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR TEAM THAT WON THE DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE IN 2018 FOR A PREVIOUS COLLECTION TITLED NO PRESENTS PLEASE
These are stories tinged with melancholy but lit with hope, capturing moments of transcendence in the midst of anonymity and routine. Young men migrate to Mumbai looking for work or a more exciting life, while others, women and men, young and old, make the journey for different reasons. In this city that rules the dreams of people up and down the coast, strangers become friends, families negotiate strife and affection, and children grow up in homes where the lines between coercion and care are blurred.
Delightfully unexpected and deceptively simple, Jayant Kaikini's stories in this deft translation by Tejaswini Niranjana are unforgettable.
About the Author
Jayant Kaikini is a Kannada poet, short-story writer, columnist and playwright, as well as a lyricist and script writer for films. He won the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award for his debut poetry collection in 1974, at the age of nineteen, followed by three more (1982,1989,1996) for his short-story collections. Born in the coastal temple-town of Gokarna, Kaikini is a biochemist by training and worked in the pharmaceutical industry in Mumbai for two decades before moving to Bengaluru, where he currently resides with family. He has received the Katha Award for Creative Fiction (1996) and the Kusumagraj National Literary Award (2010). He is the recipient of the Karnataka State Award for Best Dialogue (2003) and Best Lyrics (2006), and the Filmfare Award for Best Lyrics (2008, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2022). His latest literary works in Kannada are Anarkaliya Safety Pin (2021) and Vichitra Senana Vaikhari (2021). No Presents Please, his volume of selected Mumbai stories, translated by Tejaswini Niranjana, is the first book in translation to have won the DSC South Asian Literature Prize in 2018.
About the Translator
Tejaswini Niranjana won the Central Sahitya Akademi Prize for her translation of M. K. Indira’s Phaniyamma (1989) and the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Prize for her translation of Niranjana’s Mrityunjaya (1996). She has also translated Pablo Neruda’s poetry and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into Kannada. Her translations into English include Vaidehi’s Gulabi Talkies (2006). She grew up in Bangalore and has studied and worked in Mumbai. She taught at Lingnan University, Hong Kong before moving to Ahmedabad University, where she is Director of the Centre for Inter-Asian Research. Her translation of Jayant Kaikini’s stories, No Presents Please, won the DSC South Asian Literature Prize in 2018.
A BRILLIANT COLLECTION OF STORIES BY THE AWARD-WINNER AUTHOR AND TRANSLATOR TEAM THAT WON THE DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE IN 2018 FOR A PREVIOUS COLLECTION TITLED NO PRESENTS PLEASE
These are stories tinged with melancholy but lit with hope, capturing moments of transcendence in the midst of anonymity and routine. Young men migrate to Mumbai looking for work or a more exciting life, while others, women and men, young and old, make the journey for different reasons. In this city that rules the dreams of people up and down the coast, strangers become friends, families negotiate strife and affection, and children grow up in homes where the lines between coercion and care are blurred.
Delightfully unexpected and deceptively simple, Jayant Kaikini's stories in this deft translation by Tejaswini Niranjana are unforgettable.
About the Author
Jayant Kaikini is a Kannada poet, short-story writer, columnist and playwright, as well as a lyricist and script writer for films. He won the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award for his debut poetry collection in 1974, at the age of nineteen, followed by three more (1982,1989,1996) for his short-story collections. Born in the coastal temple-town of Gokarna, Kaikini is a biochemist by training and worked in the pharmaceutical industry in Mumbai for two decades before moving to Bengaluru, where he currently resides with family. He has received the Katha Award for Creative Fiction (1996) and the Kusumagraj National Literary Award (2010). He is the recipient of the Karnataka State Award for Best Dialogue (2003) and Best Lyrics (2006), and the Filmfare Award for Best Lyrics (2008, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2022). His latest literary works in Kannada are Anarkaliya Safety Pin (2021) and Vichitra Senana Vaikhari (2021). No Presents Please, his volume of selected Mumbai stories, translated by Tejaswini Niranjana, is the first book in translation to have won the DSC South Asian Literature Prize in 2018.
About the Translator
Tejaswini Niranjana won the Central Sahitya Akademi Prize for her translation of M. K. Indira’s Phaniyamma (1989) and the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Prize for her translation of Niranjana’s Mrityunjaya (1996). She has also translated Pablo Neruda’s poetry and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into Kannada. Her translations into English include Vaidehi’s Gulabi Talkies (2006). She grew up in Bangalore and has studied and worked in Mumbai. She taught at Lingnan University, Hong Kong before moving to Ahmedabad University, where she is Director of the Centre for Inter-Asian Research. Her translation of Jayant Kaikini’s stories, No Presents Please, won the DSC South Asian Literature Prize in 2018.
236 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2023
8 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Jayant Kaikini
30 books101 followersJayanth Kaikini is an Indian poet, short stories author and a lyricist working in Kannada cinema. ಜಯಂತ ಗೌರೀಶ ಕಾಯ್ಕಿಣಿ(ಜನನ : ೨೪,ಜನವರಿ, ೧೯೫೫) ಕನ್ನಡದ ಸಮಕಾಲೀನ ಕಥೆಗಾರರಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಮುಖರು. ಜಯಂತ್ ರ ಕತೆ-ಕಾವ್ಯಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸೂಕ್ಷ್ಮಸಂವೇದನೆ ಬಹುತೇಕ ಕಾಣಸಿಗುವ ವಸ್ತು.ಇಳಿಸಂಜೆಯ ಬಿಸಿಲು,ಬಿಸಿಲುಕೋಲು,ಪಾತರಗಿತ್ತಿ,ಬಣ್ಣ ಅವರ ಬರಹಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಪ್ರತಿಫಲಿಸುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತವೆ. ಮೆದುಮಾತಿನ,ಮೆಲುದನಿಯ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿತ್ವ ಅವರದು.[೩] ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಪ್ರಕಾರಗಳ ಹಲವು ವಿಭಾಗಗಳಲ್ಲಿ, ಕವಿಯಾಗಿ, ಈಟಿವಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಾಹಿನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಸಂದರ್ಶಕನಾಗಿ, ಸಿನೆಮಾ ಹಾಡುಗಳ ಸಾಹಿತಿ,ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆಗಾರನಾಗಿ, ಅಂಕಣಕಾರ ನಾಗಿ, ನಾಟಕಕಾರನಾಗಿ, ಕಥೆಗಾರನಾಗಿ, ಮತ್ತು ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ (ಸಾಗರದಾಚೆಗೂ ನೆಲೆ ನಿಂತಿರುವ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ) ಅಚ್ಚುಮೆಚ್ಚಿನ ಲೇಖಕರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 18, 2024
The surreal blends seamlessly with the altogether mundane in these stories set in Mumbai. Each character is finely etched as are their surroundings. Each story is moving, yet unsentimental. Each could only have happened in Mumbai, the protagonist in some ways of every story in this collection.
March 15, 2024
The authors has acute powers of observation of people and places. The stories are a slice of life of people living in Mumbai. Many of them are migrants who are living with their families. The interactions between the characters in the stories are grounded so well in the 80s and 90s of Bombay (As Mumbai was called back then) that you can visualize the places mentioned and almost feel that the characters are real and you know them intimateky. The uncanny details of the characters and places are described in such a way that can almost identify them with people you meet in your everyday life - whether it is a nosy neighbor in a Bombay chawl or the roadside fruit seller or the struggling Bollywood extras and artists. Several of the stories also make a connection to coastal Karnataka and the hinterlands of Maharashtra which highlights the path of migrants that built this city. The book illustrates the unique characteristics of different suburbs of Mumbai whether it is Matunga or Dombivali or Kandivali or Juhu. Many of the stories have ambiguous or incomplete ending but there are enough details in the stories to come to your own conclusions or speculate about them. Ordinary settings such as the Panwala, the hospital, the municipal men harassing the roadside sellers or the infamous Mumbai Bandh and the torrential Mumbai rains all play their part in the story. Several stories such as The scent of Bakula, Spotless and Mithun Number Two stood out for me. This is an excellent collection worth reading slowly to savour it.
March 10, 2024
Good translation...quite close to bringing out the original events and emotions...
December 18, 2024
A brilliant addition to the collection of short stories on and about Mumbai
October 29, 2025
Jayant Kaikini is amongst the most cinematic of writers. I don't mean in terms of scale, but in how deeply observed his writing of everyday lives is; scenes visibly played in my head as I read his newly translated collection of short stories. His exploration of characters is achingly gentle, and the worlds they inhabit are so relatable. At the book's launch event, Paromita Vohra, who moderated a conversation between the author, the book's translator Tejaswini Niranjana, and writer Shanta Gokhale, described Kaikini's writing as a form of 'minimalist maximalism', which I felt was such a lovely way to describe his style.
One of the audience members at the launch asked Jayant Kaikini about his process, and he spoke about how he doesn't like to chase stories. "Lose yourself in the world," he said, "and the stories will find you." And that's what this collection made me feel - that there are so many compelling stories around me, about the people I meet, about the loss and loneliness that they and I carry within ourselves, and how there is catharsis to be found in everyday strifes and triumphs.
One of the audience members at the launch asked Jayant Kaikini about his process, and he spoke about how he doesn't like to chase stories. "Lose yourself in the world," he said, "and the stories will find you." And that's what this collection made me feel - that there are so many compelling stories around me, about the people I meet, about the loss and loneliness that they and I carry within ourselves, and how there is catharsis to be found in everyday strifes and triumphs.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews