New Kannada anthology curated by Prof. M. S. Sriram brings Latin American short fiction to Indian readers
‘Nadiya Mooraneya Dande’ brings together 21 short stories translated across four decades
3 January, 2026, Bengaluru: A new Kannada anthology of short stories, ‘Nadiya Mooraneya Dande’, curated, selected, and translated by Prof. M. S. Sriram, Professor of Public Policy at IIM Bangalore, has been released. The collection, put together across four decades by the celebrated Kannada writer and recipient of multiple Karnataka Sahitya Academy Awards, brings together 21 short stories by some of Latin America’s finest writers and is the first anthology of its kind in Kannada.
The anthology offers a sweeping, kaleidoscopic view of Latin American societies shaped by political turmoil, complex socio-economic realities, and the everyday struggles of common people, scarred by themes of hunger, war, migration, memory, and survival.
The opening story, ‘The Slaughterhouse’ by José Esteban Antonio Echeverría, sets the tone with its sharp political satire and its exploration of the tension between the “civilised” and the “barbaric” in a society under dictatorship. Other stories draw readers into quieter but equally powerful moments, such as a Christmas Eve conversation in ‘The Midnight Mass’ by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis; a sculptor’s obsessive love for his statue that threatens his marriage in 'The Death of the Empress of China' by Rubén Darío; and the strange attempt of a man to teach his pet to speak in Leopoldo Lugones’s 'Yzur'.
Several stories examine emotional memory and inner conflict. In César Vallejo’s ‘Beyond Life and Death’, a visit to a hometown triggers memories of a lost mother, while Aníbal Monteiro Machado’s ‘The Piano’ follows a man’s struggle over selling his most prized possession. The collection also includes Jorge Luis Borges’s ‘There Are More Things’, Enrique Amorim’s ‘Photograph’, and João Guimarães Rosa’s ‘The Third Bank of the River’, the story from which the anthology takes its title.
The theme of existence and survival runs as an undercurrent through stories such as Juan Carlos Onetti’s ‘Existence’, Virgilio Piñera’s ‘The One Who Came to Save Me’, and Clarice Lispector’s ‘Love’. The anthology further features works by Gabriel García Márquez’s 'Light Like a River' and 'A Hen for Three', the silent inner dialogue of a man with his reflection in 'Dialogue with the Mirror', Moacyr Scliar’s 'War and Peace' and 'Van Gogh’s Ear', Cristina Peri Rossi’s 'The Museum of Meaningless Adventures', and Isidoro Blaisten’s 'Uncle Facundo'.
Throughout the collection, the anthology presents vivid slices of Latin American life while remaining attentive to the rhythms and sensibilities of Kannada. Prof. Sriram explores the travails of ordinary people and delves deep into the intricate workings of the human mind, leaving the reader pondering, speculating and imagining precisely how the original writers intended.
By making these works accessible to a new readership, Nadiya Mooraneya Dande thoughtfully extends the ability of literature, and of words, to traverse cultures and histories.
M S Sriram effectively captures a gamut of emotions from across the globe, a range of scenarios the readers can connect to, and a variety of sequences, which effortlessly transcend beyond the boundaries and introduce us to the life and works of Latin American writers.
Noted writer S Diwakar, in his preface, aptly mentions, "It is remarkable to note that M S Sriram uses several syntaxes, idioms, phrases, and sentence structures that capture the essence of the original works, which were hitherto uncommon in Kannada. These are necessary for the growth of any language."
New Kannada anthology curated by Prof. M. S. Sriram brings Latin American short fiction to Indian readers
‘Nadiya Mooraneya Dande’ brings together 21 short stories translated across four decades
3 January, 2026, Bengaluru: A new Kannada anthology of short stories, ‘Nadiya Mooraneya Dande’, curated, selected, and translated by Prof. M. S. Sriram, Professor of Public Policy at IIM Bangalore, has been released. The collection, put together across four decades by the celebrated Kannada writer and recipient of multiple Karnataka Sahitya Academy Awards, brings together 21 short stories by some of Latin America’s finest writers and is the first anthology of its kind in Kannada.
The anthology offers a sweeping, kaleidoscopic view of Latin American societies shaped by political turmoil, complex socio-economic realities, and the everyday struggles of common people, scarred by themes of hunger, war, migration, memory, and survival.
The opening story, ‘The Slaughterhouse’ by José Esteban Antonio Echeverría, sets the tone with its sharp political satire and its exploration of the tension between the “civilised” and the “barbaric” in a society under dictatorship. Other stories draw readers into quieter but equally powerful moments, such as a Christmas Eve conversation in ‘The Midnight Mass’ by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis; a sculptor’s obsessive love for his statue that threatens his marriage in 'The Death of the Empress of China' by Rubén Darío; and the strange attempt of a man to teach his pet to speak in Leopoldo Lugones’s 'Yzur'.
Several stories examine emotional memory and inner conflict. In César Vallejo’s ‘Beyond Life and Death’, a visit to a hometown triggers memories of a lost mother, while Aníbal Monteiro Machado’s ‘The Piano’ follows a man’s struggle over selling his most prized possession. The collection also includes Jorge Luis Borges’s ‘There Are More Things’, Enrique Amorim’s ‘Photograph’, and João Guimarães Rosa’s ‘The Third Bank of the River’, the story from which the anthology takes its title.
The theme of existence and survival runs as an undercurrent through stories such as Juan Carlos Onetti’s ‘Existence’, Virgilio Piñera’s ‘The One Who Came to Save Me’, and Clarice Lispector’s ‘Love’. The anthology further features works by Gabriel García Márquez’s 'Light Like a River' and 'A Hen for Three', the silent inner dialogue of a man with his reflection in 'Dialogue with the Mirror', Moacyr Scliar’s 'War and Peace' and 'Van Gogh’s Ear', Cristina Peri Rossi’s 'The Museum of Meaningless Adventures', and Isidoro Blaisten’s 'Uncle Facundo'.
Throughout the collection, the anthology presents vivid slices of Latin American life while remaining attentive to the rhythms and sensibilities of Kannada. Prof. Sriram explores the travails of ordinary people and delves deep into the intricate workings of the human mind, leaving the reader pondering, speculating and imagining precisely how the original writers intended.
By making these works accessible to a new readership, Nadiya Mooraneya Dande thoughtfully extends the ability of literature, and of words, to traverse cultures and histories.
M S Sriram effectively captures a gamut of emotions from across the globe, a range of scenarios the readers can connect to, and a variety of sequences, which effortlessly transcend beyond the boundaries and introduce us to the life and works of Latin American writers.
Noted writer S Diwakar, in his preface, aptly mentions, "It is remarkable to note that M S Sriram uses several syntaxes, idioms, phrases, and sentence structures that capture the essence of the original works, which were hitherto uncommon in Kannada. These are necessary for the growth of any language."