Nilutpal Baruah

January 2023 The translation ecosystem in India suffers from a lack of training opportunities. At the same time, aspiring fiction writers are often marginalized due to circumstance, language, and lack of opportunities to develop their work. The Write Assamese project is a collaboration between Untold, which works with writers marginalized by community or conflict, and BEE Books, an Indian publisher based in Kolkata whose aim is to promote Indian literature in translation.

Video: Nilutpal Baruah reads a section of “Boots” in the original Assamese. Bedo Bora bought a pair of boots. He got them at the most expensive showroom in the mall. And went home with the triumphant expression of a Samurai back from an intense war at the border. They were expensive. Shiny black leather boots with steel studs. They had an aura about them. It was not as if he did not own any shoes. He did. It was not even as though the boots were going to suit him. They would not. This, he was sure of.

Rashmi Baruah worked at the Assam Tribune, made documentaries for DD North-East, and worked on Surviving with a Smile, a documentary about a cancer survivor. She wrote a column for the Assamese weekly Asom Bani, did a variety of translation work, and won first prize in an all-India translation competition. She was a cameraperson and news anchor at BiTv (TVI) and directed The Golf Show for Ten Sports and the series Bridging Giants for Singapore TV.