# Julie Banerjee Mehta writes about ‘Amar Jiban’ in ‘The Telegraph’, India

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2026/10/15/julie-banerjee-mehta-writes-about-amar-jiban-in-the-telegraph-india/
- Published: 2026-10-15T00:18:13+00:00
- Author: shuktara

 

Excerpts from Julie Banerjee Mehta’s article, published on 10 October 2026:

 

[⌊A sample cover of the book: salmon coloured handloom sari with gold embossed nameplate
and lettering for the title and author's name. The border of the sari (dark green
in colour) lines the right hand margin of the cover. The book is placed against 
a pink background.⌉⌊A sample cover of the book: salmon coloured handloom sari with
gold embossed nameplate and lettering for the title and author's name. The border
of the sari (dark green in colour) lines the right hand margin of the cover. The
book is placed against a pink background.⌉[

Cover image of ‘Amar Jiban’

> It was a serendipitous tribute to Rassundari Devi, the woman who wrote the first
> full-length autobiography in Bengali, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this
> year.
>  
> She was feted appropriately at the International Translation Day conference headlined“
> Linguistic Diversity and Language Rights”, organised by the International Society
> for Intercultural Studies and Research and Virasat Art Publication.
>  
> At the event, held on September 30 under the stewardship of Dr Sudipto Chatterjee
> and professor Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, I introduced the revised edition of Rassundari
> Devi’s _Amar Jiban (My Life)_, published, revised and annotated by Ananda Lal 
> of Writers Workshop, and translated from Bengali by Enakshi Chatterjee.
>  
> The conjoined events of International Translation Day, bookmarked as a UNESCO 
> initiative, and the landmark 150 years of _Amar Jiban_ hit their target: translation
> is now considered a planetary marker of the importance of cultural exchange between
> communities, economies, and people …
>  
> Rassundari was self-taught and coined the remarkable word “_jitakshara_“, meaning
> a person who had triumphed over the written word. But it was not just the word
> she had triumphed over; she also triumphed despite the death of her children and
> the massive challenges she faced from the patriarchy.
>  
> Ananda Lal told me: “I retranslated the book because I thought, to celebrate the
> 150th year of its publication, we should do full justice to her historic, extremely
> important, prose-cum-verse work. Those who can’t read Bangla need to know about
> a woman’s life in the mid-19th century first-hand. I also annotated the book heavily
> because a non-Hindu wouldn’t understand many of her references. In fact, many 
> Hindus today wouldn’t comprehend them either! There is a huge diasporic audience
> too who must have access to it.”

You can read the article [here](https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/kolkata/a-serendipitous-tribute-translation-opens-rassundari-devis-world-prnt/cid/2184026).

**Related posts of interest:**

[New revised edition of our ‘Amar Jiban ~ My Life’](https://writersworkshopindia.com/news/new-revised-edition-of-our-amar-jiban-my-life/)

[Amar Jiban (My Life)](https://writersworkshopindia.com/books/amar-jiban-my-life-4/)