# Our Milestones - Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/our-milestones/ - Published: 2023-09-19T15:05:52+00:00 - Author: admin ![](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Slide-1-e1792943733486- 1024x343.jpg) 1. ## 1958 2. P. Lal founds WW with the help of a “magical circle” of writer friends including Anita Desai 3. ## 1959 4. The house that P. Lal built in Lake Gardens begins to host regular Sunday morning readings and meetings 5. ## 1960 6. First issue of the house journal, _The Miscellany_, containing Desai’s story “ Grandmother” 7. 1960 8. Nissim Ezekiel’s _The Unfinished Man_ published (not his first book, which had come out elsewhere) 9. ## 1961 10. WW enters literary criticism with the pamphlet titled _Indian Writing in English: A Symposium_ 11. ## 1962 12. Adil Jussawalla’s debut, _Land’s End_ 13. ## 1965 14. A. K. Ramanujan’s _Fifteen Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology_ and Lal’s _The Bhagavad-Gita_ see WW embarking on English translations of Indian literature, one of its key domains eventually. 15. ## 1967 16. _The Descendants_ (Kamala Das),_ Of Gods and Olives_ (Pritish Nandy), _Poems_ ( Suniti Namjoshi) 17. ## 1968 18. Debuts of Gauri Deshpande _(Between Births)_ and G. S. Sharat Chandra _(Bharata Natyam Dancer)_ 19. ## 1969 20. The 600-page_ Modern Indian Poetry in English: An Anthology and a Credo_ published as an answer to Buddhadeva Bose’s anti-English campaign. 21. ## 1970 22. P. Lal becomes de-facto sole proprietor of WW, takes up Visiting Professor positions overseas to fund WW and makes the design innovation of handloom sari-bound volumes, later adding gold-embossed titles in his calligraphy. 23. * This design won first prize in the National Printing and Binding Awards, received in Delhi by Tulamiah Mohiuddin, WW’s binder. * Debut books: _Under Orion_ (Keki Daruwalla) and _Tribute to Papa and Other Poems_ (Mamta Kalia). * Asif Currimbhoy entrusts WW with the publication of all his plays, starting with _Goa_. * _Nonsense Rhymes_ (Satyajit Ray’s transcreation of poems from his father’s renowned Bengali collection, _Abol Tabol_). 24. ## 1971 25. _Swayamvara_ (Jayanta Mahapatra) and _The Lotus Leaves_ (Jai Nimbkar’s first book of short stories) 26. ## 1972 27. Debut: _Bone-Sculpture_ (Agha Shahid Ali) and _It Isn’t Time That’s Passing_ ( Ruskin Bond’s first volume of poetry). 28. ## 1974 29. Debut:_ Impressions_ (Lakshmi Kannan) 30. ## 1975 31. First WW book by an Asian author from outside India (Bangladesh): Shamsur Rahman’s _Selected Poems_ translated by Kabir Chowdhury. 32. ## 1976 33. WW releases its first audio recording, of P. Lal reading his transcreation of the _Bhagavad-Gita_ on a long-playing double album (HMV Calcutta), followed by a series of over 50 cassettes of WW poets in their own voices. 34. ## 1978 35. Debut: Shashi Deshpande’s collection of short stories, _The Legacy_ 36. ## 1980 37. First WW book by an author from Africa (Gambia): Tijan Sallah’s _When Africa Was a Young Woman._ 38. ## 1981 39. Debut of Vikram Seth, _Mappings_ 40. ## 1983 41. BBC-TV records a WW session in Lake Gardens for its acclaimed documentary titled _The Story of English. _ 42. ## 1985 43. First WW book by an author from South America (Guyana): Cyril Dabydeen’s novel, _The Wizard Swami._ 44. ## 1987 45. Debut of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, _Dark Like the River_ 46. 1987 47. P. Lal inducted into the inaugural list of the Indian Publishing Hall of Fame, for “furthering the cause of Indian poetry in English”. 48. ## 1988 49. Debuts of poets from northeastern states of India (Nagaland and Manipur respectively): _Songs That Tell_ (Temsula Ao) and _Words and the Silence_ (Robin Ngangom). 50. ## 1989 51. Translation of Shivaji Sawant’s Marathi classic _Mrityunjaya_ by P. Lal and Nandini Nopany. 52. 1989 53. Near-death experience on a lecture tour of the USA forces P. Lal to stop his travels. 54. 1989 55. Debut: _Stone to Fruit_ (Hoshang Merchant) 56. ## 1990 57. Debut: _Twenty-four_ _Poems_ (Indrajit Hazra) 58. ## 1991 59. _A Woman Speaks_ (Poile Sengupta’s first book of poetry) 60. ## 1992 61. Debut: _The Sieve and Moments_ (K. S. Nongkynrih) 62. ## 1993 63. Debut: _City Times_ (Vihang Naik) 64. ## 1996 65. Debut: _Snapshots_ (Sanjukta Dasgupta) 66. ## 1997 67. Debut: _The Woman in This Poem Isn’t Lonely_ (Mukta Sambrani) 68. ## 1998 69. The first full English translation of Tagore’s complete original Bengali _Gitanjali_, by Joe Winter. 70. ## 1999 71. P. Lal begins to read his ongoing transcreation of the _Mahabharata_ and comment on the epic every Sunday morning at interactive sessions later released on over 100 WW cassettes. (1999-2009) 72. ## 2001 73. _With Best Wishes from Edinburgh_ (Bashabi Fraser) 74. ## 2004 75. _River Poems_ (Mamang Dai’s first book of poetry) 76. ## 2005 77. Revision and consolidation of P. Lal’s transcreation of the _Mahabharata_ into 18 volumes corresponding to the original 18 Parvas, leaving one and a half Parvas unfinished as his health declines in 2009. (2005-2009) 78. ## 2008 79. To mark 50 years of WW, _The Golden Treasury of Writers Workshop Poetry_ edited by Rubana Huq. 80. 2008 81. Tara TV releases a 10-DVD set of P. Lal reading his transcreation of the _Mahabharata’s_ Adi Parva. 82. ## 2010 83. P. Lal passes on and Ananda Lal continues WW, discovering, editing, and publishing over 200 first-time authors up till the present. 84. ## 2016 85. Pradip Bhattacharya’s translation of _Mahabharata’s Santi Parva_ Part II. 86. ## 2023 87. Pradip Bhattacharya’s translation of_ Anushasana Parva_ completes the _Mahabharata._