Writer Banu Mushtaq & translator Deepa Bhasthi reflect on Heart Lamp’s Booker journey

“I didn’t even know the book had been submitted!" writer, activist, and lawyer Banu Mushtaq laughed, recalling the moment she learned about the Booker nomination for her book. On Sunday, April 20, an audience gathered in Bengaluru to celebrate the unexpected triumph of Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 short stories written originally in Kannada, which has now been shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. It’s a first—for South Asia, for short fiction from the region, and for stories rooted deeply in the everyday lives of women from Muslim communities in southern India.

“I was in my office when my agent called,” Banu said, still amused by how the news unfolded. “My daughters and agent had to explain what the long list and short list meant.”

The celebration at the Bangalore International Centre featured Banu in conversation with Deepa Bhasthi, who translated Heart Lamp into English, with writer Shinie Antony as the moderator.

For Deepa, too, the Booker nod came as a shock, one that altered the course of an otherwise ordinary evening. “I was just about to have soup for dinner,” she said. “Then I got the call, and the soup felt too bland for the occasion. So we celebrated with biryani instead!”

Heart Lamp is a collection of 12 compelling short stories written over a span of more than 30 years from 1990 to 2023. The collection takes its name from the short story Edaya Hanate (meaning heart’s lamp).

The evening’s conversation also took on weightier themes: gender, religion, and the way tradition is used to police women’s lives. “Your stories focus on Muslim women, but the battles of inheritance rights, dowry, and silencing are everywhere,” Shinie observed. “Is gender the real religion in India?”

Banu nodded. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Hindu, Muslim, or Christian. In my legal work, I have seen daughters branded greedy just for asking for what’s theirs, while sons are never questioned.” She pointed out, for example, how in Hindu families, property transferred to daughters as a gift (arishina kumkuma) is often snatched back by brothers.

While discussing the translation, Deepa said she wanted to preserve the rhythm and idioms of Kannada, refusing to “sanitise” the language for Western readers. Words like “thu” (an expression of disgust) and phrases like “one-two things” (a common Indianism) were retained for authenticity, she said. “Editors often dismiss Indian English as ‘incorrect,’” Deepa said. “But language is alive. Good translation should make English richer, not erase cultural nuance.”

Set within the Kannada Bandaya (rebel) literary tradition, Banu’s work builds on its focus on caste and class, but shifts the lens to gender and religious conservatism. As one of the few Muslim women in the Bandaya space, her stories expand the movement’s scope.

Heart Lamp is only the second work in Kannada to be recognised by Booker institutions—the first being author UR Ananthamurthy who was nominated for the International Booker Prize in 2013.

Heart Lamp is currently available at all major bookstores and on online platforms.