Kanchha Maharani: Gained in translation

Saguna Shah’s elegant translation of The Other Queen, written by Sheeba Shah, not only renders the novel an authentic quality but also makes the otherwise jittery read of the original text a pleasant one.

After reading Sheeba Shah’s The Other Queen, or Kanchha Maharani (as translated by Saguna Shah), one is left wondering if the glittering world of the Royals is only a public façade masking their pitiable private lives. Readers raise their eyebrows, scratch their heads, mutter a meaningless ‘tut, tut’ at times, only to be disgusted in the end by the “ruinous night of delirious carnage” of 1846 that changed the course of history.