ABSTRACT
This essay addresses the challenges of translating gendered experience of disability in DharamvirBharti’s,‘GulkiBanno’, and maps how female experience of disability is fraught with anxieties related to the body and the customary roles it is supposed to fulfil. Focusing on the interface between gender, disability and translation which are plagued by the metaphor of inadequacy and loss, the essay argues that translating an everyday experience of disability discloses ideological underpinnings about the structures that underlie our inherently ableist patriarchal culture ridden with caste, class and gender prejudices. Translating a disability centric text confronts us with questions of power and asymmetry in the representation of disability. ‘GulkiBanno’ marks many moments when ableist patriarchal gaze of the narrator appropriates and undermines feminine agency. Using feminist translation strategies my translation aims to highlight the gendered agency of the disabled protagonist and construct her as an active social subject. Translating GulkiBanno’ has been a challenging experience because the text depicts a layered response to disability and does not indulge in easy sentimentalism. The unique timbre of Bharti’s voice, its scathing irony, mockery and humor creates a social universe where the female disabled protagonist despite being contained towards the end of the narrative remains an unsettling presence.
