The First World War Adventures : A First-Person Account By An Indian Serving In First World War

Kolkata, March 31: It’s the only known first-person account by an Indian serving in the First World War, and for the first time in English translation, this book from a hundred years ago narrates the adventures and travels of an Indian serving in the Great War.

As HarperCollins presents The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria, translated by Murali Ranganathan with a foreword by Amitav Ghosh, the book is a swashbuckling page-turner, a book of historical importance. Nariman Karkaria’s gripping war memoir is truly one of a kind, and in Murali Ranganathan’s brilliant translation, this astonishing story comes alive with rare immediacy and vigour.

”Amazing! An astonishing find!” says Amitav Ghosh in his foreword to the book.

Translator Murali Ranganathan says, “A hundred years ago, in 1922, Nariman Karkaria published his First World War memoir in Gujarati. It is fitting that its English translation, The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria, is being published on the centenary anniversary. Never flinching from describing the horrors of war, Karkaria manages to retain both his sanity and his sense of humour during his five years in the British Army.”

”The book sets a hectic pace as it takes us on a romp across China, Russia, and Europe with a detour in the Middle East. Written in the Parsi version of Gujarati and containing innumerable words that have never seen the inside of a dictionary, I had more fun than I bargained for during the translation. Besides, chasing the elusive Nariman Karkaria in the archives was exhilarating.”

Rahul Soni, Executive Editor, HarperCollins India, says, “This work is truly an astonishing find. Imagine: more than a hundred years ago, a 16-year-old boy leaves his small-town Indian home to see the world, gets himself to China where he hears about an exciting war being fought on the other side of the world, decides he must be a part of it, travels over land across all of Asia and Europe to get there, enlists and becomes a soldier – and that is not even the most amazing part of the story! Not only does he then go on fight on three major fronts in three years, he also lives to tell the tale.”

‘A tale that eventually disappears in the mists of time, until it is unearthed almost a century later by Murali Ranganathan. This is the only known book-length first-person account from an Indian serving in the First World War – and Murali has pulled off two great feats here – first, as a researcher, having excavated this text, and then as a translator, turning out a brilliantly readable English version of it. I am immensely excited and proud to be publishing this important historical document here at HarperCollins.”

UNI