'The journey has been productive; I'm happy people are talking about Kashmiri literature'

New Delhi, Feb 22 Eminent writer, teacher and translator Neerja Mattoo, who taught English for 30 years at Srinagar's Government College for Women, has always felt that the story of modern Kashmir has never been fully told or understood by the rest of the country.

In fact, she says, Kashmiris themselves were doubtful about their real identity after the patriotic fervour that arose during and after the tribal invasion of late 1947 was soon squandered. And the events of the 1990s made her realise that if serious efforts were not made to preserve the Kashmiri language and identity, it may be lost forever. So she devoted herself to translating.

"I have always felt that the story of modern Kashmir was never fully told or understood by the rest of the country. It was like that story about the blind men who tried to identify what an elephant looked like by touching only a part of the elephant's body. I think people in mainland India view Kashmir from their own prisms," Mattoo, whose just-published translation, 'The Greatest Kashmiri Stories Ever Told'

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