'The Ninth Flower' chronicles best of Amrita Pritam's works

New Delhi, Oct 31 Amrita Pritam, a name people from all spheres of life must have come across at some point in their life. The poetess, novelist and essayist, who wrote extensively in Punjabi and Hindi, introduced the conservative Indian society to the whims and fancies of a woman through her pen.

She passed away battling a prolonged illness on October 31, 2005, leaving a huge cache of work behind her. However, just a year before that, she entrusted the seasoned journalist and writer-publisher Jyoti Sabharwal to take up the humongous task of translating her various genres of writing into English that they both had titled, "The Ninth Flower: Best of Amrita Pritam". More so, since Sabharwal had earlier transcreated Amrita's second autobiography, Shadows of Words, that was widely excerpted and critically acclaimed.

Sabharwal, best known as a celebrity-writer, has co-authored the autobiographies and memoirs of Kapil Dev, Begum Akhtar, Vyjayantimala, Amrish Puri and Russi Mody, as also penned the biography of Dr Kapila Vatsyayan. A former consultant with Macmillan India, she's the founder-publisher of Stellar. In an interview with , she talks about Amrita Pritam, her anthology, literature and future project in the same order.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: Tell us about the journey of "The Ninth Flower". What led you to translate such an extensive volume on Amrita Pritam?

A: It all started with a phone call that I received one fine morning in 1999 from Amrita. She said: "Tu meri doosri atma-katha, Aksharon ke Saaye, angrezi vich tarjuma kareinge?"

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