HAMILTON, N.Y. — Peter Balakian’s Black Dog of Fate will be published in Tamil by the Thaddagam Press in Chennai later this year, and Balakian went to the historic south Indian city, formerly known as Madras, to read and lecture, and attend the Chennai International Book Fair. He arrived on January 6 as the Book Fair was in its second week to do interviews, and also gave a reading at the Ana Central Library to a packed audience. His hosts included publisher Amuthrassan Paulraj, his translator Chitra Baskaran, a professor of English at the Elilraj College for Women in Chennai, and his friend and former student, the poet Vivek Narayanan. On January 10, he read at the French Institute in Pondicherry, the fashionable seaside city on the Bay of Bengal where he was hosted by Kannan Muthukrishnan, distinguished scholar of Tamil literature at the French Institute.
Traveling with his cousin Lynn Derderian of Oakland, California, a seasoned traveler and admirer of Indian culture, Balakian and his cousin visited Chennai’s St Mary’s Armenian Church on commercially thriving Armenia Street. Founded in 1712, it is one of the oldest churches on the Indian subcontinent. They were guided by Ashken Khachatryan who lives in the city with her family and is doing research on the Armenians of Chennai. Balakian found the church and its beautiful grounds meticulously maintained and still used for services.
After touring various cities and sites across India, including a pilgrimage site on the Ganges River, Balakian ended his trip in Kolkata, where he read at the Armenian College and Philanthropic Academy to a lively audience of students and faculty and community members. He was hosted by Very Rev. Fr. Dajad Tsaturyan and several distinguished teachers of the Academy. Following the reading, a Q and A session with students, whose ages ranged from seven to twenty, went on for an hour. Later, on a tour with Fr. Tsaturyan of the four Armenian churches of Kolkata, Balakian and Derderian found each church on elegantly groomed grounds and still in use. “Each of them – St. John the Baptist, Nazareth, St. Mary’s and St. Gregory the Illuminator,” Balakian note, “were unique and impressive and gave us insight into the long history of Armenians in India.”
Black Dog of Fate will be published in Tamil by Thaddagam Press in summer. Balakian is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Colgate University and the winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
