PVLF 2025

Interview with Krupa Ge, Translator of “Unmoored”

Translator Krupa Ge explores empathy, identity, and language in Unmoored, a powerful debut on migrant women’s lives, resilience, and silent sisterhood.
on Jul 17, 2025

Frontlist: “Unmoored” presents the rarely-heard stories of migrant women returning to Chennai. What drew you to translating Ramachandran Usha’s voice and vision for this debut?

Krupa: When I read Unmoored in Tamil (Karai Thedum Odangal), I was drawn to it because of its lack of clichés and stereotypes, the female camaraderie that transcended religious and class lines, and also the empathy the authorial voice carried for the characters. It was mature, and to me, the ending seemed not only perfect but even radical.

Frontlist: As a writer yourself, how did you navigate the creative tension between preserving Usha’s narrative tone and bringing your own sensibility to the translation?

Krupa: I wanted to stay as true to Usha’s vision of the book as possible, and when I heard the writer say that the English version unfolded in her mind’s eye just as it had when she wrote the Tamil story, it felt truly fantastic. I tried to channel my creative energies into tackling the tensions inherent in translation: I had some choices to make about conveying the dialects, which lent it great depth in Tamil.

Frontlist: ‘Debuts That Deserved Better’ is our theme—why do you think Unmoored, despite its emotional depth and social relevance, hasn’t received the mainstream attention it deserves?

Krupa: I think it’s easy for good books to get lost in the noise of marketing that’s all around us. I also think it’s great that you have a column like this. We are missing tastemakers and writers who specialize in writing deeply about books in India.

Frontlist: Migration and belonging are core themes in this book. Did any particular character—Ayesha, Indu, or Ameera—speak to you on a personal level while translating?

Krupa: It was the setting that resonated with me on a personal level. Srinagar Colony and Rangarajapuram, described in vivid detail in the book, are places I grew up in in Chennai. An entire chapter is devoted to two women walking around the neighborhood streets, taking in the scene and smelling the flowers (quite literally). I loved the strong sense of place in the book overall and how it utilized movement very cleverly: here, creating a sense of loitering; there, one of being hurried; in another place, that of being pushed. The way it makes use of the physical movement of characters to create a sense of the story moving forward ever so slightly—which also, I guess, in a way, ties into the idea of a more interesting narrative form outside of the usual narrative 'arc.'

Frontlist: The protagonists come from different backgrounds but share a silent resilience. How did you ensure this emotional texture came through in English without losing cultural nuances?

Krupa: I think, in a way, we are all constantly translating in life between various languages (I speak Telugu and Tamil) and their different dialects, as well as English. So, it wasn’t like I was doing something very new. Still, the way the characters spoke to or referred to each other, as well as the way characters talked to themselves internally, all provided cues for the translation, and I had to follow those cues to reach a place that felt comfortable to me.

Frontlist: Translation is often described as a form of rewriting. Was there a particular sentence, paragraph, or image that was especially challenging or rewarding to carry across languages?

Krupa: The very title of the book, which I couldn’t translate for a while, was challenging. Karai Thedum Odangal means vessels (sailboats and smaller boats) in search of a shore. It brought to my mind this image: a couple of ships or coracles gently bobbing along, rather than a bunch of boats in a violent sea. The implied imagery of not having a place to anchor oneself in is what finally led me to Unmoored. It took several months for this process to unfold.

Frontlist: Usha’s storytelling is quiet yet powerful. How did you balance linguistic fidelity with the emotional resonance her stories carry?

Krupa: I think allowing the reader to directly peek into her character's voice, making them feel what they are feeling in their very bodies at any given moment—these are some of Usha's most superior skills as a writer. My focus for most of the project was on finding the words to convey these characters' emotions in a way that felt authentic to the original.

Frontlist: Did translating this debut work change or deepen your perspective on the migrant experience, especially from a gendered lens?

Krupa: Absolutely. It opened my eyes to the kinds of labor women migrants perform and the way they experience a new place outside the domestic setting (which is by now an established genre of writing led by women in the diaspora); the palpable, heightened vigilance required to survive in a whole different country where you work, and the friendships born of experiencing such vigilance; the sort of discomfort a woman earning money abroad causes in her orthodox setting back home here… all of these form the theme of Unmoored.