La intérprete de Indira Gandhi
El editorial del Central Chronicle nos regalaba ayer una deliciosa semblanza de la que fue durante muchos años intérprete de Indira Gandhi: Anuradha Kunte.
Catedrática de literatura francesa (y doctorada con una tesis que versó sobre Albert Camus y su ‘Concepto de la Muerte’), directora del Centro de Estudios Franceses de la Universidad Jawaharlal Nehru de Nueva Deli, la India, Kunte fue también decana de dicha Universidad, y recibió el reconocimiento del Gobierno francés con el premio Palmes Academiques que se le otorgó en 1995.
Además de combinar su faceta de docente con la de intérprete (es la única intérprete de la India que hasta la fecha pertenece a la AIIC), Anuradha Kunté es asimismo miembro de la AIWC (All-India Women’s Conference), una organización fundada en 1927 y dedicada a trabajar en favor de las mujeres y los niños.
Reflections of an Academic and Interpreter
When I was studying at the Sorbonne in 1960-62, little did I imagine that one day I would be working with VIPs – Heads of State and Government. While politics and world events had fascinated me since childhood, I considered myself a literary sort, and my most ambitious dream was to teach the philosopher Albert Camus and the language he wrote in. But it was not entirely so: our first woman Prime Minister and ‘Woman of the Millenium’ was fond of French and chose me to be her Interpreter and teacher.
Before I joined the Centre for French and Francophone Studies in the JNU in 1973, I had taught in Bombay, Poona and Andhra Universities. It was my naval husband’s transfer to Delhi that changed the course of my life. The most notable event was the Geneva based AIIC -Association Internationale des Interpretes de Conference – admitting me as a Member. That got me to work as a Conference Interpreter for the UN and its allied Organisations and consequently I was often asked by South Block to help out with Interpretation for visiting dignitaries.
In the mid-70s, Mr Jacques Chirac, then French P.M., had come to India and it so happened that his regular Interpreter, Dr Andronikov, was my Professor in Paris. During the bi-lateral talks between the two P.M.s, it was decided that France should make available an expert to teach in India and that is how a curriculum in Interpretation in French was first started in the JNU and then introduced in the other Foreign languages.
