Webpage for Sameer Rawal
-hispanist
-author
-literary/general translator & interpreter

An interview (in Spanish) with Siddharth Chandrashekhar, Youtube channel: espanolpordentro

-Hindi Translation of 'The Half Mother - द हाफ़ मदर', Shahnaz Bashir's novel based in the Kashmir of the 90s (published in October 2024, Rethink Books; original in English)

-Hindi Translation of 'Materia grisa - ग्रे मैटर', anthology of noir stories by award winning Noir writer, Teresa Solana (published in September 2024, Rethink Books; original in Catalan language)

-Hindi Translation of 'The fragrance of the Guava - अमरूद की महक': Gabriel Garcia Marquez' conversation on life and literature with a friend (original in Spanish)

-प्रतिलिपि पर मेरा उपन्यास का.का.का व अन्य कहानियाँ पढ़ें! Please visit Pratilipi to read my Hindi novel KA.KA.KA and other stories!

-Stories published in Online Magazine Inforanjan.com

Working in and between Spanish, English, Catalan and Hindi languages, Sameer studied B.A. and M.A. in Spanish Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru Universiy, New Delhi and afterwards completed advanced courses in Spanish from C.E.P.E., Taxco/Guerrero in Mexico and post-graduate research on literary semiotics from B.U.A.P. in Puebla/Mexico.

He has been working as a translator/interpeter from the start of his academic courses in various fields.

In 2002 he goes to Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona to commence doctoral research in Translation and Intercultural Studies in Barcelona, Spain. He stays in Barcelona for the next ten years more or less. He finishes his pre-doctoral research there and gets his poetry published by the University. He then works on the historically first-ever direct translation of a Catalan novel to Hindi, the iconic 'La Plaça del diamant' by Mercè Rodoreda and it is published in India. Later on he translates all the stories of the same author to Hindi and it gets published in India by Yatra Books, New Delhi (Yatrabooks.com). Amongst other publications till date he has published his own poetry and poetry translations, literary translations, two novels [one of them in Hindi, 'दास्तान-ए-काकाका' published by HarperCollins India (2012) and written with a literary pseudonym Iqbal Choudhary that has now been reworked and re-published online (2023) as का.का.का (KA.KA.KA) at Pratilipi.com (link above) with the author's real name and the other a novella in Spanish, 'Siete historias íntimas del Sr. Gandhi' published amongst friends for small distribution, spearheaded by Nuara Lopez, librarian at the century-old public library, Ateneu de Barcelona] and short stories in online and paper magazines.

Apart from Spanish he also learnt Catalan, a language spoken only in the Catalonia region in Spain that also covers parts of Southern France, Valencia and Balearic islands. He has a higher level 'D' proficiency in Catalan (now 'C2' proficiency level as per European framework CEFRL since 2009-10) and has taught it in Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. He has also taught Hindi and Translation courses at Asia House, University of Barcelona, University Autonoma de Barcelona, all in Barcelona, Spain and at the Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi.

He has been awarded the prestigious and eminent 'Dvivageesh Puraskar' award given to translators by Bhartiya Anuvaad Parishad, a pan-Indian translation organization in existence since many decades. Earlier, he has been a Charles Wallace Trust, U.K. visiting research fellow at the S.O.A.S., University of London while doing doctoral thesis research. He also spent some time at the Translation House, Looren near Zurich, Switzerland while completing a part of the Hindi translations of Mercè Rodoreda's works.

Sameer has worked as a language consultant, translator and/or interpreter for the Social Services, Education, Police and Justice departments of the Catalonia Government, Instituto Cervantes-New Delhi, Gandhi Sevagram-Wardha, Indian Government entities, Police Department-Spain Government, Linguamon-Barcelona, Institucio de Lletres Catalanes-Barcelona, Geoplaneta/Lonely Planet-Barcelona and many other international projects. More recently, he translated iconic Tango poetry to English and Hindi for the Argentina Embassy, New Delhi and has completed Spanish translations of a tribal Indian poetess Jacinta Kerketta who writes in Hindi.