The Tata Literature Live festival took its curtain call with its customary awards ceremony, where Kiran Nagarkar was given the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Tata Literature Live festival took its curtain call with its customary awards ceremony, where Kiran Nagarkar was given the Lifetime Achievement Award. The celebrated author, columnist and playwright, who is also a recipient of the Sahitya Academy award, said on a lighter note that he has no intention of returning this award anytime soon.
While on that note, host of the evening journalist Sreenivasan Jain pointed out how Mr Nagarkar has at the moment not chosen to return his Sahitya Academy Award, because he’s waiting to hear the government’s response. “They have responded. It took them a little time, about 60-70 days. I didn’t know one could be so slow to respond to murder. Now I want to wait and watch if they follow it up with not just words, but action as well,” he said and added with a chuckle, “I made it very clear to them in my letter that they better hope in heaven, I’m going to return the money. I’d better give it to the children of prostitutes for their education, but not to the Academy if I ever return my award.”
Reacting to the assumption about authors having an agenda to go up in arms against the establishment, Mr Nagarkar said, “Authors have been returning their awards without any prodding. Leaders at the top have been saying things that have been unsettling everyone who is willing to think about matters.” He added, “If I meet the Prime Minister, I’d like to tell him that this tu tu main main needs to stop. We need to have a civilised conversation. This way we are alienating ourselves not just from the Dalit community, but also from the Muslim community.”
