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Journalism of Courage
On a coldcold December night, the library at Delhi’s Max Mueller Bhavan gleamed like a warm jewel amid the frosty gardens. The event was the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize presentation.
This year’s shortlist comprised Indra Das (The Devourers), Saskya Jain (Fire Under Ash), Raghu Karnad (The Farthest Field), Bharath Murthy (The Vanished Path) and Shahid Siddiqui (The Golden Pigeon), apart from the winner Rohini Mohan who wrote The Seasons of Trouble, a re-telling of Sri Lanka’s civil war through the viewpoint of three real-life protagonists, recalling the tumultuous events of the conflict once it had ended. Perhaps the most interesting view was told through the viewpoint of a female combatant.
This year’s prize was perhaps the most inclusive, with categories ranging from fiction, non-fiction and even graphic novels. Jeet Thayil, while noting that three of the novels were based in Delhi, said, “India is still a nation in the making and we remain in a state of flux; a single narrative cannot transcribe our nation.”
The jury for this year’s prize comprised Pakistani author and journalist Mohammed Hanif, South Korean-American writer Krys Lee and graphic novelist Samhita Arni.
