Tata LitFest honour for Kiran Nagarkar

Eminent novelist and playwright Kiran Nagarkar has been chosen for this year's Tata Literature Live! Lifetime Achievement award, which is scheduled to be presented to him during the upcoming Mumbai LitFest, organisers have said.
The award will be presented to him at the awards ceremony of the festival to be held on November 1 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) here.
"I have spent half my adult life doing what I enjoy: writing. But it can just as often drive me round the bend. Laughter is the most serious weapon I have. But I would also hope that I can provoke my readers to question received wisdom and reject the dogmas that fuel violence and deadly intolerance," Nagarkar said in a statement.

The 73-year-old writer said the award meant a lot to him and that it was also a "big responsibility".
A significant writer in postcolonial India, the bilingual Nagarkar's debut novel "Saat Sakkam Trechaalis" (1974) in Marathi caused a storm when it came out, and not just because the author seemed mathematically challenged. It was later translated into English, "Seven Sixes are Forty-Three."
His book "Raavan and Eddie" (1994), set in the chawls of the mill city was first written as a screenplay. He made it into a triology with the books "The Extras" (2012) and more recently "Rest in Peace."

He wrote a historical novel "Cuckold" (1997) for which he was awarded a Sahitya Akademi award and probed into the dark heart of the religious fundamentalist in "God's Little Soldier." Nagarkar's play, "Bed-time Story", has just been published.

"Satirical, savage but always subtle, Nagarkar defines what is best about the writing that comes out of the subcontinent," Anil Dharker, founder and director Literature Live! said in a statement.
The award, which carries a silver plaque and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, has been instituted to recognise and honour outstanding contributions to the Indian literary space. Past recipients of the award have been M T Vasudevan Nair in 2014, Khushwant Singh in 2013, V S Naipaul in 2012 and Mahasweta Devi in 2011.

The sixth edition of the popular literature festival is scheduled to be held between October 29 - November 1.