Author and poet Jeet Thayil, kicked off the DSC Prize winner's tour 2013 here by reading out from his debut novel "Narcopolis".
Thayil debuted his spoken word project "Still Dirty" comprising drummer Nikhil Vasudevan, bassist Tony Guinard and himself as the vocalist at the Oxford Bookstore here late last evening.
The 54-year old author who bagged the USD 50,000 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2013, in a mellifluous sing song manner brought alive, with melody and words the city of Mumbai, around which he had based his debut novel.
Thayil, who is also a poet and guitarist read an excerpt from his novel's opening sentence, which spans a total of six and-a-half pages.
Talking about his journey after winning the award, Thayil said, "It's important to talk about what a cash award of fifty thousand dollars means to a writer. This is a good chunk of cash, which frees the writer from anxiety for a while, for long enough that he can get on with the next one. It is a gift of time, possibly the most important gift there is."
The DSC Prize Winner's Tour is an annual event that allows literary enthusiasts across cities to interact with the prize winner and stay abreast of the latest trends in South Asian writing. Previous winners of the award include HM Naqvi and Shehan Karunatilaka.
The three city tour, takes Thayil next to Mumbai where he jams with Suman Sridhar on August 1 and Bangalore where he has teamed up with Abhijit Pambe on August 2 for a jam session.
