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An author should be judged by work, not award: Geetanjali Shree
Ram Advani Award 2022 ceremony marks 10 years of ‘Metaphor’ – the lit fest organised by Lucknow Expressions Society
LUCKNOW “No writer is inferior to any other…an author should be judged by his/her writing and not by awards/acknowledgement,” said Geetanjali Shree, who won the International Booker Prize this year for her book ‘Ret Samadhi’s’ English version ‘Sand of Tomb’’ translated by Daisy Rockwell.
She was speaking while being honoured with the ‘Ram Advani Award 2022’ during a ceremony that marked 10 years of ‘Metaphor’ – the lit fest organised by Lucknow Expressions Society here on Monday.
The writer also spoke about Ram Advani, bookseller and a bibliophile from Lucknow, and said: “I never got an opportunity to meet him personally, but have heard a lot about him…it’s my pleasure to be acknowledged by his name.”
Speaking on her command over English and Hindi, the writer said: “Though my formal education has been in English, I have always been informally trained in Hindi, unlike today when the youth are going away from their roots. As a child, we always used to read Hindi magazines and books. My roots are from UP, which is the Hindi heartland. ”
Explaining the title of ‘Ret Samadhi’, she said: “Sand of Tomb refers to a sand-covered tomb, which is fragile and vulnerable to breeze. Similarly, the protagonist in my book, an 80-year-old mother, is fed up of life, seeks to escape from it and eventually gets support from her kin in this journey.”
According to the author, her book was first published in French and then in English. Speaking about her book’s international recognition and the ability of foreign readers to understand it, Geetanjali stated: “Literature has no borders. We all have had similar experiences and stories to which we relate to a great extent.”
