Re: One Laksha each for Novel and Play
Ramakrishna S. Pillalamarri (pkrishna@ARL.MIL)
Tue, 9 Sep 1997 16:32:50 -0400
Not to carry on a continuuing debate on the group, but doing it
nevertheless...
First of all, a mea culpa. I referred to "people with deep pockets (read
TANA, ATA, ...) conferring such awards ...". I should have known better.
While that statement could still be true in general, in this particular
case, it most certainly is not. This award was not entirely financed by
TANA. It was truly a "peoples' prize", an accumulation from many
contributors, a majority among them being "telusina vALLu". Sorry about
that.
Chandrasekhar Kanneganti said:
>A competition is a competition and I can't understand the logic behind
>denying the prize to the one adjudged as the best among the entries received.
As Jampala Chowdary said in his post today, and as the note by Chanduri
Murali at the end of the book says, it was stipulated that a prize may not
be awarded, if some specific criteria are not met. So, in abstract, the
concept of not giving an award is there. Whether or not this specific novel
meets those criteria, is of course a subjective judgment.
>We are showing our consumer behavior when we expect more from a
>story/novel that won a prize with higher cash value. Our expectations
>grow enormously when we start reading a prize winning piece. Most of
>the times we will be surprised. I don't expect great works out of the
>competitions, but reasonably good ones. In fact I couldn't recall any
>'great' literature coming out of any competition.
Such an expression of "consumer behavior" is normal. And a prize-winning
piece is, and ought to be, judged to a higher standard; precisely because
it is heralded that it meets such a high standard, by the cognoscenti.
It may be true that great works may not come out of competitions. In fact,
there is something "not kosher" about announcing strict dead lines,
sometimes size, and anointing one of the few submissions as the "best".
Alternately, one could examine the published works in the past year, past
decade, and select the "best". To a certain extent this is what
Appajosyula-Vishnubhotla foundation does, when they select an awardee based
on a lifetime of involvement in the chosen arena, be it the stage, the
short story, or whatever.
But occasionally great works do come out of competitions, one (the only one
I can think of, there may be others) being the duo, vEyi paDagalu, and
nArAyaNa rAvu by VSN and aDavi bApirAju respectively. Someone said that the
"greatness"
of one of these is yet to be determined. IMO, that assessment has been
completed by now, after 50+ years of their publication.
>Actually, I liked the vishNubhoTla foundation's idea of giving equal
>prizes to >the five selected stories couple of years back. That propels
>healthier >competition and less controversy. I don't think a writer would
>write >differently if the prize money is 1 lakh instead of Rs 20,000. Or
>does he/she?
I am not sure!! There may be artists who "invest" effort in proportion to
the prize! Like rElangi's son in tODudongalu - "bEDaku EDupu intE!".
Seriously, I was going to post a review of the "five stories". It has long
been overdue.
Even there, agreeing that the concept of encouraging five writers with an
equal amount of award is a novel one, one could quarrel with the particular
selection made. Clearly (subjectively!) one of those five stories doesn't
belong there! Of the remaining four, I'd put three on one pedestal, and put
the fourth one on a "cinna peeTa".
For the un-initiated, A-V foundation announced a contest, and selected five
stories as being the prize winning ones. They didn't rank them as
1,2,3,4,5. They all were termed "prize-winning" stories, and were awarded
Rs. 10,000 each. Now, I'd call that a reasonable sum of money. Ten times
that takes one to dizzying heights, and becomes counter productive.
Remember Alfred Doolittle? He only wants five pounds from the professor. He
rejects the offer of ten! He thinks ten would make him greedy and want to
save (or some such notion). And when, by a nasty trick of the professor, he
becomes immensely wealthy, he hates it! (at least that's what he says!)
Jampala said:
>However, when he implies that the TANA souvenir committee which conducted
>the >novel competition did not follow its own guidelines or that such
>committess >lack the necessary self-discipline, that is an opinion, ...
I agree that it is my opinion. That's why, I modified the initial "If the
organizers were to seriously adhere to their own guide lines", to a more
reasonable, and subjective "if I were to follow their guidelines".
As far as an "effusive" review in "vArta" by ABK Prasad is concerned,
1) I have not seen this "review",
2) I have no assessment as to sadaru Prasad's credentials and
judgment,
3) "reviews" of rEgaDi vittulu at this stage, in AP magazines would be
suspect IMO, whether they be highly positive, or highly negative, for
different reasons,
4) isn't vArta helping to conduct the proposed contest for the
novel/play for ATA
I'd like to read this effusive review, if it can be snail-mailed to me. In
advance of its receipt, I am sending a copy of "telugu paluku", a
semi-monthly magazine from Australia, which carries a tough-as-nails
crossword puzzle. If you manage to solve 50% of it, your name would be
mentioned in print. If you solve it completely, you'd receive the grand
prize. What is the grand prize? Nobody knows! 'Cos it hasn't been ever won!
(AFA I am concerned, I think it is a conspiracy. Don't tell Mr. T. Narayana
Reddy that I said this)
Ramakrishna "Wondering how the word lA-Du-lu means 'pedda vAru'!" Pillalamarri