KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE: ANNOUNCEMENT

THE KODAIKANAL GANDHI PRIZE

Announcement

2019-2020

On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, we, the Gandhi Peace Foundation, the Kodaikanal Fellowship Library and the Out of Print Journal, are happy to announce The Kodaikanal Gandhi prize, 2019-2020.

The prize will be awarded to the winners of a competition that is open to all school children in grades 10-12. Entrants are requested to submit either a written or multimedia presentation on one or more of the following themes:

* Are Gandhi's thoughts and actions relevant today? If yes, in which ways? If not, why not?

* Gandhi said non-violence is a weapon of the strong. Many say it is a weapon of the weak. What do you think, and why?

* Gandhi’s philosophy of truth in practice led to India's motto, Satyameva Jayate. What meaning does it have in an era of fake news?

Written submissions can be in the form of an essay, short story between 2500-3000 words in length, or a poem. Multimedia submissions should be 2.5-3 minutes long. Submissions can be in English or Tamil. All sources and quotations must be referenced. 

The last date of submission is January 26, 2020. Winners will be announced at the end of February and a prize-giving ceremony will be held on March 12th, 2020, the date of the legendary Salt March. There are three prizes: First prize, Rs. 5000; 2nd prize, Rs. 3000, and 3rd prize (two), Rs 1000. Prize winning works will be published in the blog associated with Out of Print, a journal dedicated to new writing in India.

Students who register to submit entries will be given selected readings from MK Gandhi on the themes above.

"I send my great appreciation of this most imaginative and dew-pure idea" - Gopal Gandhi (editor of the Oxford India GANDHI and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi). 

Competition Rules and Information

1. Themes/Questions to address by entrants

* Are Gandhi’s thoughts and actions relevant today? If yes, in which ways? If not, why not?

* Gandhi said ‘non-violence is a weapon of the strong’.[1] Many say it is a weapon of the weak. What do you think, and why?

* Gandhi’s philosophy of truth in practice led to India's motto, “Satyameva Jayate”. What meaning does it have in an era of fake news? How would you restore this ideal in public opinion?

Entrants are to submit either a written or multimedia presentation on one or more of the above themes. Written submissions can be in the form of an essay, short story or poem (word count rules do not apply to poems).

2. Criteria

1. Entrants must be registered in grades 10, 11, or 12. The school should provide documentation to verify entrants are their bona fide students.

2. Entries must show familiarity with Gandhi’s writings and actions. Upon registering for the competition entrants will be provided with a set of selected readings from Gandhi’s most famous works.

3. Language: Tamil or English.

4. Written prose submission: 2500-3000 words. No word limits for poems.

5. Multimedia submission: 2½-3 minutes long.

6. All sources of information and quotations used must be clearly referenced.

7. Plagiarism will lead to disqualification.

3. Important Dates

1. Last date to submit registration form:   8^th November 2019.

2. Last date to submit written or multimedia presentation:  26^th January, 2020.

3. Winners to be announced end-February and a prize giving ceremony will be held on 12^th March, the date of Gandhi's legendary Salt March at

The Kodaikanal Fellowship Library
Kodaikanal International School 

PO Box 25, 7-Roads Junction
Kodaikanal TN 624101

Prizes:

1^st    prize:  Rs 5000

2^nd   prize:  Rs 3000

3^rd    prize:  Rs 1000 each (two candidates)

Winning submissions will be published in The Out of Print blog, a journal dedicated to new writing in India.

Contact Details:

Please use the following for queries, also to submit registration form by 

Email to:     

rajkumararuna@gmail.com

banuhameed9577@gmail.com

and/or by post to:

Aruna Rajkumar
Kodaikanal Fellowship Library
Kodaikanal International School
PO Box 25, 7-Roads Junction
Kodaikanal TN 624101

Other Information:
Competing students may use the Kodaikanal Fellowship Library to reference Mahatma Gandhi's writings and other related material, either on Wednesdays or Saturdays 11 am-1 pm, additionally two Sundays in January 2020, i.e. on 5th and 19th, 11 am-1 pm. Volunteers will be available to help students with their research.

The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize Competition

Essay and Multimedia presentation

Student Registration Form

Name of Pupil : ____________________________________

Grade:_______________________________ Age:________________

School :__________________________________________________

Address:_________________________________________________

               _________________________________________________

               _________________________________________________

Contact person: Name:_____________________________________
Phone number:             ______________________________________

Contact person email ID:_____________________________________

Declaration by student:

I am a bonafide student of this school. I would like to register for this competition. 

Signature of the student:__________________________________

Declaration by Principal

Name of Principal:    ___________________________________

The above student name  …………………………………………………………….is a bonafide student of this school.

Signature of the Principal:_________________________________

 ______________________________________________________

Fill in the application form and forward it by email to the contact given below on or before 8^th November 2019

rajkumararuna@gmail.com

banuhameed9577@gmail.com

Or mail it to the address:

Aruna Rajkumar,

Kodaikanal Fellowship Library
Kodaikanal International School, PO Box 25, 7 roads Junction

Kodaikanal 624101

Tamil Nadu

For queries Contact:

Banu Abdul: Mobile number - 91 9942749330, email - banuhameed9577@gmail.com

Aruna Rajkumar: Mobile Number: 91 9443341640, email - rajkumararuna@gmail.com

Thank you for applying, and good luck.

Out of Print Editors: Vandana Devi

We welcome Vandana Devi as an editor at Out of Print. She has interned with us for a couple of years, lending her clear instinct as a reader to our selection process. She is able to evaluate the value and strength of a short story, seeing through to the core of the narrative thread. Many times when I have wavered about a piece, her response has been the deciding factor.

A Master’s degree student in English Studies at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras she has a broad perspective and an approach to literature that is informed by her exposure to multiple disciplines. 

A short biographical note about Vandana appears on the Out of Print site.

We are really pleased that she will continue to work with us on the editorial team.

Covers of the Out of Print editions that Vandana has worked on

 

 

Out of Print 34

Out of Print 34 has been released, and it’s a great issue – a translation, an excerpt, returning authors, authors new to Out of Print and one author publishing for the very first time. We are honoured!

Zui Kumar Reddy’s ‘Oranges’, an excerpt from her forthcoming novel, The Generation of Light, brings alight the passion that arises in a young woman, ‘a quadruple dose of imploding and exploding galaxies’, when she encounters the ‘sexy, terrifying, mystery thing’ of man whose being hints at a god-like magic from beyond.

Equally laden with hints of the unattainable is Ila Ananya’s ‘If I Remember Correctly’, which takes us into a strangely distanced, yet intimate relationship. They meet and talk every Friday. She does not know him, does not know if she can trust him, is displaced and in a new place where her instincts have been ‘swallowed whole’ and she struggles to know who she is. And he is one of the few with whom she can share this.

Swetha S publishes her first short story, ‘My Old Hometown’ with Out of Print. Gauri is taking Isha to meet her family in her hometown. The landscape is familiar, the traditional house unchanged, and Gauri is delighted to feel Isha’s presence in her childhood house, the only place she has not shared with her so far. Yet, Gauri is torn, will her parents be able to accept the fact that she has a girlfriend? Will she be able to cause them pain when a family crisis shakes the household?

Saumya Singh’s ‘New Paint’ is also set in an old house, one that has been demolished and is in the process of being reconstructed. A visit to the site throws up memories of a hidden family tragedy that impacts generations. Love between sisters, and between mother and daughter come into play as the family home and all it represents is transformed. Yet, these transformations into the new cannot overcome social barriers, and even she acknowledges  the initial spark of interest and attraction, the protagonist flees from them.

In this psychological thriller, ‘Smoke Rings’ by Neena Macheel that is set in an old crumbling mansion in Kochi, a woman’s instincts, obscured and suppressed by both illness and the cultural norms that govern her family life, sharpen when her son appears to be at threat. Her maternal protective instinct rises to fore, and the truth no longer seems the most important thing to adhere to.

 In ‘Electric Kettles Don’t Always Sing’, Barnali Ray Shukla takes the schisms of love, rationality and tenderness to a wholly other, wilder level. What happens when he, overcome by the romanticism of love, wants ‘the maple syrup [to] enter every pore of the crepe in an embrace that was sweet. But Seema insists on parathas’?’

Finally, we acknowledge the passing of an important writer from the subcontinent, Enver Sajjad, who died in Lahore on June 6 by publishing a story by him entitled ‘The Cow’. The story, like the famed eponymous film by Iranian director Dariush Mehjui, explores the intensity of the ‘near-mythical relationship’ the animal has with the human, as the story’s translator, Raza Naeem elaborates.

Nilima Sheikh’s exquisitely detailed ‘Departure’ brings depth and fragility to the issue.

Awards: Out of Print Author, Tanuj Solanki Awarded

Tanuj Solanki has been conferred with the Sahitya Akademi’s 2019 Yuva Puruskar. It is a matter of particular pleasure for us at Out of Print that it is his collection of short stories, Diwali in Muzaffarnagar that has earned him the prize.

We reached out to Tanuj to congratulate him on this achievement and ask him for a comment. 

‘I’m happy with the Sahitya Akademi award. The announcement has come at a time when I’m deep into writing my next book, a novel titled The Machine is Learning, and I must say that the award has led to some increase in motivation.’

Two of the stories in the award-winning collection were selected by Out of Print as finalists in the short story contest that was organised in collaboration with DNA. They were published on the Out of Print blog, as also in DNA.

-  ‘The Sad Unknowability of Dilip Singh’ that author Rebecca Lloyd called ‘a perfectly strange and sad story with a great title’ made its mark in the debut competition in 2014. 

- The 2015 list featured ‘Reasonable Limits’, a 2000 or so word, single sentence existential diatribe.

‘I’m grateful for the platform that the magazine has provided me over the last eight years. My first submission was in November 2011, the second in March 2012, the third in September 2012. It was only for a submission made in January 2013 that I got my first acceptance. When I look back at this – getting rejected the first few times, then the first acceptance, then getting accepted again – I think of how important each email from the OoP id turned out to be in my development as a writer.’

His first book, Neon Noon was published in 2016, also to great acclaim. 

In the acknowledgements Tanuj said, ‘The third chapter appeared in Out of Print magazine, perhaps the best space for short stories in India.’

Out of Print is delighted, of course, at his success, and also at his kind words.

Tanuj is currently busy with his new novel. 

‘Right now, the novel consumes me. It is a form that lures, for it does not mandate precision as a short story does. But it is also a form that punishes, for the variables one has to handle are far greater in number. Sometimes, I wish there was an Out of Print for WIP novels.’

Links to Tanuj’s stories on Out of Print:

Sentatoms begins on a bus and maps a journey, this time in the high mountains. A memoir, a travelogue, an exploration of creativity, a love story, a story of self. ‘For writers, writing is dreaming. For dreamers, dreaming is writing.’

The Same Story through the Theoretical Framework of a Grand Kaleidoscope is a structured series of interwoven examinations – parents, sibling and lover are viewed from the focal point of a young man.

The Same Experiment, Again: In the writing mode characteristic of this work, Tanuj studies the trajectory of a writer’s life-story. Love – love for a woman whose life has diverged from his onto a different mountain path is the narrative thread that frames this work.