And the Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2008 goes to...
Authors Amitav Ghosh and Neel Mukherjee (jointly) for the English Fiction category, Basharat Peer with his heart wrenching book 'Curfewed Nights' for the English Non-Fiction and author Manohar Shyam Joshi with translator Ira Pande for the Indian Language Fiction Translation category for their book T'TA Professor
Tweet-- Indian Literary Excellence took center stage at the ‘VODAFONE CROSSWORD BOOK AWARDS 2008’ as the best writers and their books were honoured at Nehru Auditorium on Thursday, July 23, 2009. This year the awards in the English Fiction category is jointly won by authors Amitav Ghosh for his book ‘Sea of Poppies’ and Neel Mukherjee for ‘Past Continuous’, ‘Curfewed Nights’ by author Basharat Peer has won in the English Non-Fiction category and ‘T’TA Professor’ by author Manohar Shyam Joshi (translated by Ira Pande) has bagged the best in Indian Language Fiction Translation. The book is originally written in Hindi.
Prominent author, Sahitya Akademi and Commonwealth Writers awardee Ms. Nayantara Sahgal was the chief guest for the evening and also felicitated the winners.
‘The Vodafone Crossword Popular Book Award’ was won by author Pallavi Aiyar for her book ‘Smoke & Mirrors’. The Popular Award - which was introduced in 2006 - is a unique initiative by Crossword and Vodafone and offers readers the opportunity to vote for their favourite book.
A packed audience that included distinguished writers, publishers, critics and book-lovers enjoyed the much-awaited event that is poised to become the biggest celebration of Indian literature. The evening also witnessed a panel discussion on the Indian literary works and how awards like the Crossword Book Award is a step forward in recognizing and rewarding Indian writing.
The winners for the Vodafone Crossword Book Awards 2008 were decided by a respected panel of judges comprising well-known academics, critics and writers in each category. Usha K. R, Rukmini Bhaya Nair and Mukund Padmanabhan served as judges in the English Fiction Category, Harsh Sethi, Jerry Rao and Jyotirmaya Sharma for the English Non-Fiction category and Arunava Sinha, Dilip Kumar and Rita Kothari for the Indian Language Fiction Translation category.
This year, the Award has generated a great response from the Indian publishers and 176 valid entries were received for the 3 categories. The selection process took several months of reading, deliberation and discussion before the three panels made their selections.
Mr. C.B Navalkar – CEO Crossword Bookstores stated: “The Vodafone Crossword Book Award 2008 is celebrating its 8th successful year and the belief of the writer fraternity have made it possible so far. We are equally thankful to the enthusiastic response we have received from our readers who have made this award ceremony an annual property and helped us scale newer heights with every passing year.”
Notes to Editor
About Crossword:
Crossword is India’s leading bookstore chain, which has pioneered the lifestyle bookstore concept in India. Its innovative approach to book retailing and its achievements have received wide acclaim in India and has won the ‘Reid & Taylor Award for Best Retailer of the year – Leisure & Specialty’ at the India Retail Summit 2005 'Images Retailer of the Year award for the books, music and gifts category for 2005'. Businessworld rated Crossword as the '6th Most Respected Retailer in the country' for the year 2006; the only bookstore to feature in the top ten. Launched in 1992, Crossword currently has 50 stores across 11 cities in the country in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, and Vadodara & Nagpur. Crossword Bookstores Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary Company of Shopper’s Stop Ltd – India’s leading department store chain. The Holding Company inter-alia also acts as a Master Franchisee of the Company
About Vodafone:
Vodafone Essar in India is a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc and commenced operations in 1994 when its predecessor Hutchison Telecom acquired the cellular licence for Mumbai. Vodafone Essar now has operations in 16 circles covering 86% of India’s mobile customer base, with over 44.12 million customers*.
Over the years, Vodafone Essar, under the Hutch brand, has been named the ‘Most Respected Telecom Company’, the ‘Best Mobile Service in the country’ and the ‘Most Creative and Most Effective Advertiser of the Year’.
Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile communications company. It now has operations in 25 countries across 5 continents and 40 partner networks with over 252 million customers worldwide. Vodafone has partnered with the Essar Group as its principal joint venture partner for the Indian market.
The Essar Group is a diversified business corporation with interests spanning the manufacturing and service sectors like Steel, Energy, Power, Communications, Shipping & Logistics and Construction. The Group has an asset base of over Rs.400 billion (US$ 10 billion) and employs over 20,000 people.
*Figures from Cellular Operators Association of India, March 31, 2008