SOURCE: THE HINDU

The award aims to recognise Indian voices writing in English, but will eventually expand to include regional languages as well, says Natasha Joshi, Director, The Deodar Prize

It was a conversation with her uncle that sparked the idea for her story, says Srividya Tadepalli, the winner of the newly-established Deodar Prize for Indian fiction.

“A few years ago, my uncle went to his aunt’s funeral in Andhra Pradesh. He later described a scene that stuck with me,” says the Chennai-based writer and educator, recounting the incident: an abnormally large swarm of flies, so many that the limbs of the funeral’s attendees were barely discernible. “I started with that image,” says Tadepalli, whose prize-winning story, ‘Funeral for a Demon’, unfurls in a similar setting.