Mumbai, June 27 (FN Representative) Mumbai-born Sanjana Thakur has won the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, outshining 7,359 global entrants to secure the 5,000 pound award on Thursday. Her story “Aishwarya Rai” reimagines the adoption tale of a young woman, Avni, choosing a mother from a local shelter. Thakur expressed her gratitude, stating, “Writing stories is a way for me to accept that Mumbai is a city I will long for even when I am in it… I am so thankful to the judges, my fellow shortlisted writers, and the other regional winners for writing beautiful stories.” She added, “I hope I continue writing stories that people want to read.”
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Chair of the Judging Panel, praised Thakur’s work: “In ‘Aishwarya Rai’, Sanjana Thakur employs brutal irony, sarcasm, cynicism, and wry humour. Thakur pushes this stinging absurdity as far as to suggest hiring mothers to replace inadequate ones.” The award ceremony, hosted by Dr. Selina Tusitala Marsh, also honoured regional winners Reena Usha Rungoo, Julie Bouchard, Portia Subran, and Pip Robertson. All five stories have been published by Granta and are available in a special print collection from Paper + Ink. Marsh remarked, “The power of Thakur’s story reminds us that the best of fiction peels back the hard skin of life and grants us the privilege of feeling every flutter and pulse of its raw, quivering heart.”