Bringing DSC Prize for literature to Lanka
When the organisers of the Jaipur Literary Festival approached Surina Narula for funding, she had only one stipulation- that it be free so that even the street children she worked with could come if they wanted to. When the festival grew so big that DSC Ltd’s funding was no longer enough to fuel further growth, Narula gracefully freed the organisers from a ten year sponsorship contract. Both acts – that stipulation and then the stepping back –have likely shaped JLF in significant ways but as Narula admits readily: “I hate to stay on when something has become successful. I need to find more to do. I don’t sit on my laurels.”
In Sri Lanka, Narula is the bearer of good news. Speaking at the press conference held to introduce the Fairways Galle Literary Festival of 2016, she was invited to the podium to announce that the winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature would be revealed at the GLF in January. The prize is young but weighty thanks to a $50,000 endowment which has been awarded to the likes of Jhumpa Lahiri and Jeet Thayil in past years. Sri Lanka’s Shehan Karunatilaka won it in 2012.
It is one of the few prizes that specifically celebrates writing set in or about South Asia but it is not a vanity project for the family that established it in 2011 – their motivations go deeper than that. But to begin, it’s worth noting that Narula is best known for the millions of pounds she’s raised for a number of causes over the years. Among London’s most influential Indian expatriates, she and her husband Harpinder Singh have hosted several extravagant fundraisers at Hyver Hall, their sprawling estate in Hertfordshire.
So when Narula talks about Fergie, she’s referring to Sarah, Duchess of York, and when she mentions Arun, it’s Arun as in Jaitely, the BJP stalwart who holds an impressive trinity of ministerial portfolios - Finance, Corporate Affairs & Information and Broadcasting – in Narendra Modi’s government.