A Nobel chance for K Sachitandan

Malayalam poet and former Kendra Sahithya Academy secretary, K Sachitandan, is among the top contenders for this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. According to Ladbrokes, a UK based betting major, the surprise candidate from India is way ahead of Salman Rushdie, Milan Kundera and Mahaswetha Devi.
 
Literature Nobel, to be announced on Thursday, is widely speculated to go for an 'unknown writer' this time. The speculations have sent betting firms go for a wild pick. Syrian poet Adonais is still the frontrunner with Tomas Transtromer, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, and famous singer-lyricist Bob Dylan close behind. K Sachitanandan, as per the Ladbroke rating, remains in the top twenty list with his odds at 33/1. This is the first time a Malayalam poet makes it in to the Nobel chance list, since Kamala Das featured in the famed list 27 years back.
 
Besides Sachithandan, Veteran Bengali writer and Gyanpeeth winner Mahaswetha Devi and octogenarian short story writer Vijaydan Detha from Rajasthan are also in the Nobel Short list. But they fall far behind in the Ladbroke listing.
 
In an e-mail response to TSI, K Sachitanandan said, he is happy to be in the company of writers whom he knows and respects. "I am happy I am in the company of writers whom I have read or translated or know personally like Bei Dao or Tomas Transtromer. I have never been after recognitions though many have come to me," he said. "For me the next poem is still more real than the last one. And my only anxieties are about the next word. Nothing has changed for me and I remain what I was."
 
Hailing from Pullut village of Thrissur district of Kerala, Sachitahanandan served as Secretery of Kendra Sahitya Academy for a decade beginning from 1996. He also edited its journal, Indian Literature. Besides 22 anthologies of poems, Sachithanandan has 16 collections of poems translated from different languages. His spectrum of poems have translations in 16 languages including Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, English, French, German, and Italian.
 
Adonis, whose 30 poems he has translated in to Malayalam, figures on top of Sachithanandan's Nobel wish-list too. "I wish a good writer gets it this time- someone like Adonis or Bei Dao or Umberto Eco whom I very much respect," Sachithanadan said.