Rajam Krishnan
Rajam Krishnan (b.1925) is an important writer on the Tamil literary scene for more than the last fifty years. She is the author of more than eighty books of fiction and non- fiction including kurinjithen, Alavai Kariyile, and Verukku Neer for which she won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1973. Other awards include the Soviet Land Nehru Award (1975) and Thiru Vi. Ka. Award (1991).
This story Needle and Sensibility won recognition and prizes in an international short story competition organized by Mr. Patrick Thompson of the New York Herald Tribune in 1950 with the support of U.N.E.S.C.O. In the words of Dr. Torres Bodet, its Director- General, the project “ aims to stimulate creative efforts on a broad scale across national frontiers, as does this short-story contest . . I hope that it will set a precedent for similar co- operative efforts on an international plane extending to other fields of creative activity.”
To my knowledge that was the first – perhaps the only time – when such a world contest was held.
In 1952, the Hindustan Times, New Delhi, selected and published them in a volume called International SHORT STORIES – The Best from Twenty-nine countries. It may be pointed that in India the Hindustan Times was responsible for organizing the gigantic nation-wide short-story contest covering so many languages.
Grateful thanks are hereby acknowledged to the Hindustan Times, New Delhi who originally included these stories in their volume International SHORT STORIES – The Best from Twenty-nine countries for their permission to translate these stories into Telugu.
