Writer K.R. Meera has said that what she faces as a writer are attacks with weapons dipped in the venom of lies and half-truths, in the same way several women writers in Malayalam were hounded in the past.
“As a person who yearns to learn from history, as a woman who believes that I have a right to full citizenship and who lives such a life and as a person who grew up seeing Rajalakshmi, the first woman to win Kerala Sahithya Akademi’s novel award, commit suicide, K. Saraswathi Amma die after leading a lonely life for decades, Madhavikkutty flee from Kerala during her final years… I am convinced that what I face are attacks with weapons dipped in the venom of lies and half-truths,” the writer said, accepting the Vayalar Literary Award here on Monday.“Women writers who are no more have made our path smoother through their sufferings, resistance and resilience,” the author told a packed audience at the AKG Hall in the city. Earlier, presenting the award litterateur and Vayalar Trust chairman M.K. Sanoo described Aarachaar as a novel that was thematically and structurally unique in the language.
Poet and award jury member Prabha Varma, Trust secretary C.V. Thrivikraman, and member G. Balachandran spoke.
