Because I am sometimes the epitome of the adages: what should be done today should not be put off until tomorrow; that we should make hay while the sun shines and bend the iron while it is hot, the idea that we should create and award a prize in the name of our Nobel laureate VS Naipaul is something I already feel has become a magnificent obsession of mine and one I hope will be embraced by all descendants of Indian indentureship as of the thousands who make going to the CPL and supporting TKR a pilgrimage akin to a spiritual odyssey.
How au courant and coincidental is this as yesterday the Nobel committee gave out their 2023 prize for medicine and this morning its prize for physics. Wouldn’t it be appropriate for us to now name an individual from among us who qualifies for the inaugural VS Naipaul Genius Prize for excellence?
My own in-house think tank on this matter has already come up with a name – a person who eminently qualifies for such a transcendental endowment. While I am the traveler who believes that one goes far if one goes alone and that too many cooks spoil the broth and slow down the cooking, I welcome the suggestions of our people who get a say in who should get the Prize so that the winner must not be seen as someone favored out of bias and hegemonic authoritarianism; that the rank and file hoi poloi had their say makes the prize less something elitist and exclusive and more egalitarian, more something of the people.
I am a notorious procrastinator, but when I start something I become the formula 1 driver who races off from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. It explains how I wrote five books in the same number of months; that an idea could become reality if the determination is there. What I am saying is that we don’t have to prolong this idea until it becomes passe’ but we could implement it right away, this year, this coming Divali.
Already playing around in my head is a Naipaul laureate but like I said, I will like to hear from you your suggestions on the matter – especially from the view that persons in different fields – in medicine, law, business, song and dance, academia, be also awarded the Naipaul prize for excellence.
I hesitate to say this, but it would be nice if we could monetize the main prize (at least) as the Nobel does, but that is something I must leave to those who could put their money where this idea is.
So you want to know who is the likely recipient already marinating in the assembly line? Stay tuned, there’ll be an announcement in due time made possible, I hope with your involvement and cooperation.
So let’s do it?
L. Siddhartha Orie