A cow and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Nearly 4,000 entries from 47 countries were received for this year’s Commonwealth Short Story award, for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English by a writer from a Commonwealth country. Twenty-six of these stories were shortlisted, and academic Parashar Kulkarni became the first Indian author to win the prize, beating the other entries to take home the £5,000 award. This is also the first and only short story Kulkarni has ever written.

His winning story is titled ‘Cow and Company’, and is set in India in the early 1900s. It follows four men looking for a mascot to present in their advertisements for chewing gum. When the managing director of the group asks what the caption of the advertisement should be, the other replies: “jo mata ko bhata — the chewing gum the cow mother loves.” After the manager casts his doubts on the punchline, stating it seems out of place, the man assures him: “You can trust me on this, sir. I have spent quite a bit of time on the subject. What better way to get the natives to love our chewing gum than to link it to the cow? ... The cow chews all day long. All Hindus love cows. If we use her on our posters they will love our chewing gum.”

Gillian Slovo, chair of the judging panel, said that in his short story, “Parashar has conjured up a large cast and their way of life, and at the same time he has succeeded in exploring serious issues in a way that can make us laugh. And all of this in a few thousand words.”

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, June 12th, 2016