Indian writer Sanjana Thakur, 26, wins the 2024 Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Taking its name from a famed Bollywood actress, Thakur’s short story, ‘Aishwarya Rai,’ reimagines the traditional adoption story: a young woman, Avni, chooses between possible mothers housed in a local shelter. The first mother is too clean; the second, who looks like the real-life Aishwarya Rai, is too pretty. In her small Mumbai apartment with too-thin walls and a too-small balcony, Avni watches laundry turn round in her machine, dreams of stepping into white limousines, and tries out different mothers from the shelter. One of them must be just right.

A Mumbai story about mothers and daughters

In a statement, Thakur described her story as ‘a Mumbai story’. She added: “I’ve spent ten out of 26 years living in countries not my own. India, where I’m from, is simultaneously strange and familiar, accepting and rejecting. Writing stories is a way for me to accept that Mumbai is a city I will long for even when I am in it; it is a way to remake ‘place’ in my mind. I feel that the Commonwealth Short Story Prize offers that chance up to all of us: to be a writer who is from ‘somewhere’, to write from inside a legacy of colonialism and migration. I am so incredibly grateful to the prize for recognising that stories are not written in a vacuum.”

“Writing is so often thought of as a solitary act. And yet, the truth is, the thing that has made the biggest difference to my work is community. It is my community — my teachers, family, and friends — whose support, belief, and love carries me through what is a deeply fulfilling but also frustrating and challenging practice. Now, the Commonwealth Foundation has given me this opportunity to be a part of their community, their lineage of incredible artists and people, and I could not be more grateful. I am so thankful to the judges, my fellow shortlisted writers, and the other regional winners for writing beautiful stories. For my strange story — about mothers and daughters, about bodies, beauty standards, and Bombay street food — to find such a global audience is thrilling. I cannot express how wholly honoured I am to be the recipient of this incredible prize. I hope I continue writing stories that people want to read,” she added.

‘It is through stories that we preserve our histories’

Singaporean short story writer, screenwriter and novelist O Thiam Chin, the judge representing the Asia region, praised “a provocative and mesmerising story from start to end”. He added, ‘Sanjana Thakur’s “Aishwarya Rai” astounds with its hypnotic prose and lyrical magic realism, pulling readers into the compelling story of a young woman’s earnest but fumbling search for an ideal mother. Unrestrainedly candid and full of unshielded candour, the story extracts dark humour from the wry, absurd observations of contemporary life, imbuing every scene with grit and compassion. The power of Sanjana Thakur’s story reminds us that the best of fiction peels back the hard skin of life and grants us the privilege of feeling every flutter and pulse of its raw, quivering heart.’

Chair of the judges, Ugandan-British novelist and short story writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi commented, “The short story form favours the brave and the bold writer. In ‘Aishwarya Rai’, Thakur employs brutal irony, sarcasm, cynicism and wry humour packaged in tight prose and stanza-like paragraphs to confront us with the fracturing of family and the self as a result of modern urban existence. No matter which city you live in, you’ll recognise the stress-induced conditions like insomnia, restless leg, panic attacks and an obsession with a celebrity kind of beauty, in this this case, Bollywood. Thakur pushes this stinging absurdity as far as to suggest hiring mothers to replace inadequate ones. Rarely do we see satire pulled off so effortlessly.”

Dr Anne T. Gallagher AO, Director-General of the Commonwealth Foundation, the intergovernmental organisation that administers the prize, said, “It is my immense pleasure to congratulate Sanjana Thakur, this year’s overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. We are also celebrating our regional winners and the thousands of participants who poured their hearts into their submissions. Their stories, imbued with the spirit of diverse cultures and experiences, affirm our belief in the power of storytelling. Stories help to weave generations of people together, they light up the world with meaning, and serve as a catalyst for empathy and understanding. It is through stories that we preserve our histories, communicate our dreams, and build a shared future.”