Akademi award for poet

The Sahitya Akademi, the national academy of letters dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India, announced on December 19, 2014 that Adil Jussawalla had won its award for his collection of poems, Trying to Say Goodbye. The 74-year-old poet and literary critic’s book was one among the eight collections chosen for India’s highest literary award. Speaking about the book which was published in 2011 after a hiatus of 35 years, Jussawalla told Mumbai Mirror (MM) of December 22: "For many years I was not trying to get new poems published. There were few that I was happy with. Until about 2009, when I was nearing 70 and felt it was time to get rid of a lot of the past. There’s no point in having drafts lying about.” In an interview with The Indian Express (IE) of the same date Jussawalla explained: "One thing I am dealing with in the book is the recovery of the past and myself. It has been archeological in a sense, in that I went about digging for old poems from my time in London. I am digging into my memory and past.”

Adil Jussawalla: a cult figure

Many of his well-wishers for whom Jussawalla is a cult figure felt that the award was long overdue. "I don’t see how, as I hadn’t published a book of poems for so many years. There was nothing for the Sahitya Akademi or any other body to give an award for,” he candidly responded to MM. To IE he admitted being gratified that "poetry is not getting neglected by the Sahitya Akademi in favor of fiction. Poetry does have festivals dedicated to it, but fiction overwhelms poetry when it comes to larger platforms.”
About writers who stop publishing, Jussawalla explained to IE: "It is impossible to keep all writers in circulation. As time goes by, older writers drop out of sight because there is no market for them. Unlike art, which appreciates with age, books are given away to the raddiwala.”