The Hindu
Bangalore, Dec 24: Kannada writer Srinivas Vaidya has been awarded the Kendra Sahitya Akademi award for his novel 'Halla Bantu Halla'
The novel, set in a village in north Karnataka, maps the social and political upheavals in a village in a span of close to a century from 1853 to 1947, as seen through the eyes of a village elder.
This is the only published novel of the 72-year-old author who is well known as an essayist.
Critics have often said that his overriding reputation as a “writer of humorous essays” has masked his more serious side as a novelist and a short story writer.
Vaidya was born in 1936 in Navalgund in Dharwad district. He now lives in Bangalore. He has three collections of essays (Talegondu Tara Tara, Manasurayana Manasu and Ruchige Huli Ogaru) and a collection of short stories (Agni Karya) to his credit, besides the novel Halla Bantu Halla