New Delhi, Dec 06: Indian journalist-turned-author Aniruddha Bahal said Friday he was "tickled pink" to win perhaps the most dubious British prize for literature -- the Bad Sex in Fiction Award -- for his first novel, Bunker 13.
One of the least coveted prizes in literature, the award was created by Britain`s Literary Review Magazine in 1993 to discourage the use of "redundant or embarrassing descriptions of the sexual act in modern novels."
"I am tickled pink to be kissing Hermes` foot," Bahal said after being presented a semi-abstract statue of the Greek god of oratory, literature and athletics in London Wednesday by pop star Sting.

"I am still very proud of my book. It is an offbeat award and it will draw a lot of attention to the book so I can laugh all the way to the bank. The book has four pages of sex which will now sell the other 350 pages," he said.
The author said the award also "puts me in great company so I really do not mind the laughs. In life you have to be able to laugh at yourself."

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Past winners of the prize include Salman Rushdie, Wendy Perriam, AA Gill and Melvyn Bragg. Other authors short-listed have included Paul Theroux, John Updike, former BBC Radio 4 Today editor Rod Liddle and "The Alchemist" author Paolo Coelho.

Bahal`s novel won the dubious award for a passage that described sex as a "cross-country" rally.

"She is topping up your engine oil for the cross-country coming up. Your RPM is hitting a new high. To wait any longer would be to lose prime time," wrote Bahal.
"She picks up a Bugatti`s momentum. You want her more at a Volkswagen`s steady trot. Squeeze the maximum mileage out of your gallon of gas. But she`s eating up the road with all cylinders blazing."
Faber and Faber, which has brought out 40,000 hardback copies of Bahal`s book in Britain and 90,000 in the United States, said the award would push sales.
"We are planning to increase the print run for the paperback edition of `Bunker 13` to be launched in May 2004 to cater to the new interest in the book," said a senior editor in Faber and Faber.

"I am enjoying taking this little time out from journalism to write fiction. Investigative journalism is never easy and in a country like India it means you have the whole establishment gunning for you," said Bahal.

"Bunker 13 has literally been a safe bunker."
Bureau Report