The 100th birth anniversary of Srinivas Rayaprol (R.S. Marthandam) was celebrated on October 25, 2025, at the Secunderabad Club, a place that held special meaning for the poet. The event brought together family, poets, writers, scholars, and admirers of Rayaprol from across India and abroad. It was organised by the Srinivas Rayaprol Literary Trust in collaboration with the Department of English, University of Hyderabad.
The evening also marked the presentation of the 17th Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize 2025, awarded to Mubashira Patel, a 26-year-old postgraduate student of Sociology from Mumbai University.
Remembering Srinivas Rayaprol
The event opened with words of welcome from Prof. Aparna Rayaprol, youngest daughter of the poet and Professor of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad. She spoke about her father’s journey as an engineer and poet who believed in the value of both imagination and discipline.

Prof. Aparna Rayaprol

Presentation of the Prize
Poet and writer Sharmistha Mohanty, founder-editor of Almost Island, delivered the jury remarks and presented the Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize 2025 to Mubashira Patel.
In her remarks, Mohanty praised Mubashira’s writing for its sensitivity, emotional depth, and lyrical control. Mubashira, who began writing poetry at the age of eight, describes herself as “a literature aficionado, an amateur philosopher, and a newly published poet.” Her academic interests focus on marginal voices and cultural memory—concerns that also inform her poetry.
Following the award presentation, Mohanty read from her own recent works, including The Gods Came Afterwards and Extinctions.

Ms. Mubashira Patel

 Continuing Legacy
The Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize, instituted in 2009, recognises excellence in English poetry by poets aged 20–40 years. Jointly administered by the Srinivas Rayaprol Literary Trust and the University of Hyderabad, the prize has been awarded to several notable poets including Aditi Machado, Hemant Mohapatra, Aishwarya Iyer, Debarshi Mitra, Pervin Saket, Syam Sudhakar, Nikita Deshpande, and Ajay Kumar.
The 2025 edition, coinciding with Rayaprol’s centenary, celebrated both the poet’s legacy and the emergence of new voices in Indian poetry. It reaffirmed the idea that literature is not only a record of memory but also a living conversation between generations.