NEW DELHI, June 12 (MIC): Nongthombam Kunjamohan Singh of Manipur, an awardee of Sahitya Akademi was among seven leading luminaries in Indian literature honoured with the Tagore Literature Award in the glittering function of the Tagore Awards Ceremony held at the AJ Hall in Kochi today.
The glittering awards function witnessed eminent litterateurs in Malayalam, English, Konkani, Maithili, Manipuri, Nepali and Sindhi languages being awarded.
Named after the legendary poet Rabindranth Tagore, the ‘Tagore Literature Awards’ instituted by Samsung India and the Sahitya Akademi in 2009, with the objective of encouraging Indian language literature, sought to recognise the best literary contributions by writers in eight Indian languages every year, with 24 Indian languages being covered by the end of the third year.
The literary contributions by writers were adjudged by a jury panel selected by Sahitya Akademi.
This was the third edition of the Tagore Literature Awards.
N. Kunjamohan received the prestigious award for his short story collection- ‘Eina Kenge Kenba Natte’ (Manipuri).
Other recipients were Amitav Ghosh for ‘Sea of Poppies’ (English); Sheela Kolambkar for ‘Geera’(Konkani); Jagdish Prasad Mandal for ‘Gaamak Jingi’ (Maithili); Akkitham Achyuthan Nambudiri for ‘Anthimahakaalam’ (Malayalam); Indramani Darnal for ‘Krishna Krishna’ (Nepali) and Arjan Hasid for ‘ NA IEN NA’ (Sindhi).
The winners whose works covered different genres of novels, poetry, short stories and drama published between 2007– 2009.
The Award function was graced by Dr M Veerappa Moily, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs as Chief Guest, while O.N.V Kurup and. M.P. Veerendra Kumar, eminent writers and leading luminaries of Indian literature, joined the event as guests of honour.
The other dignitaries at the event included Agrahara Krishna Murthy, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi and B. D Park, President & CEO, South West Asia HQ, Samsung Electronics.
Speaking on the occasion, B. D. Park of Samsung Electronics said, “Named after the legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore – as revered in Korea as he is in India – the Tagore Literature Awards celebrate the power of literature to unify people across religions, regions and cultures. These Awards represents the achievement of these literary writers in the promotion and development of the richness of literature in India.
And we at Samsung, are honoured to be associated with these talented writers of Indian literature.”
Speaking about the Tagore Literature Awards, A K Murthy added, “The Tagore Literature Awards instituted by the Korean Government and Korean Embassy has been greatly appreciated by the literary fraternity in India. The third edition of the Awards continues to give recognition to leading luminaries of Indian literature whose outstanding works extend the fabric of our literature and enrich our community. The Tagore Literature Awards will further promote Indian Literature and strengthen literary and cultural ties between India and Korea.”
The Presentation Ceremony for the ‘Tagore Literature Awards’ was attended by leading luminaries from the world of art and literature, with renowned TV anchor, model and recent film debutant Ranjani Haridas hosting the ceremony. The evening had a fitting finale with the rendition of a collection of classical and fusion compositions by Bharatanatyam danseuse and a leading actress of South Indian motion pictures, Padma Shri Shobana Chandrakumar.
In 2009, writers in Bengali, Bodo, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Punjabi and Telugu were felicitated, while the second edition of the awards honoured literary works in Assamese, Dogri, Marathi, Odia, Rajasthani, Santhali, Tamil and Urdu.
