15 WRITERS HONORED WITH ‘SRIJAN SAMMAN’ AWARDS

Raj Sadosh/Abohar.

Renowned national thinker, critic, and fiction writer Prof. Purushottam Agarwal has said that, today, there is a need to understand and perceive Kabir primarily as a poet, rather than merely as a saint, avatar, or deity. He noted that the messages conveyed through Kabir’s poetry are grounded in logic—a quality that constitutes his greatest strength.

He was delivering a lecture titled ‘Kabir: Then and Now,’ organized jointly by the Srijan Seva Sansthan and Nosegay Public School, in Sri Ganganagar.

Secretary Krishan Kumar ‘Ashu’ informed that on behalf of the Srijan Seva Sansthan—the inaugural ‘Rakesh Sharma Srijan Shikhar Samman’, carrying a cash prize of Rs 21,000 (courtesy of Nalin Sharma), was presented to Prof. Purushottam Agarwal in recognition of his literary craftsmanship. Additionally, several other awards—each carrying an honorarium of Rs 11,000—were conferred: the ‘Shikshak ‘Nimitt’ Poetry Award’ (courtesy of Krishan Kakkar) was presented to Kailash Manhar (Jaipur); the ‘Lalit-Krishan Fiction Award’ (courtesy of D.D. Sharma) to Manisha Kulshreshtha ( Jaipur); the ‘Major O.P. Shaharia Ghazal Award’ (courtesy of Dr. Arun Shaharia ‘Tair’) to poet Zia Tonki (Tonk); the ‘Mata Namdevi Satire Award’ (courtesy of Dr. P.S. Sudan) to Shantilal Jain (Ujjain); and the ‘Maya-Mohan Alok Rajasthani Literature Award’ (courtesy of Anand Mayasut) to Dr. Madan Saini (Bikaner). Similarly, Dr. Annaram Sharma (Bikaner), Satyanarain ‘Satya’ (Raipur, Bhilwara), Hari Narayan (New Delhi), Dr. O.P. Tiwari (Sri Ganganagar), Monika Gaur (Bikaner), Poonam Chaudhary (Bikaner), Pawan Pahadia (Deh, Nagaur), Ajay (Churu), and Sonpal Suda—a student at the Faculty of Education, Tantia University—were honored by presenting a shawl, certificate of honor, a book, and a cheque representing a monetary award.