Literary awards presented in Guwahati city

GUWAHATI: The prestigious Padmanath Vidyabinod literary award and the Bhuparjatak (globetrotter) Ramnath Biswas literary award, given by the Ramanath Bhattacharya Foundation, Mumbai were presented to Assamese poet Anis Uz Zaman of Guwahati and Bengali poet Kalikrishna Guha of Kolkata respectively, at a solemn function held at the Vivekananda Kendra here on Sunday.

According to a press release, both the awards carry a cash prize of Rs 75,000, a citation and a memento, besides a specially designed scarf of muga cloth. The function, conducted by Sudhangshu Sekhar Mukhopadhyay, was attended by distinguished personalities in a packed auditorium. The awards were handed over by the chief guest Prof Usharanjan Bhattacharya.

In his welcome address, the general secretary of the foundation and renowned producer of Hindi TV serials Shyamashis Bhattacharya explained the background of initiating the two awards in memory of their two great ancestors - Pandit Padmanath and Bhuparjatak Ramnath - both of whom were illustrious sons of undivided Assam, and said that mainly because of his father Ramanath Bhattacharya's zeal the decision to give these awards was taken 12 years ago. Accordingly, today's awards are being presented for the year 2021. The awards for the year 2020 could not be given due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A well-prepared and informative souvenir, edited by Sudhangshu Sekhar Mukhopadhyay and published on the occasion by the foundation, was released by the Prof Bhattacharya. He said that the foundation has set an unique example by deciding to give the awards in the names of its founder's illustrious ancestors, which should be an inspiration for the future generations.

Accepting the award, poet Anis Uz Zaman dwelt at length with various aspects of poetry. Ramnath Biswas literary award recipient poet Kalikrishna Guha recalled how he was overwhelmed on reading Ramnath's 'Andhakarer Africa' at a very young age, and now feels honoured to receive the award given in the name of the famous Bhuparjatak.

Previous recipients of the awards include Assamese poets Ajit Barua, Hiren Bhattacharya, Nilamoni Phukan, Hirendranath Dutta, Bhaben Barua, Harekrishna Deka, Sananta Tanti, Sameer Tanti, Anubhav Tulsi, Nilim Kumar and Bengali poets Bijit Kumar Bhattacharya, Pabitra Mukhopdhyay, Tarun Sanyal, Swapan Sengupta, Shyamal Kanti Das, Ratneshwar Hajra, Udayan Ghosh, Ajit Bairi, Pijush Raut, Ranajit Das.

The function ended with an interactive session with the two awarded poets, conducted by Assamese and Bengali poets Sameer Tanti and Atanu Bhattacharya respectively.

It may be recalled that both Padmanath (1868-1938) and Ramnath (1894-1955), in whose names the two awards are given, were born in Baniachang under Habiganj sub-division in the Sylhet district of undivided Assam. Padmanath had a bright educational career, who spent major parts of his life as a professor in the Cotton College, Guwahati and was actively associated with literary and historical research of Assam with his pioneering research work titled 'Kamarupashasanavali', he was instrumental in the establishment of Assam Research Society and was also one of the founder-members of Axam Xahitya Xabha. On the other hand, Ramnath had participated in the Indian freedom struggle as a member of the famous Anushilan Samiti and later travelled four continents of the world on a number of journeys with a bicycle, which earned him the title of 'Bhuparjatak' (globetrotter). He had written over 30 travelogues depicting his vast experience during those journeys.

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