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Literary event held

BHUBANESWAR: Celebrated Malayali writer and filmmaker M.T. Vasudevan Nair has regretted unavailability of translation of the literary works of the Jnapitha awardee and legendary Oriya writer late Gopinath Mohanty.

The Jnanapith awardee, who was in the city to deliver the 17th annual Gopinath Mohanty memorial lecture on Sunday on the occasion of his 94th birth anniversary lamented that he has not been able to read most of the works of Gopinath for lack of translation into Malayalam or English. “I have heard a lot about his writing, but hardly have I got the opportunity to go through them,” he stated.

Mr. Nair, who largely dwelt upon the crisis of contemporary Indian fiction writing, observed that in this era of consumer culture, the imagination of the writer is at stake. “But imagination must prevail,” he emphasises.

On the issue of loss of readership of literature, Mr. Nair does not feel threatened. “Number of readers is never important but what is important is the survival of writing,” he says. “The writer has to explore new ways to retain the readers’ interest in the printed words”, he observes. A writer can not change the world. But he could certainly help in the process of bringing the change, he felt . Gopinath Mohanty Memorial Trust president and eldest son of the legendary writer Prof. Omkarnath Mohanty announced on the occasion that an attempt is being made by the Trust to publish the letters and diaries of Gopinath Mohanty. While Jnanapith awardee poet Sitakanta Mohapatra chaired over the session, Akademi awardee poet Pratibha Satpathy and noted literary critic Professor Sanghamitra Mishra addressed the gathering.

On Monday, MTV, as he is popularly referred to, interacted with Oriya writers and discussed issues related to the dominance of Indo-Angolan writings on Indian vernacular literature and the need for undertaking translation.

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