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Bihari Puraskar for Shesh

JAIPUR: Bihari Puraskar, the K.K. Birla Foundation's literature award for writers from Rajasthan, was presented to Hemant Shesh here at a function over the weekend. Governor of Rajasthan and Punjab Shivraj Patil gave away the award for the year 2009 which carries a cash component of Rs.1 lakh, to the author who is also the Collector of Pratapgarh district. Mr. Shesh got the award for his poetry collection, “Jagah Jaisi Jagah”.

The function was attended by a large number of dignitaries including Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj C.P. Joshi, Rajasthan Speaker Deependra Singh Shekhawat, chairperson for National Commission for Women Girija Vyas, Jaipur MP Mahesh Joshi, Mayor Jyoti Khandelwal, BJP leaders Arun Chaturvedi, Ghanshyam Tiwari and Ramdas Agarwal, MLAs, senior bureaucrats and authors and writers.

Shobhana Bhartia, president of the K.K. Birla Foundation, said the awards, instituted by her late father K.K. Birla, are an attempt to recognize talent in his home State, Rajasthan. “Rajasthan is not only the land of forts, palaces and royalty. It has a strong tradition of folk literature and languages', she noted.

“Literature has the capacity to create and destroy. It all depends on the desire of the author which way he wants to put it to use,” said Mr. Patil. Upholding the value system and nurturing the multifaceted aspects of art, culture and literature was equally important as economic progress, he noted. He appreciated the K.K. Birla Foundation's efforts in promoting literature.

The award committee presided over by noted author Nandkishore Acharya, citing the originality of approach in Mr. Shesh's works, said his works searched for the pulse of life. Mr.Acharya termed Mr. Shesh a Jaipur-centric writer who does not fall into nostalgia but makes a matter of fact approach to life as it is. “All art is local. His works are intimate presentations of the city where he was born,” Mr. Acharya noted.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Shesh said the final shape for any work of art could not be predetermined. “It gets evolved as one starts writing. The literature has the magic of making things appear new,” he said.

The 1952-born Mr.Shesh has 11 collections of poems to his credit and is the winner of many literary awards.

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