Round-Up 2013

Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi held its Annual Round-Up 2013 this evening at the UT Guest House. Presiding over the event was Shri K.K. Sharma, IAS, Adviser to the Administrator. Several well-known personalities of the city were present on the occasion; the hall was packed to capacity and many people in the audience could not get sitting space. This is a measure of the success of CSA events in the city

The highlight of the evening was the annual report of the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi presented by the Chairperson along with a slide show of events that were held through the year. A brochure was released to mark the event. This is the fifth Round-Up being held by the CSA and all five brochures covering events of the last five years were presented to the Adviser.  

On this occasion the the CSA also released books written by six city authors who were given a Grants-in-Aid by the Akademi. Ajay Singh Rana, Neena Kanaujia and Dinesh Chandra were given the award for poetry.Ratan Chand Ratnesh, Nirmal Jaswal and Subhash Sharma for short stories.

In addition, three city writers who have been awarded for their books in print (for 2012) read excerpts from their works. Vijay Kapoor read his poems while Nirmal Jaswal and Dr Gargi read from their short stories.

Another talk this evening was by  Rajnish Wattas who is a professor of architecture and has served as the Principal of the local College of Architecture.  Prof Wattas is a die-hard fan  of the noted writer R.K. Narayanwhose 12th death anniversary takes place in another two days, on May 13th. Wattas made a power-point presentation on the life and works of Narayan, sharing his passion for the creator of Malgudi and his deep involvement with the various characters that people this fictional world. 

Shri KK Sharma, the Adviser, who was accompanied by his wife, Mrs Ninette Sharma, in his concluding remarks, praised the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi for the excellent work being done in the field of literature and for making the city a vibrant hub of intellectual activity. He appreciated the work of Chairperson, Manju Jaidka, Vice-Chairperson Anil Raina, and Secretary Madhav Kaushik.

Photographs of this evening's event are being uploaded and the link will soon be available on CSA's Facebook page and Blog.

The next CSA event will be on 25th May at the UT Guest House.

Round-Up 2013

Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi invites you to its
ANNUAL ROUND-UP 2013
Presided over by 
Shri K.K. Sharma, IAS, Adviser to the Administrator

on 11 May 2013at 3.45 PM 
at UT Guest House
Sector 6
Chandigarh

Highlights of the session:
Round-Up of 2012-13 by the Chairperson, CSA
Slide presentation on R.K. Narayan by Prof Rajnish Wattas
Interaction with select award-winning writers of the city
Join us, please!

Manju Jaidka
Chairperson, CSA

Award for URDU manuscript

CSA announces its Grant-in -Aid for UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT to the following writer in Urdu:

Mr Krishan Gautam
Congratulations. 
Once the book is published the grant money will be released.

Awards for Printed Books

AWARDS FOR PRINTED BOOKS :

Vijay Kapoor : "Pahad hi nahi hotey pahad" (poetry) 2012
Nirmal Jaswal: "rait ka Rishta"" (short story) 2012
Dr. Gargi: "Shubh Shuruat" (2011)

CSA would like to congratulate the winners.
The submissions of those who have not been awarded are also much appreciated.
The judges were very pleased with the quality of the work.
Thank you all for your enthusiasm and support.

Hasya Kavi Sammelan - a Report

Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi has once again brought people together to appreciate poetry that cuts across all borders of age and class. Judging from the numbers thronging the Punjab Kala Bhavan, the Hasya Kavi Sammelan organized by CSA this evening was a great success. If Surendra Sharma, the cheif artist at today's event was a crowd-puller, the other members of his team were equally talented and their performance went down very well with the audience.

The programme began with Master Mahendra who began by poking fun at his own emaciated appearance and then proceeded to regale the audience with poem after poem recited in a strong Haryanvi accent. "Manney key laat khani hai?" ("Do I wish to be kicked in the butt?") had the audience in splits.

Ashok Swatantra was equally amusing, particularly with his poem on a bus-conductor's wedding which described how professional habits die hard; in this case, the bus-conductor of the poem takes his official duties to the wedding ceremony in a manner that he is less of a bridegroom and more of the bus-conductor he has always been!

Sita Sagar, who is a professor of Sanskrit, a poet of note and gifted with a melodious voice, won everybody's hearts with a long-winded rhythmic poem on Chandigarh which summed all the features of the City Beautiful.

Many of the poems recited this evening carried a social message. They focused on changing socio-cultural patterns, the loss of values, and the break-up of a familiar way of life. Baghi Chacha had a touching poem about a man's relationship with a son who grows up and leaves him and a tree that remains rooted in his courtyard.

Ash Karan Atal, poet from Bombay, had a different brand of humour as he compared himself with former PM, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (with whom he shares 1/3d of his name, as he put it).  He had the listeners floored as he recited "Highway ke Humdum". 

The grande finale came with the star artist, Surendra Sharma who held the gathering mesmerized for the rest of the evening.  Each line that he uttered was punctuated with a resounding applause from the audience as he, through gentle satire, and in the manner of Addison, enlivened morality with wit and tempered with with morality. Mr Sharma uses laughter as a tool for bringing about social reform.  According to him, what we need today is not religion but philanthropy. Known for his subtle and not-so-subtle jibes targeting the institution of marriage, Shri Surendra ji poked fun at men and women, not even sparing himself. Laughter,he believes, is the best medicine and can work wonders in bringing normalcy back to a fragmented world.

Today's session of laughter and verse was appreciated by the audience that clamoured for more.  CSA  will continue to hold events for the city and looks forward to bringing people together again in its forthcoming events.

Stay tuned for more.

Hasya Kavi Sammelan

HASYA KAVI SAMMELAN

on 30 March 2013

at Punjab Kala Bhavan, Sector 16, Chandigarh

Time: 6.00 pm

Today's Talk on "Popularizing Literature through Cinema" by Biju Viswanath.

Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi this evening organized a talk on "Popularizing Literature through Cinema" by award-winning film-maker, Biju Viswanath who hails from Kerala but has his base in New York.

Biju has a literature background. He did his masters in English literature, has a PhD from the University of Kerala, and is passionate about films as an art form. It is this passion that made him give up a teaching career and take up the camera. Combining his love for literature with his passion for cinema, he has been making documentaries and feature films for almost the last two decades. His range is impressive: he has dabbled across conventional genres with horror films, romance, mystery and drama. Nor is language any barrier for him for he has made films in Malayalam, Tamil, Irish, Japanese, and of course, English. 

His directorial debut, A Voyage, was based on the life of the well-known writer and Jnanpith awardee, MT Vasudevan Nair. The film brought Biju accolades and was the beginning of several honours that came his way. Among other honours, Biju is also the recipient of the Golden Palm Award for his film Viola and Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay for Marathon. 

In his talk today he highlighted the various issues involved in adaptation, focusing on the roles of the director , the script writer and the original author of a text.  Ultimately, he is convinced that the aim of a film is to reach out to the masses. Unless this is achieved the film cannot be called a success. Marketing a film is a major concern in today's world and a film must keep in mind what will sell.

This evening's talk was very thought-provoking and the session turned out to be a very interactive one with a lot of questions directed at the speaker. The Chairperson of the Akademi, who had earlier introduced the speaker, brought the discussion to an end, summing up th general opinion that it had been a scintillating evening.

Further, it was announced that the next CSA event would be a Hasya Kavi Sammelan to be held on 30th of March. Details would be announced on CSA Blog and Facebook.

Pictures of today's talk will be available on the Facebook page of CSA. http://www.facebook.com/chandigarhsahitya.akademi?ref=tn_tnmn