For the third consecutive year the fertilizer cooperative giant IFFCO gave Shrilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman to renowned Hindi novelist Shri Sanjiv on Friday at the Shri Ram Centre in N Delhi.
The impressive function was attended by a mix of people from the field of art and literature and the cooperative. It is the language which connects IFFCO with farmers and thus this award, said the Managing Director of IFFCO, U S Awasthi on this occasion.
Senegal CultureMinister Abdoul Aziz Mbaye, the Chief Guest along with Awasthi and writer Kedar Nath Singh offered a cheque of Rs 11 lakh along with citation to Shri Sanjiv.
Mr Mbaye traced the cultural link between India and Sengal and went on to say that in our popular perception we believe that if Adam came from Jeddah then Eve came from India to the thunderous applause from the audience.
Showering praise on IIFCO MD Senegal Cultural Minister Mr Mbaye said “ Awasthiji is a quality man as he has attempted to temper business with art and literature”. Readers could recall that the first President of Senegal Léopold Senghor was a poet, teacher, and statesman, and a major proponent of the concept of Negritude.
When the final list of names came up, it took no time to us to decide on Sanjiv due to his outstanding performance in the field, Singh concluded. Singh did not miss to mention the contributions of Shrilal Shukla on this occasion and called Rag Darbari the magnum opus of Hindi literature.
Renowned Director Arvind Gaur presented the dramatization of famed Rag Viraag before the audience on this occasion.
Congratulating Shri Sanjiv on bagging the 2013 Shrilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman IFFCO Managing Director U S Awasthi said Sanjiv’s works reflect the social-cultural milieu of India in a very realistic manner. Hard-working farmers are the central protagonists in many of his works. For IFFCO too the farmers are the subject-matter, Awasthi added.
Awasthi emphasized the role of Indian languages and urged to focus on their growth. For IFFCO, the happiness of farmers is paramount and language plays a crucial role in connecting us to them. He also thanked Senegal Cultural Minister and reminded audience of the vibrant relation between the two countries.
IFFCO’s Shrilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman offers by far the highest money in the field of literature and has already begun to be compared with the Gyanpeeth Award in the literary circle. Vidya Sagar Nautial and Shri Shekhar Joshi bagged the 2011 and 2012 Shrilal Shukla Smriti IFFCO Sahitya Samman respectively.
