New Delhi, Jan 29 (UNI) Renowned Hindi writer Chitra Mudgal was among 24 writers, who were on Tuesday honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award. Akademi President and noted Kannada playwright Chandrasekhar Kambar presented these awards for 2018, at a ceremony here. The prize includes Rs one lakh cash, a citation, an emblem and a shawl. In the absence of English writer Anees Saleem and Oriya writer Dashherthi Das, these awards were received by their representatives. This award was given to Chitra Mudgal for her book ‘post box no 203 Nalla Sopara’, which was based on the life of a transgender.
Mrs Mudgal, who has been active in the field of literature for the last 45 years, published her first story in 1964 in the Navbharat Times by the name of ‘Safed Senara’. Rajesh Kumar Vyas got the award for Rajasthani language, Rahman Abbas for Urdu, Veena Thakur for Maithili, Ramakant Shukla for Sanskrit and Mohanjeet for Punjabi. Among the other awardees are Sanjeev Chattopadhyay for Bangla, Santant Tanti for Assamese, Rituraj Basumatari for Bodo, Inderjit Kesar for Dogri, G. Nagerrajapp for Kannada, Mushtaq Ahmed Mushtaq for Kashmiri, Paresh Narendra Kamat for Konkani, S Ramayan Nair for Malayalam, Budhchandra Hassanaba for Manipuri, Ma Su Patil for Marathi, Loknath Upadhyay Chapagai for Nepali, Shyam Besra for Santhali, Khemman U Mulani for Sindhi, S Ramak Shnan for Tamil and Kolakuri Inak for Telugu. Chief guest of the ceremony, Manoj Das and a special guest and renowned author of Sri Lanka Ayyature also spoke on the occasion. The welcome address was delivered by Akademi secretary Abhay Rao while Madhav Kaushik deliivered vote of thanks.
UNI