SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARD FOR PUNJABI POET MOHANJIT
CHANDIGARH: Punjabi poet Mohanjit, 80, bagged the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2018 for his anthology of poems ‘Kone da Suraj’. Born in Adliwal village near Amritsar in 1938, Mohanjit started his poetic journey with ‘Sehakda Shehar’ (craving city) and has as many as 12 anthologies of verse to his credit.
CHANDIGARH: Punjabi literary circles welcomed the Sahitya Akademi Award for 2018 to senior poet Mohanjit, 80, for his anthology of poems ‘Kone da Suraj’. But many feel that it came to him rather late with poets far junior and of lesser talent having already bagged the award because of the politics around the selection of awardees in the premier literary body.
Describing it as ‘better late than never’, Punjabi poet Manmohan Singh said, “Mohanjit’s has a long poetic journey and he is a poet who has not just written emotively, but probed philosophy and scholarship. This honour was long overdue and one is glad that it has come to him.
“The entire literary world is overjoyed with this award, and I am a part of the rejoicing. In the past, some of the awards were very controversial, but this award has restored the credibility of the akademi,” said Paul Kaur, another Punjabi poet.
Born in Adliwal village near Amritsar in 1938, Mohanjit started his poetic journey with ‘Sehakda Shehar’ (craving city) and has as many as twelve anthologies of verse to his credit. In his long literary journey, he edited several books and brought out a literary journal called ‘Charcha’ (dialogue). Much popular in literary
SAY THE MOVE IS LATE; AWARD WAS GIVEN TO 80-YEAR-OLD WRITER FOR HIS ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS ‘KONE DA SURAJ’
circles for his writing, good nature and simplicity, Mohanjit is a friend of friends.
Describing the award-winning anthology, Punjabi poet and playwright Swarajbir says: “The award winning book is a poetic narrative of the construction of Konark Temple and a multi-layered discourse covering the history, art and power equations of the time. It starts from the viewpoint of the chief architect-cumsculptor and takes into consideration his trials and tribulations and his fellow artisans.”