Katha (U.K.) Awards 2006

Asghar Wajahat and Govind Sharma get Katha (U.K,) Awards 2006 at the House of Lords, London

Dr. Asghar Wajahat recieves the Katha UK Award 2006 for his novel Kaisee Aaagi Lagaai

Katha (UK) honoured senior writer Dr. Asghar Wajaht with International Indu Sharma Katha Samman at the House of Lords, London for his novel Kaisee Aaagi Lagaai. In the same programme Mr. Govind Sharma was awarded the Padmanand Sahitya Samman for his book on Film Script writing.

While handing over the International Indu Sharma Katha Samman to Dr. Asghar Wajaht, the chief guest Mr. Tony McNulty, Minister for police and security said, “Britain welcomes people from various cultures. We do not want you to forget your culture and language when you settle in this country. We expect that various cultures of the world would enrich our society and tradition. We would see this programme happen next year in the House of Commons.”

Mr. Kuldeep Bhardwaj, Minister – Media and Press at the High Commisison, who also chaired the event, said, “it is a matter of pride that Katha UK is honouring two Hindi writers in this cidadel of English.”

Mr. Tejendra Sharma, the General Secretary of Katha UK and himself a prominent short story writer welcomed the award-winners, speakers and guests. He informed that Katha UK has been honouring writers of Hindi fiction for the last twelve years. Among others, the recipients of this coveted award have been Chitra Mudgal, Sanjeev, Gyan Chaturvedi etc. The aim of Katha UK is to establish Hindi language and literature on the world horizon.

Reading his paper on the award-winning novel, Mr. Parveiz Alam commented, “Honesty is the hall-mark of this novel. This novel has been penned with such honesty that it ceases to read like a novel, but rather becomes a historical document of its time and struggle.”

The award winner novelist Dr. Asghar Wajahat in his acceptance speech accepted the fact that, “the theme of his novel is an extensive life and a comprehensive time period. And the focus of the novel is on student life, Marxist politics, the dichotomies of middle class life and the desires of the youth. He thanked the office-bearers of Katha UK and the panel of judges for selecting him for this coveted award. He also accepted the fact that novel has received more serious readership as compared to Delhi and rest of India.

Mr. Govind Sharma recieves the Padmanand Sahitya Sammaan for his book Hindi Cinema - Patkatha Lekhan

Mr. Lalit Mohan Joshi (Editor – South Asian Cinema) while discussing the award winning book of Mr. Govind Sharma, expressed his opinion that this book will prove to be a bridge between Hindi Cinema and Hindi literature.

In turn, Mr. Govind Sharma hoped that sooner rather than later various activities connected to Hindi films, like script writing, song writing etc. would find place in the curriculum of the various universities of India.

Deepti Kumar presented a dramatic reading of a few excerpts from the award winning novel KAISEE AAGEE LAGAI.

Lord King congratulated both the award winners and hoped that the foundation for a new tradition has been laid today and it would be in order that the next function is held in the House of Commons.

Councilor Zakia Zubairi commended Katha UK for creating a new identity for South Asian literature. She impressed upon the point that to establish the literature of Hindi and other languages we must involve the local people with them.

Dr. Atul Khare, Minister Culture in the High Commission of India welcomed people to the House of Lords and talked about the long association Katha UK has with the Nehru Centre. In his inimitable style he invited Katha UK back to its home at the Nehru Centre.

Noted writer Usha Raje Saxena read the citation for Mr. Govind Sharma. Mr. Rakesh Dubey, Hindi and Culture Officer at the High Commission of India, congratulated the writers and expressed his opinion that the House of Lords has been honoured as Katha UK award function for Hindi literature had been held there.

The Vote of thanks was passed by Tejendra Sharma himself. Dr. Nikhil Kaushik from Wales acted as the master of ceremonies.

The Moses Room was full with guests. Among those present were Suraj Prakash and Professor Nand Lal Pathak both literary figures from Mumbai and Mr. Jawahar Karnawat and Mr. Roop Arora from Delhi. Mr. Kailash Budhwar, Mrs. Achala Sharma, Dr. Gautam Sachdev, Dr. Satyendra Srivastava, Divya Mathur, Dr. Jagdish Dave (Guajarati), Ved Mohla, Mahendra Dwesar Deepak, Kadambari Mehra, Satish Chandra Singh, Arun Trivedi, Inder Syal, K.B.L. Saxena, Punjabi writers K.C. Mohan and Gurpal Singh and Professor Mughal Ameen and Dr. Bose from the Urdu world.