Sanskriti Awards for 2011 conferred

Shahida Shabnum, author, Kashmiri poetess and short story writer; Rana Ayyub, journalist with Tehelka magazine; Abhishek Hazra, a visual artist; Murad Ali, a Sarangi player; and Vinayak Lohani, a social worker, received the Sanskriti Awards for 2011 here on Friday. HT reports.

Shahida Shabnum, author, Kashmiri poetess and short story writer; Rana Ayyub, journalist with Tehelka magazine; Abhishek Hazra, a visual artist; Murad Ali, a Sarangi player; and Vinayak Lohani, a social worker, received the Sanskriti Awards for 2011 here on Friday.

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The awards — comprising Rs 50,000 and a citation for each — were handed over to the achievers by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India.

Since 1979, the Sanskriti Awards aim at inspiring and honouring young talent (25-35 years), who are striving to attain excellence in their chosen fields — literature, journalism, arts, music-theatre-dance and outstanding social/cultural achievement.

Lauding the unique performers that “broke the limits of their imagination and changed the world”, Kalam said Sanskriti Awards bring out the confluence of “mind, body and soul.”

In her acceptance speech, Shabnum elaborated why she writes about women, their bravery and strangulations. Ayyub exhorted young journalists to follow “honest and objective journalism, especially when credibility of the profession is at stake.”

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, member of Parliament and Sanskriti Foundation trustee, called awardees as contribution “to the GDP as economists are now trying to quantity the cost of culture as soft superpower.”

Ashok Vajpeyi, chairman of the awards committee, called the awardees as “five candles burning in the darkness to gain trust in hope and possibilities.”