Renowned Hindi writer Shukla honoured with Jnanpith Award

 

 

 

 

Renowned Hindi writer Vinod Kumar Shukla, hailing from Raipur city of Chhattisgarh, was honoured with 59th Jnanpith Award 2024, which is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award, at his residence in Raipur city on Friday. He was honoured for his outstanding contribution towards literature. General Manager of the Bharatiya Jnanpith organization R N Tiwari presented the award to Vinod Kumar Shukla at his residence in Raipur on Friday. He was honoured with the statue of Vagdevi and cheque. Eminent Hindi poet and writer Vinod Kumar Shukla from Chhattisgarh was selected for the 59th Jnanpith Award 2024. He became the first from Chhattisgarh and the 12th Hindi writer to receive this prestigious award.

 

The 58th Jnanpith Award 2023 was awarded to Jagadguru Rambhadracharyaji for Sanskrit and Gulzar for Urdu. The first Jnanpith Award was given to Malayalam writer G S Kurup. Vinod Kumar Shukla was born on January 1, 1937 in Rajnandgaon district. He is 88 years old and studied Krishi Vigyan in Jabalpur. His first poetry collection ‘Lagbhag Jai Hind’ was published in 1971. He is a modern Hindi writer known for his style that often borders on magic-realism. His works include the novels Naukar ki Kameez (which has been made into the film of the same name by Mani Kaul) and Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi (A Window lived in a Wall), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award for the best Hindi work in 1999.

 

This novel has been made into a stage play by theatre director Mohan Maharishi. He became the first Indian author to receive the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature in 2023. Vah Aadmi Chala Gaya Naya Garam Coat Pehankar Vichar Ki Tarah was his second collection of poems, published in 1981 by Sambhavna Prakashan. Naukar Ki Kameez (The Servant’s Shirt) was his first novel, brought out in 1979 by the same publisher. Ped Par Kamra (Room on the Tree), a collection of short stories, was brought out in 1988, and another collection of poems in 1992, Sab Kuch Hona Bacha Rahega.

 

Vinod Kumar Shukla was a guest littérateur at the Nirala Srijanpeeth in AGRA from 1994 to 1996 during which he wrote two novels Khilega To Dekhenge and the refreshing Deewar Mein Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi. The latter has been translated into English by Prof. Satti Khanna of Duke University as A Window Lived in a Wall (Publisher : Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 2005). He was presented an artists’ residency by Ektara - Takshila’s Centre for Children’s Literature & Art where he produced a novel for Young Adults called “Ek Chuppi Jagah”. He did his M.Sc. in agriculture from Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (JNKVV) in Jabalpur where after he joined as lecturer in Agriculture College Raipur.

 

He was inspired considerably by the poet Muktibodh who was then a lecturer in Hindi at Digvijay College Rajnandgaon where Padumlal Punnalal Bakshi was also working. Baldeo Prasad Mishra was also at Rajnandgaon at the same period. Vinod Kumar Shukla’s poems have been widely translated