Six Persons Recipients of K’taka Konkani Sahitya Academy Awards
Cyril G Sequeira (CGS Taccode) (Konkani literature), Vasudev Shanbagh- Sirsi (Art) and Clara Siddi-Yellapura (Folk) have been chosen for the Honorary Awards. In the Book Award Category, the three recipients are Kasargod Chinna-Kasaragod (for the translation of ‘Kannadachyo Theesa Kaaniyo’), Sr. Agnesia Frank-Mangaluru (for the research study book ‘Amruth Thujya Hathim‘) and Umesh Nayak- Karkala (for the collection of Konkani articles titled ‘Sri Srinivas Kalyan’)
Mangaluru: Addressing the media persons during the press meet held at Mangalore Press Club, Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy President Roy Castelino said, ” This year we will be presenting the 2016 awards in three categories namely-Honorary Award, Book Award and Yuva Puraskar Award which will be handed over to the awardees during the three-day Konkani Lokotsav to be held from February 10 to 12, 2017 at Town Hall.
For the Honorary Award- Cyril G Sequeira (CGS Taccode)-Mangaluru (Konkani literature), Vasudev Shanbagh-Sirsi (Art) and Clara Siddi-Yellapura (Folk) have been chosen, while for the Book Award- Kasargod Chinna-Kasaragod (for the translation of ‘Kannadachyo Theesa Kaaniyo’), Sr. Agnesia Frank-Mangaluru (for the research study book ‘Amruth Thujya Hathim’) and Umesh Nayak (for the collection of Konkani articles titled ‘Shri Srinivas Kalyan’) have been chosen. The names of 40 recipients of the Yuva Puraskar Award in various fields will be announced later”.
“Konkani Lokotsav will be inaugurated on February 10 by District in-Charge Minister Ramanath Rai, and presided over by MLA J R Lobo, while the guests of honor will be Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U T Khader, Chief Whip of Legislative Council Ivan D’Souza, MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik, MLA Shakuntala Shetty, MLA Moideen Bava and MP Nalin Kumar Kateel. The Honorary Award carries a cash prize of Rs 50,000, a shawl, fruit basket a citation, and Book Award carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000 and a citation.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah will confer the annual Honorary Awards on February 12 at Town Hall-Mangaluru, while Minister for Kannada and Culture Umashree will confer the Book Award. Bishop of Mangaluru Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Nagaland governor P B Acharya, Rajya Sabha MP Oscar Fernandes and Former Chief Minister of Goa Digambara Kamath will be the guests of honor” said Castelino.
He further said “On February 11, Youth Day will be celebrated, where Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries R V Deshpande will be the guest of honour. Zilla panchayat president Meenakshi Shantigodu, President of Coastal Development Authority Sharada Mohan Shetty, and MUDA Chairman Suresh Ballal will be guests of honor. Prior to the formal programme, a cultural procession will be taken out from Mission Compound-Balmatta which will culminate at Town Hall-Mangaluru, and will be inaugurated by actress Ester Noronha in the presence of Ramagowda Mijar, Vilas Nayak and actor Elton Mascarenhas”.
Victor ‘Vittor’ Mathais, Basti Vaman Shenoy, Devdas Pai, and Geetha Kini were present on the dais during the press meet.
About the Awardees:
Cyril G Sequeira:
Popularly known as “CGS Taccode”, started to write when he was twelve, and has been involved with Konkani literary field for over 50 years. ‘Pattedarachem Sahas’, ‘Khunyegarachi Khun’, and ‘Sister Shobha’ were the novels written by him. He has to his credit a large collection of short stories, poems, humorous articles, plays, translated works, religious works, edited works etc. He also has done editing work in Konkani publications besides appearing in comic roles in Konkani plays.
Kasargod Chinna:
The work, ‘Kannadachyo Tees Kaniyo’ written by Chinna contains short stories by about 30 well-known Kannada writers. Kasargod Chinna has carved out a niche for himself in the theatre and has translated about nine works to Konkani from Kannada, Malayalam, and Bengali languages. He has also worked in the fields of Konkani theatre and movies and earned fame there. He has bagged Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy, Kerala Rajyotsava award, Karnataka Nataka Academy and Konkani Sahitya Academy award etc.
Vasudev Balakrishna Shanbhag:
V B Shanbhag has published various works including lyrics, plays, humorous articles, Konkani theatre, translated work, and other works. He has brought out an audio CD of 20 Konkani songs. Hundreds of his articles have been published in various Konkani publications. He also has acted in two Konkani movies, ‘Ujwadu’ and ‘Jeevancho Khelu’.
Umesh Gautam Nayak:
Gautam Nayak has organized 101 Avadhanas in Kannada, Hindi, and Konkani languages, a feat that deserves to be appreciated. He has worked in various fields like epic poems, short stories, novels, articles, singing, music teaching, Gamaka singing, Harikatha, Yakshagana, dance, acting, authoring of drama, direction etc. He has also performed complete recital and commentary of most of the epic poetry in Kannada. The current work belongs to the class of traditional epic poetry. By making use of ancient Priyakkara parody, he has cemented the relationship between Kannada and Konkani.
Clara Siddi:
Clara Siddi belonging to scheduled tribe, has been an expert in singing various folk songs of her community besides holding dance programmes. She actively participates in tribal project of the Academy. She has performed Siddi folk dance at programmes of various organizations and institutions. She has overlooked her physical disability in inspiring the youngsters to conserve rich folk art for the next generation.
Sr. Agnesia Frank:
Frank belongs to Bethany congregation. She has served the society without differentiating between the religious and caste affiliations of the people for three decades. She also has trained a number of social workers in different districts. During the period she was serving the field of health, considering the financial problems faced by poor people, she had published several articles to educate people to use shrubs and medicinal plants to regain health. She also held several camps, and the said book happens to be her second.