{"id":1998,"date":"2023-11-29T12:28:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T12:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utkalaage.in\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2023-11-29T12:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T12:29:00","slug":"litterateurs-honoured-as-the-2nd-soa-lit-fest-comes-to-an-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/?p=1998","title":{"rendered":"LITTERATEURS HONOURED AS THE 2ND SOA LIT-FEST COMES TO AN END"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The three-day 2<sup>nd<\/sup> SOA Literary Festival concluded\non Sunday with eminent Punjabi litterateur Dr. Surjit Patar describing\nliterature as a bridge that kept the society together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cConcrete bridges only span the river, but the bridge of\nwords keeps the society united and together,\u201d Dr. Patar said while addressing\nthe valedictory session of the SOA Lit-Fest which was attended by around 250\nwriters, poets, critics, thinkers and artistes from across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pointing out that poetry leads to self-introspection, he\nsaid grief and poetry had a strange connection. \u201cThe poorest countries of the\nworld have the richest poetry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India was one of the countries with the largest number of\nscripts, he said adding the absence of words leads to darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Patar said poets were like trees who absorbed carbon\ndioxide from the atmosphere but released oxygen for the benefit of society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nine of Odisha\u2019s eminent writers, poets and critics were\npresented the \u2018SOA Sahitya Samman\u2019 on the occasion. They included eminent\nstoryteller Mr. Achyutananda Pati, eminent writer Mr. Satakadi Hota, eminent\nlinguist Dr. Debi Prasanna Patnaik, eminent novelist and writer Prof. Santanu\nKumar Acharya, eminent poet and writer Mr. Ramakanta Rath, eminent translator\nand poet Mr. Srinivas Udgata, eminent critic Prof. Dasarathi Das, eminent poet\nand critic Dr. Sitakanta Mahapatra and eminent novelist Mr. Bibhuti Patnaik. Eminent\nlitterateur Dr. Jagannath Prasad Das and noted theatre personality Mr. Anant\nMahapatra, also chosen for the honour, could not be present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"298\" src=\"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/11-eminent--1024x298.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2000\" data-link=\"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/?attachment_id=2000\" class=\"wp-image-2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/11-eminent--1024x298.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/11-eminent--300x87.jpg 300w, https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/11-eminent--768x224.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The awardees were presented with a citation, an <em>uttariya<\/em>, a statuette of goddess\nSaraswati and a cash component of Rs. one lakh.&nbsp;\nIt was announced on the inaugural day of the festival that the \u2018SOA\nSahitya Samman\u2019 would be presented at the national level from next year with a\ncash component of Rs. seven lakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof. Kumud Sharma, Vice-President of Kendra Sahitya Akademi\nalso addressed the gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Felicitating the awardees, Prof. Sharma said that these\nliterary greats had spent their lives to serve literature which ignites hope in\nthe society immersed in gloom. \u201cWhile exposing the contradictions in the\nsociety, literature also acts as the glue to keep it together,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prof. Sharma said the writer had the responsibility to speak\nup for the \u2018dumb masses\u2019 who had none to represent them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SOA Lit-Fest was organised by the SOA Centre for\nPreservation, Propagation and Restoration of Ancient Culture and Heritage of\nIndia (PPRACHIN), the conservation arm of Siksha \u2018O\u2019 Anusandhan Deemed to be\nUniversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Welcoming the awardees, Dr. Gayatribala Panda, Head of\nPPRACHIN, said it was a dream to have the legends of Odia literature, who were\nof the highest calibre, on the same platform. She hoped that the participants\nhad benefitted by attending the festival. Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, SOA\u2019s Dean\n(Students\u2019 Welfare), proposed the vote of thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Responding to the felicitation, several of the famous awardees complimented\nSOA for organizing the event with Prof. Santanu Kumar Acharya thanking SOA\nFounder Prof. Manojranjan Nayak for making it possible for all the ageing\nlitterateurs to come together on the occasion of the literary festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Ramakanta Rath said there was need to publish ancient timeless texts\nwhich were no longer available while stating that the state government should\nattempt to do it. Another recipient of the award, Prof. Dasarathi Das thanked\nPPRACHIN for&nbsp; publishing the critical\nedition of the original \u2018Sarola Mahabharatha\u2019 written by the 15<sup>th<\/sup>\ncentury Odia poet Sarala Das.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe availability of an alternative pure edition of an ancient text is\nthe basis for any literary criticism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The three-day 2nd SOA Literary Festival concluded on Sunday with eminent Punjabi litterateur Dr. Surjit Patar describing literature as a bridge that kept the society together. \u201cConcrete bridges only span the river, but the bridge of words keeps the society united and together,\u201d Dr. Patar said while addressing the valedictory session of the SOA Lit-Fest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2001,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions\/2001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utkalaage.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}