Hindi author Sunita Jain conferred Vyas Samman award

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Hindi scholar and writer SunitaJain was today awarded the prestigious 25th Vyas Samman 2015for her poetry collection "Kshama". West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi conferred the award onthe scholar. The award instituted by the K K Birla Foundation carriesa cash prize of Rs 2.50 lakh. It is given annually tooutstanding literary work in Hindi authored by an Indiancitizen. Tripathi commended the author for portraying throughpoetry the fine emotions between poet Tulsidas and his wifeRatnavalli. "The author has managed to aptly convey the sentiment offorgiveness between Tulsidas and his wife using very finelanguage," he said. Eminent litterateur Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari who presidedover the selection committee for the award said Jain’s workaptly brought out the emotions of forgiveness and repentance. "It is a work that is filled with emotions and is ofutmost importance in today’s technological age where there isno value for ‘bhava’," Tiwari said. The Ambala-born author narrated a recollection of hergrowing up years in Amritsar. "I used to go to an evening school and idle away themorning sitting on my verandah and looking at passersby. Iused to observe a woman who used to go to work in the morningand return in the evening. "She was dubbed a loose character by neighbours and alongwith other children in the area I too delighted in making funof her. Later I came to know that she was loathed because sheused to live alone. That incident continues to haunt me," Jainsaid. The author who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004 writesin both English and Hindi and has over 100 books to hercredit. The author who retired as the professor and the Headof the department of Humanities and Social Sciences at theIndian Institute of Technology, Delhi said she has beeninfluenced by prolific reading during her student days. She said writings by R K Naryanan, Mridula Garg,Nayantara Sehgal, Mrinal Pande, and the American novel"The Scarlet Letter" have influenced her. Jain began to write at the age of 22 and has publishedshort-stories, novels and poems in Hindi and English. Her works in English include "A Girl of Her Age" and twoshort-story anthologies, "A Woman is Dead" and "Eunuch of Timeand Other Stories". She has also published seven poetryanthologies besides, a book for children and literarycriticism. The book "Kshama" was published in 2008. Previous recipients of the Vyas award include amongothers Mridula Garg, Kedarnath Singh and Chitra Mudgal.PTI ANS SRY RGSRY