Daijiworld Media Network—Margao (MR/CN)

Margao, Nov 23: Octogenarian Konkani litterateur from Goa, Ravindra Kelekar, has won the Jnanapeeta Award for this year. The award consists of a cheque for Rs 5,00,000, a citation plaque, and a bronze replica of ‘Vagdevi’, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, and the arts.

The award was instituted in 1961 and its first recipient, in 1965,was  Malayalam author G Sankara Kurup. Any Indian citizen who writes in any of the official languages of India is eligible for the honour.

Prior to 1982, the awards were given for a single work by a writer; since then, the award has been given for a lifetime contribution to Indian literature. Kannada writers have won seven awards, the highest for any language followed by six for Hindi, four for Malayalam, three for Marathi and three for Urdu.

This is the first time a Konkani author is winning the prestigious award. Kelekar was bestowed with the ‘Padma Bhushan’ by the Government of India early this year. The award is a recognition of Kelekar’s pioneering service in the resurgence of the Konkani language, and his eminence as a writer.

A multi-faceted personality—scholar, activist, linguist, and creative thinker—Kelekar was an active participant in the nation’s freedom movement and later, Goa’s liberation movement.

A disciple of Kakasaheb Kalelkar, he has dedicated his life to the preservation, propagation, promotion, and strengthening of Konkani language by authoring nearly 100 books in Konkani. He has also edited ‘Jaag’ magazine for more than two decades.

Kelekar is the recipient of many prestigious awards including Sahitya Akademi Award, the Gomant Sharada Award of Kala Academy, and recently, the Fellowship of Sahitya Akademi. The Central Sahitya Akademi had conferred its fellowship on Ravindra Kelekar in 2007.

Born in 1925, Kelekar is basically an essayist and novelist.  Prior to editing `Jaag’, he edited Konkani periodicals ‘Mirg’ (Monsoon) and Gomant Bharati’.  He is equally at ease writing in Konkani, Marathi, and Hindi.  His chief works in Konkani include `Tulsi’ (novel, 1971), `Uzavaddache Sur’ (The Voices of Light, 1973) and ‘Himalayant’ (In the Himalayas, 1976) which won him the Sahitya Akademi Award. Kelekar’s Marathi travelogue ‘Japan Zaso Dista’ is also well-known.  Most of his writings are a serious meditation on life and its problems.

This September, his book of essays, `Kaleidoscope’, was released. At the time Pundalik Nayak, president, Goa Konkani Akademi, said that just as Satyajit Ray swore to make movies only in Bengali, Kelekar swore to write books only in Konkani and has thus, created a world of Konkani. Nayak called him ‘an Indian writer writing in Konkani’.