“Atthaas Samman has become the standard of satire. Atthaas’s Shikhar Samman and Yuva Samman are like the standards of ‘ISI’ among the awards given in the field of satire. It was not only accepted by satire writers across the country. And respected satirists have included it in their resumes.” This statement was expressed by Padmashree Dr. Ashok Chakradhar, Dr. Hari Joshi, storytellers Balram, Alok Puranik and Subhash Chander in the 33rd Atthahas Samman Ceremony organized at Hindi Bhavan of Medium Literary Institute (Delhi).
The much awaited 33rd Atthaas Samman Ceremony took place under the joint aegis of Madhyam Literary Institute, Lucknow and Yuva Utkarsh Literary Forum, Delhi. The program was presided over by the organization’s President Engineer Kaptan Singh. After welcoming the guests on the stage and lighting the lamp, President of Madhyam Literary Institute, Kaptan Singh, on behalf of the organization, greeted all the invited guests, members and the writers who were honored.
President of Medium Literary Institute, Kaptan Singh, presided over the program and in the presence of Anup Srivastava, General Secretary of Medium, in an auditorium packed with litterateurs and satirical readers from every corner of the country. Chief guest Padma Dr. Ashok Chakradhar and chief guest satirist Dr. Hari Joshi, Apart from the famous writer/novelist/storyteller Balram, Subhash Chander, senior satirist Dr. Alok Puranik honored senior satirist Suresh Kant with ‘Atthaas Shikhar Samman’ by giving him a shawl, garland and prize money of twenty one thousand rupees.
After this, Lucknow’s satirist Alankar Rastogi was honored with ‘Atthaas Young Writer Award’ with a prize money of Rs. 5,000. In this series of awards, senior satirist Ramkishore Upadhyay was awarded ‘Harishankar Parsai Samman’ with a prize money of eleven thousand rupees.
Poet Dr. Kirti Kale was awarded ‘Vani Vagdhara Samman’, a dress and prize money of eleven thousand rupees by Pramila Bharti. Agra’s famous novelist and historian Rajgopal Singh Verma was given Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan Award (prize amount of twenty one hundred rupees) and Jammu and Kashmir’s famous satirist Kewal Kumar ‘Keval’ was awarded with Dr. Shiv Mangal Singh Suman Award (award amount of twenty one hundred rupees). was awarded.
Due to the sudden hospitalization of famous poet and ghazal writer Satyendra Raghuvanshi, the “Vidya Niwas Mishra Samman” was received by Shilpa Srivastava, editor of Atthaas magazine. It was announced that satire writer Mukesh Nema of Bhopal and Jai Prakash Pandey of Jabalpur, who were awarded the Sharad Joshi Award, will be given the Vaagdhara Award by visiting their respective Grah districts.
On behalf of the medium, Arun Arnav Khare (Karnataka), Dr. Pramila Bharti (Delhi), Dr. Abha Singh (Maharashtra), Bharti Pathak (Ayodhya), Madhu Srivastava (Kanpur), Rajesh Kumar Singh (Lucknow), Om Prakash Shukla (Delhi). , Sanjay Kumar Giri (Delhi), Abhilasha (Noida) were decorated with ‘Vagdhara Samman’ for their literary services.
This time, senior journalists Ashwani Bhatnagar and Prof. Pradeep Mathur were also honored with the Life Time Achievement Award in the Atthaas Samman ceremony amidst loud applause. He was awarded ‘Life Time Achievement Award’ for his long literary/journalistic services.
On this occasion, Anoop Srivastava, General Secretary of Medium, was honored by representatives of various organizations and poetess Poonam Jha (Delhi) by giving him shawl and gifts.
In the dignified presence of Attahas’ Managing Editor Anup Srivastava, Editor Shilpa Srivastava and Executive Editor Ramkishore Upadhyay, the first issue of the twenty-fifth year of the monthly satire magazine ‘Attahas’, Ramkishore Upadhyay’s satire collection ‘Dus Haath Wala Aadmi’, Alankar Rastogi’s satire collection – Fatal stories, Dr. Abha Singh’s satirical collection – ‘Tooti Tang’ and Keval Kumar’s satirical poetry collection – ‘Poonch’ were grandly launched.
On this occasion, cartoonist Sagar Kumar, who came from Raipur, presented wonderful caricatures of Anoop Srivastava, Kaptan Singh, Dr. Hari Joshi, Ashok Chakradhar, Ramkishore Upadhyay, Dr. Kirti Kale, Alok Puranik, Subhash Chander, Bharti Pathak and Ashwini Kumar. Dr. Kirti Kale recited poetry.
After receiving the Atthaas Shikhar Samman, an extremely emotional Suresh Kant, without saying much, expressed his gratitude to the Atthaas magazine and the selectors. Alankar Rastogi said that he is very happy to receive this honour. This was his fourteen year old dream, which has come true today. Respect is meaningful only when the writer understands his responsibility towards writing.
Ram Kishore Upadhyay said that today while receiving the Harishankar Parsai Award, I am feeling proud and happy that my name for the award has been associated with Harishankar Parsai, the pioneer of Hindi satire and a source of inspiration for satire writing. For this, I express my heartfelt gratitude and gratitude to Anoop Srivastava and all the selectors.
Highlighting Harishankar Parsai’s statement regarding satirical writing, ‘How will that community, which goes to the cinema when it is starving, change its days?’, he further said, are we writing like Harishankar Parsai?
He also mentioned the economic challenges facing Attahas magazine and appealed to everyone for cooperation for its continuous publication.
Chief guest Ashok Chakradhar said in his address that the medium literary institute never discriminates against litterateurs in giving honours. He also expressed his gratitude towards the writers who were honoured. Apart from this, he also thanked cartoonist Sagar Kumar who made the caricature.
Congratulating Suresh Kant and Alankar Rastogi on receiving the Atthahas Award, famous satire writer Subhash Chander said that starting from the novel ‘B Se Bank’, Suresh Kant has done a lot of work in satire. Your articles have been published in many newspapers and magazines.
Regarding Alankar Rastogi, he said that he should have gone into modeling, but his wife did not let him go. Even if he had gone there, he would have done something as good as writing satire.
Senior satirist Dr. Alok Puranik, while congratulating all the award recipients, said that recently he had gone to a felicitation ceremony, where 178 people were honored. Organizers said that apart from all the 176 litterateurs present here, a tea seller and a samosa seller have also been honoured.
While talking about the activities of the organization, General Secretary of the organization Anoop Srivastava said that he is now more than eighty years old. People should come forward to manage this magazine, so that it continues to run.
Captain Singh, who was presiding over the ceremony, said, ‘I congratulate the scholars who have been awarded today for their excellent work. I express my gratitude to all of you. A writer has a big responsibility towards the society. Whenever there is a distortion in the society, the writer works to highlight it. A writer should work to protect the values of life. Satire brings consciousness in life.
He further said that I have traveled a lot in the country but the situation in the country is still not good. If scholars like you write for system change, it will definitely have an impact.