Konkani Sahitya Academy honorary awards for three

Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy will confer its annual honorary awards for the year 2017 on Herolpius (Greshan Pius D'Silva), Om Ganesh, Madeva Budo Velipa and book awards on Valli Quadres and Vishwanath Shet.

The awards will be presented during a function as a part of the silver jubilee function of the Dandakaranya Konkani Manyatotsava at Sri Ranganatha Auditorium in Dandeli at 5 pm on February 11.

Kannada and Culture Minister Umashree will inaugurate the programme. Uttara Kannada District In-charge Minister R V Deshpande and Dakshina Kannada District In-charge Minister B Ramanath Rai will present the honorary awards and book awards respectively. Academy chairman R P Naik will preside over the ceremony.

Honorary awards

Greshan Pius D'Silva, a native from Kudupu, Mangaluru, started writing stories from his teenage, under the pen name 'Herolpius'. His first novel 'Don Thembe Dukhan' was published when he was 18. He has several other novels 'Ragat Ani Udak', 'Ek Aduren Pinthur', 'Majya Sapnachi Rani', 'Sister Shobha' to his credit. He has written about 245 short stories and satirical pieces in Konkani and Kannada.

Madeva Budo Velipa, an octogenarian from Kunabi community, Joida, is a folk artiste well-versed in 'Suggi Pada', 'Songo', 'Tulasi Habbada Hadu', 'Kunabi Ramayana', 'Kunabi Mahabharata', 'Songs of Vithoba of Pandharapur', 'Naumi Hadu' and so on. He is known as a treasure house of folk songs. He has performed the folk arts of the Kunabi community on various stages including the state-level 'Gadi Utsava' in Castle Rock, 'Karavali Utsava', 'Sahayana Utsava', 'Kavyabodhi' and 'Dandeli Utsava'. The Karnataka Janapada Parishat has conferred the state-level award 'Janapada Loka' on Madeva Budo Velipa.

Om Ganesh is a theatre person with a rural background. He has established the 'Ranga Taranga', to popularise Konkani theatre. The organisation has been staging various theatre fests every year. Om Ganesh is also a resource person, columnist, actor, song writer and magician. He has been a member of the Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy in the year 2015. In the past 45 years, he has staged 3,000 theatre performances in 45 countries.

Book awards

Valli Quadrus will be conferred with the book award for his work 'Bandh', a collection of short stories in Konkani. Valli is an MBA graduate and involved in Konkani literature for the past three decades. He has been the editor of a few Konkani web journals. He was awarded the 'Divo Sahitik Puraskar' and the Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy Special Book Award.

Vishwanath Shet will be awarded the book award for 'Sri Ramacharita', the first epic in Konkani in Bhamini Shatpadi. Apart from being a writer in Konkani and Kannada, he is also a Yakshagana and Talamaddale artiste, a sculptor and a make-up artiste. He has been awarded by Karnataka Janapada Academy.

During the valedictory of the 'Konkani Manyata - 25' on February 12, the 'Konkani Kirita' honour will be presented to Dr Vasanta Bandekar, Arun Abhayankar and Koodlu Ananda Shanubhogue. Also, the Konkani Manyata Silver Jubilee Puraskar will be conferred on 25 achievers from various fields on the occasion.