Kadengodlu poetry award presented to K P Nataraj

Poet Dr K P Nataraj has stressed on the need for spiritual protest against violent activities following the murders of eminent writers like Gowri Lankesh and Prof M M Kalburgi.

He was speaking after receiving the ‘Kadengodlu Kavya Prashasti’ for his poetry series ‘Nithyavu Ninnodane’ at a programme jointly organised by the Rashtrakavi Govinda Pai Research Centre, MGM College, Udupi, and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education at the Ravindra Mantapa at MGM College on Thursday.

The poet expressed fear over the killing of writers and researchers. The development was truly a huge threat to the egalitarian society. Nataraj reiterated that there is need for spirituality beneath the dissidence to fight against the ongoing injustice and atrocities.

Elaborating over his association with writing, the poet said that literature adds positiveness to life. The huge challenge for an individual is to come out of one’s loneliness and get identified with the society and the world.

Speaking on the occasion, veteran writer Dr Erya Lakshminarayana Alva said that Kadengodlu Shankar Bhat was an all-rounder, playing many roles, like freedom fighter, journalist, agriculturist and a teacher. He concurred that literature is very essential to make an individual a human being. Everyone should study literature to understand the essentials of life, he advised.