The Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy honourary awards will be conferred on H M Pernal, Ramesh Kamath and Kumuda Gadakar in a ceremony on September 18 at Kaashimata, Bengaluru.
The Konkani Sahitya Award will be conferred on H M Pernal, Konkani Art Award on Ramesh Kamath, and Konkani Folk Award on Kumudha Gadakar.
Higher education minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayana, and minister for Kannada and Culture V Sunil Kumar will be confer the awards.
Konkani Sirisampada, Parichaya Pustaka, and Buykaamp Brugana Sangile Pulla Kaanyo books will be released on the occasion.
Mangaluru south MLA Vedavyas Kamath, MLC Prathap Simha Nayak, government secretary Dr N Manjula, Prakash J T, V N Mallikarjuna Swamy and Jayashree Shanbaug will also take part in the event.
The awardees will receive Rs 50,000 cash each.
Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy president Jagadish Pai conducted press meet and gave the information. Member Arun G Shet, Canute Jeevan Pinto, Naveen Nayak, Gopalkrishna Bhat and registrar Manohar Kamath were also present.
About the awardees
H M Pernal
Henry Mendonca, popularly known as H M Pernal writes fluently in Konkani, Kannada, English, Hindi and Marathi languages. Initially his poems and short stories were published in Kannada periodicals like ‘Tharanga’ ‘Suddi-Sangathgi’ ‘Mallige’ ‘Sankramana’ ‘Shoodra’ ‘Thaayinudi’ etc. He debuted in Konkani as a cartoonist in the periodical ‘Yuvak’ and later started publishing, poems, articles and essays on poetry, in various other Konkani periodicals.
H M Pernal has published over 750 poems, over 100 short stories and over 2000 essays and articles in the last 38 years. ‘Cholyank Chothrai’ (1999) ‘Kaidyachyo Kavita’ (2004) ‘Bamunanchem Cheddum’ (2006) are the published anthologies of his poems. ‘Devaak sodullo Pado (2002) and ‘Beeg ani Beegatha’ (2016) are the published collections short stories. ‘Konkani Kavyem: Rupam ani Rupakam’ (2021) is a collection of critical essays on modern Konkani poetry.
He was selected as the ‘Poet of the Year’ by popular literary website daaiz.com in 2006. All India Radio Stations of Managaluru and Mumbai aired his programmes. He has represented Konkani poetry in the Amaravathi International’s Poetry Prism book.
He is the founder and editor/publisher of premier Konkani literary website www.kittall.com, which is in its 12th year of non-stop publication. He is the founder and presently publisher of ARSO Konkani magazine, edited by popular poet Wilson, Kateel. He runs a publication house in Konkani under the banner KITTALL PUBLICATIONS, which publishes quality books every year. To encourage youth writers in Konkani he started KITTALL YOUTH AWARD in the year 2012 sponsored by NRI entrepreneur and philanthropist Leo Rodrigues and family. He was conferred prestigious Smt Vimala V Pai award for the year 2018, by the World Konkani Center, for the best literary creation for his collection of short stories ‘Beeg Ani Bigath’. In the same year Kavita Trust, institution working for the promotion and promulgation of Konkani poetry conferred Mathias Family Kavitha award for his contribution to Konkani poetry and research work. His book ‘Konkani Kavyem : Rupam ani Rupakam’ published by Kavita Publications, publication wing of Kavita Trust founded by Poet Melvyn Rodrigues was adjudged best book of the year by Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy.
Ramesh Kamath
Ramesh Kamath is a renowned face in the field of drama, film and social activities as well. He is the only Konkani person from the state who holds degree in film making.
He has produced and directed three Konkani films. From the year 1971-1975, he has acted in 5 Konkani plays. NAKA association of US awarded him life time achievement award in the year 2016.
Kumudha Gadakar
Kumudha Gadakar is actively involved in Konkani folk. She has performed in 60-70 Konkani drama and 100 Konkani Yakshagana roles. She has performed in Karawara Karavali Utsav for the past 15 years.
She was part of Konkani awareness campaign in 15 districts of North Karnataka conducted by Konkani Sahitya Academy from the year 2009 to 2011.
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