Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 7: Lalit Magotra’s latest anthology of Dogri short stories ‘Hello Maya’, which has already earned raving reviews from critics, was released in an impressive function held at Computer Sciences Auditorium, University of Jammu (JU), here today.
The book by the Sahitya Akedami awardee, considered as a new benchmark in contemporary Dogri short story writing has also set standards in printing of Dogri books through use of Unicode specially evolved to represent syncopation typical to Dogri language.
Organized by Dogri Sanstha, today’s function was presided by Prof MPS Ishar, Vice Chancellor, JU, while Dr S S Beloria, Vice Chancellor, Central University, Jammu, was the chief guest.
Praising the diversity of theme and lucidity of style of Prof Magotra’s book, Dr S S Beloria, in his address said that such quality literature was required to make Dogri popular amongst masses.
Prof MPS Ishar congratulated the writer for producing a book of high quality. He said a language could only survive if it is used in all walks of life like day-to-day conversation, education, business, media etc. Special efforts are required to popularize Dogri amongst the children and younger generation, he said. He reminded the audience that JU is the only university in the world to have a Dogri Department and therefore as VC of JU, he is committed to use all resources to enrich the language by supporting research, teaching and other such activities.
Prof Magotra also read the leading story from his book ‘Hello Maya’ on the occasion.
Learned papers that brought out salient features of the collection of stories in ‘Hello Maya’ were also read on the occasion by Prof Shashi Pathania, former HoD, Department of Dogri and Sardar Harbhajan Sagar, the leading Punjabi writer.
Earlier Prof Veena Gupta, General Secretary, Dogri Sanstha, while welcoming the guests, said that Prof Lalit Magotra is an established writer, playwright and critic. He has not only made his mark in field of creative writing but also greatly contributed in development of Dogri language in his capacity as president of Dogri Sanstha, she said.
Raj Kumar Behrupia, well known actor and media personality, who conducted the program in his inimitable style, punctuated the proceeding with interesting information and anecdotes.
Prominent among those present included Dr Jatinder Udhampuri, Khalid Hussain, Soujanya Sharma, Savita Bakshi, Praduman Singh Jandraia, Prof S P Srivats, Dr Javaid Rahi, Prof Anju Bhasin, Cchattarpal, Darshan Darshi, Virendra Kesar, senior lawyer A V Gupta, Chaman Arora, Vijya Thakur, Aruna Sharma, Dr A N Bargotra, Suman Sharma and others.
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