Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 15: In a successful bid to diversifying its field of activities, Jammu Regional Office of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, organized ‘Do Kahanikar’, a literary meet with Chhatrapal and Khalid Hussain, the two eminent short story writers of Dogri and Punjabi, at the Press Club, here today.
Held under its fortnightly Horizons series, ICCR’s unique initiative has been hailed for providing an alternate platform to writers and poets of different languages of the State to share their latest creative works with their contemporary writers also for their critical appraisal by leading literary critics and littérateurs.
The function presided by Padamshree Nilamber Dev Sharma, Vice President, J&K Cultural Academy, with Masood Choudhary, former Vice Chancellor, Baba Gulam Shah Badshah University, as chief guest, was conducted by Nirmal Vinod, well known writer and scholar.
Highlighting Chhatrapal’s literary achievements, Nirmal Vinod said that for high literary merit his short stories have already been translated in many Indian and foreign languages. A multifaceted personality who is also contributing as editor, script writer for documentaries, series and serials for Radio, TV, translator and critic, his five anthologies also includes ‘Tapu Da Aadami’ a collection of Dogri short stories which is prescribed to MA Classes of Jammu University. With over 250 short stories, articles and literary works to his credit, Chhatrapal has been awarded by many organisations including by Sahitiya Kala Parshid, New Delhi, he said.
Chhatrapal read his latest Dogri short story entitled ‘Chetta” which depicts the agony of an old teacher who suffering from senile dementia forgets the name of the town where he intends to go to attend a marriage ceremony while purchasing the ticket at bus station. The trend setting Dogri story, with a shorter plot, was praised for psychological portrayal of the character’s trauma due to failing memory.
Earlier welcoming the guests, Regional Director of ICCR, Balwant Thakur said that the programme is a novel initiative aimed to give an added momentum to the literary activities in Jammu. He informed that ICCR is organising the first ever International Jazz concert by a group of Poland at General Zorawar Singh Auditorium, University of Jammu on Sunday 17th of March.
Khalid Hussain the eminent Punjabi short story writer was introduced to audience by art critic and scholar Dr. Lalit Gupta who effectively described about this multifaceted personality. Born in 1945 at Udhampur, Khalid Hussain has written more than 120 short stories in Urdu and Punjabi. About 60 of his Punjabi stories have been translated into English, Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Telgu Language.
Khalid Hussain’s read his latest Punjabi short story ‘Ishq Malangi’ which transported audience to the city of Jammu of pre and post Independence era. Woven around one sided love of a ‘kochwaan’ with a ‘nautch’ girl of the then Urdu Bazaar, the writer’s description of old Jammu, which also suffered the brunt of partition, received accolades from the audience for its dramatic narrative rich with poetic imagery.
All members of the presidium appreciated this new initiative of ICCR and desired to hold such meets on regular basis. Prominent personalities present on occasion included Khalid Bashir Secretary Cultural Academy, Mohd Aslam Qureshi, Prof Champa Sharma, Nirmal Jain, Khursheed Kazmi, Ushak Kishtwari, Saran Singh, Kanwal Kashmiri, Harbhajan Singh Sagar, Dr Susheel Sharma, Dr. Baljeet Raina, Surinder Neer, Devinder Singh Vishavnargrik, Javed Rahi and Vidya Rattan Aasi.
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