Mangaluru, November 7: The Vimala Pai Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Awards- 2015 and Basti Vaman Shenoy Vishwa Konkani Seva Awards- 2015 were presented to eminent achievers in a ceremony held on Thursday November 7th at T V Raman Pai Convention Centre here.
The awards presenting ceremony also marked the valedictory ceremony of the two-day ‘Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Samaroh – 2015’ organized by World Konkani Centre (WKC) in association with the department of Kannada and culture, government of Karnataka and the department of English, Goa University.
Chairman of Manipal Global Education, Bengaluru, T V Mohandas Pai addressed the gathered and said, in every society there are a group of people who have rendered service for the betterment of our country and society. These people are the real role models to our children. They inspire us to do good deeds for the society, he said.
Dr Uday Narayan Singh, chair, Centre for Endangered Languages, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan presided over the event.
The Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Puraskar was conferred to Meena Kakodkar for her Konkani novel ‘Vastu’. The Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Kavitha Krithi Puraskar was awarded to veteran Konkani poet Andrew L D’Cunha for his anthology of poems ‘Anjurachem Paan’. The Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Jeevan Siddhi Samman (Lifetime Achievement Award) was conferred on Suresh G Amonkar for his immense contribution to the Konknai language movement.
The Basti Vaman Shenoy Vishwa Konkani Seva Awards were conferred to H Shantaram and Grace Pinto for their remarkable service in the field of education.
Each of these 5 awards comprised of cash Rs 1 lakhs, a citation, shawl and memento.
Basti Vaman Shenoy, founder president of Vishwa Konkani Kendra presented a memento to Uday Narayan Singh.
Basti Vaman Shenoy welcomed the gathering while Naresh Kini proposed the vote of thanks.
In the ceremony, Roy Castelino, president of Konkani Sahitya Academy, Ramesh Pai, Vivekananda Shenoy, Ravindra Kini, Geetha Kini, Dr Kiran Budkule, Venkatesh N Baliga and many others were also present.
