“Atthhas Samman has become the standard of satire. Atthhas’s Shikhar Samman and Yuva Samman are like the standard of ‘ISI’ among the awards given in the field of satire. It was not only accepted by the satire writers from across the country, but the respected satirists also included it in their biodatas.” These sentiments were expressed by Padma Shri Dr. Ashok Chakradhar, Dr. Hari Joshi, storyteller Balram, Alok Puranik and Subhash Chander in the 33rd Atthhas Samman ceremony organized in Hindi Bhavan (Delhi) of Madhyam Sahitya Sansthan.
The much awaited 33rd Atthhas Samman Samaroh was organized under the joint aegis of Madhyam Sahitya Sansthan, Lucknow and Yuva Utkarsh Sahitya Manch, Delhi. The program was presided over by the president of the organization, Engineer Captain Singh. After welcoming the guests on the stage and lighting the lamp by them, the president of Madhyam Sahitya Sansthan, Captain Singh, welcomed all the invited guests, members and the writers to be honored on behalf of the organization.
Under the chairmanship of Madhyam Sahitya Sansthan’s president Captain Singh program and in the presence of Madhyam’s general secretary Anoop Shrivastava, in an auditorium packed with litterateurs and satire readers from all corners of the country, chief guest Padma Dr. Ashok Chakradhar and prominent guest satirist Dr. Hari Joshi, famous writer/novelist/storyteller Balram, Subhash Chander, besides senior satirist Dr. Alok Puranik honored senior satirist Suresh Kant with ‘Atthhas Shikhar Samman’ by presenting him a shawl, garland and prize money of twenty-one thousand.
After this, Lucknow’s satirist Alankar Rastogi was awarded the ‘Atthhas Yuva Rachnakar Samman’ by giving him a prize money of five thousand rupees. In this series of awards, senior satirist Ramkishore Upadhyay was awarded the ‘Harishankar Parsai Samman’ by giving him a prize money of eleven thousand rupees.
Poetess Dr. Kirti Kale was awarded ‘Vani Vaagdhara Samman’ by Pramila Bharti with a dress and prize money of eleven thousand rupees. Famous novelist and historian of Agra Rajgopal Singh Verma was awarded Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan Samman (prize money twenty one hundred rupees) and famous satirist of Jammu Kashmir Kewal Kumar ‘Kewal’ was awarded Dr. Shiv Mangal Singh Suman Samman (prize money twenty one hundred rupees).
Due to the sudden hospitalization of famous poet and Ghazal writer Satyendra Raghuvanshi, the “Vidya Nivas Mishra Samman” was received by Atthhas magazine editor Shilpa Srivastava. It was announced that the Vagdhara Samman for Bhopal’s satirist Mukesh Nema and Jabalpur’s Jai Prakash Pandey, who were awarded the Sharad Joshi Samman, would be given in their home districts.
On behalf of Madhyam, Arun Arnav Khare (Karnataka), Dr. Pramila Bharti (Delhi), Dr. Abha Singh (Maharashtra), Bharti Pathak (Ayodhya), Madhu Srivastava (Kanpur), Rajesh Kumar Singh (Lucknow), Om Prakash Shukla (Delhi), Sanjay Kumar Giri (Delhi), Abhilasha (Noida) were honoured with ‘Vagdhara Samman’ for their literary services.
This time, senior journalist Ashwani Bhatnagar and Prof Pradeep Mathur were also honoured with the Life Time Achievement Award at the Atthhas Samman Samaroh amidst thunderous applause. They were given the ‘Life Time Achievement Award’ for their long literary/journalistic services.
On this occasion, Madhyam’s General Secretary Anoop Shrivastava was honored by representatives of various organizations and poetess Poonam Jha (Delhi) by giving him a shawl and gifts.
In the dignified presence of Atthhas’s Managing Editor Anoop Shrivastava, Editor Shilpa Shrivastava and Executive Editor Ram Kishor Upadhyay, the first issue of the monthly satire magazine ‘Atthhas’ in its twenty-fifth year, Ram Kishor Upadhyay’s satire collection ‘Das Haath Wala Aadmi’, Alankar Rastogi’s satire collection – Ghatak Kathayen, Dr. Abha Singh’s satire collection – ‘Tooti Tang’ and Kewal Kumar ‘Kewal’s satire poetry collection – Poonch’ took place in a grand launch.
On this occasion, cartoonist Sagar Kumar, who came from Raipur, presented wonderful caricatures of Anoop Shrivastava, Kaptan Singh, Dr. Hari Joshi, Ashok Chakradhar, Ram Kishore Upadhyay, Dr. Kirti Kale, Alok Puranik, Subhash Chander, Bharti Pathak and Ashwini Kumar. Dr. Kirti Kale recited poetry.
After receiving the Atthhas Shikhar Samman, Suresh Kant, who was very emotional, expressed his gratitude to Atthhas magazine and the selectors without saying much. Alankar Rastogi said that he is very happy to receive this award. This was his fourteen-year-old dream, which has come true today. The award is meaningful only when the writer understands his responsibility towards writing.
Ram Kishore Upadhyay said that today while accepting the Harishankar Parsai Award, I feel proud and happy that my name has been linked with the pioneer of Hindi satire and the source of inspiration for satire writing, Harishankar Parsai. I express my heartfelt gratitude and thanks to Anoop Shrivastava and all the selectors for this.
Highlighting Harishankar Parsai’s statement on satire writing, ‘How will a community change its fortunes if it goes to the movies when it is starving?’, he further said, are we writing like Harishankar Parsai?
He also mentioned the financial challenges faced by Atthhas magazine and appealed to everyone for support in its continued publication.
Chief guest Ashok Chakradhar said in his address that Madhyam Sahitya Sansthan never discriminates against writers in awarding them any honour. He also expressed his gratitude towards the writers who were honoured. Apart from this, he also thanked cartoonist Sagar Kumar who made the caricatures.
Congratulating Suresh Kant and Alankar Rastogi on receiving the Atthhas Samman, famous humorist and satire writer Subhash Chander said that Suresh Kant has done a lot of work in satire, starting from the novel ‘B se Bank’. His articles have been published in many newspapers and magazines.
Regarding Alankar Rastogi, he said that he should have gone into modelling, but his wife did not let him go. Even if he had gone there, he would have done as good a job as satire writing.
Senior satirist Dr. Alok Puranik while congratulating all the awardees said that he had recently attended an award ceremony where 178 people were honoured. The organizers said that apart from all the 176 litterateurs present here, a tea seller and a samosa seller were also honoured.
Talking about the activities of the organization, the general secretary of the organization, Anup Shrivastav, said that he is now more than eighty years old. People should come forward to manage this magazine so that it can continue running.
Captain Singh, who was presiding over the ceremony, said, ‘I congratulate the scholars who have been awarded today for their excellent creation. I express my gratitude to all of you. A writer has a great responsibility towards the society. Whenever there is a distortion in the society, the writer works to point it out. A writer should work to protect the values of life. Satire brings awareness in life.’
He further said that I have travelled a lot in the country but the situation in the country is still not good. If scholars like you write for system change then it will definitely have an impact.