Author Amitav Ghosh honoured with 54h Jnanpith award
New Delhi, Dec 14: Noted English writer Amitav Ghosh has been honoured with this year's Jnanpith Award, a literary award given to an author for "outstanding contribution towards literature", Bharatiya Jnanpith announced Friday.
"Amitav Ghosh is a path- breaking novelist. In his novels, Ghosh treads through historical settings to the modern era and weaves a space where the past connects with the present in relevant ways.
"His fiction is endowed with extraordinary depth and substance through his academic training as a historian and a social anthropologist," a statement from Bharatiya Jnanpith read.
The decision was taken in a meeting of Jnanpith Selection Board chaired by eminent novelist, scholar and Jnanpith laureate Pratibha Ray.
Ghosh, one of the most prominent contemporary Indian writers, is known for a series of novels such as "Shadow Lines", "The Glass Palace", "The Hungry Tide", and Ibis Trilogy -- "Sea of Poppies", "River of Smoke", and "Flood of Fire" -- chronicling the Opium trade between India and China run by the East India Company.
The writer, in a tweet, said he was "honored and humbled".
In another tweet responding to a fan, he said, "this is an amazing day for me. I never thought I would find myself on this list, with some of the writers I most admire."
Born in Kolkata in 1956 to a Bengali Hindu family, the 62-year-old author currently lives in New York with his wife Deborah Baker.
Ghosh, who spent his formative years in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria.
His most recent book, "The Great Derangement; Climate Change and the Unthinkable, a work of non-fiction", was released in 2016.
Ghosh is also recipient of the Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi Award.
Some of the biggest Indian writers have been awarded with this prestigious literary recognition. Major names among the 58 recipients include literary icons Krishna Sobti, Kedarnath Singh, Shrilal Shukla, Nirmal Verma, Girish Karnad, Mahasweta Devi, Amrita Pritam and U R Ananthamurthy.
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Nine killed, 8 injured in collision between tempo, minivan and stationary bus on Pune-Nashik Highway
Pune (PTI): At least nine people were killed, including a five-year-old child, and eight others were injured after a tempo collided with their minivan, forcing it to ram into a stationary bus on the Pune-Nashik Highway on Friday, a police official said.
The incident took place near Narayangaon at 9:30am, he added.
The tempo struck the minivan from behind, causing it to ram into an empty ST bus parked on the side of the road, the official said.
"The impact of the collision was so severe that nine persons died on the spot," said Pankaj Deshmukh, Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural.
Police identified the deceased as Debubai Takalkar (65), driver Vinod Rokade (50), Yuvraj Wavhal (23), Chandrakant Gunjal (50), Geeta Gaware (45), Bhau Bade (65), Najma Hanif Shaikh (35), Vashifa Inamdar (5), and Manisha Pacharne (56).
"Eight others sustained minor to moderate injuries and are undergoing treatment. Following the crash, the tempo driver fled the scene. We have registered a case against the unidentified driver of the tempo and bus driver Bhausaheb Jaybhay under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Motor Vehicles Act," a Narayangaon police station official said.
The ST bus driver has been booked since he had parked the vehicle in a dangerous manner, the official said.
Efforts are on to nab the driver of the tempo, the official added.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called the incident unfortunate and announced compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased.
Vikram Bhor, sarpanch of Junnar tehsil's Kandali village, from where five of the deceased hailed, said everyone was shocked after hearing about the accident.
"Minivan driver Vinod Rokade used to operate the vehicle locally. Bhau Bade was going to Narayangaon to buy medicines. Deceased Manisha Pacharne was a Zilla Parishad school teacher. Yuvraj Wavhal, a 23 year old youth from a neighbouring village, was preparing for civil services exams," Bhor said.
The distance between Kandali and Narayagaon is 10 kilometres and people use such private vehicles on the route.
