Shri Pawan Chamling ‘Kiran’ honoured with the prestigious Bhanu Puraskar 2010

Gangtok, July 14, 2010:

   The Hon’ble Chief Minister, Shri Pawan Chamling prominently established as Pawan Chamling ‘Kiran’ in literary circle was honoured with this year’s Bhanu Puraskar 2010 by the Sikkim Sahitya Parishad. The honour was bestowed upon Shri Chamling in recognition to his substantial contribution as a poet and a publisher of repute who has supported creative writers for close to five decades now. His Excellency, the Governor of Sikkim, Shri Balmiki Prasad Singh was present as Chief Guest to hand over the award to Shri Chamling at the packed College auditorium here on Bhanu Jayanti function on July 13, 2010.

     Mr.Chamling, in his acceptance speech,spoke extensively to the student in the audience ,   reminding them that they were at an age when they should start developing deeper inquisitiveness not only about what surrounds them materially, but also cultures and traditions which groom them.

     Language he stressed was an important component of identity and highlighted that more refined the language, the clearer and more confident would attached identities be.He rued that this connection was increasingly being lost nowadays, with students routinely  finding it difficult to do well even in their mother tongue which they take as second language in school and mostly drop to pick some other language.

     This disconnect soon leads to creative  expressions in mother tongues finding  fewer  reader leading to the collapse of a language to the level of a dialect a mere communication  tool, stripped of its finer aspects . This loss needs to be stemmed , he stressed.

    He also argued that such loss eroded away several virtues and also robbed  people of  their faculties for   "positive thinking "leaving them with pessimistic obsessions which coloured everything with defeatism. His challenge, he said was to infuse optimism and a positive  outlook among the people , especially sikkims   young and invited the student in the audiance to join in this effort to inject positivity into the society here.

     Still with the student ,he reiterated that the government would ensure  that all their needs were taken care of. Greed, however, had no limit and will receive no indulgence from his  government, he added calling on the students to seize all opportunities created for them in sikkim and to strive for excellence.

Also today, Mr.chamling  updated the audience on the  Bhanu Bhakta  Study Centre  project being  developed  in Gyalshing and announced that Rs . 1 crore has been set aside for purchasing books for this Centre .

     Earlier, respected academician from Nepal , Abhi subedi spoke on Post -modern Nepali  literature followed by a talk by popular Nepali writer from Shimla  Jagdish shamsher Rana, who also recited some of his poems .

      The events of the day also included poetry recitals by popular poets :Pravin Rai Jumeli , Bhim Dahal, Vinashri Kharel, Biru Bangdel,Kalusingh Rahnapali,Thiru Prasad Nepal and Bijay Kumar Subba .

     Mr. Chamling also released three books -Bicharma  Pawan Chamling by Subhas Deepak, Akshar Shabda ra Bhau by Sachin Khawas and Shabda Shrankhala by Tara Sampang .

The celebration also included a Ramayan Paath by Tadong Senior students followed by a Ramayan Geet presented by artists from the Cultural Affairs and Heritage Department .