MUKESH SHARMA
Kalimpong, 21 December –

UDAY THULUNG

Uday Thulung, a contemporary Nepali writer cum poet from Mungpoo, Darjeeling District will be receiving the Sahitya Akademi Award, 2012 under Nepali Literature for his collection of short stories entitled as “Ekanta Bas” in February 2013.
Six writers who were selected on short stories included Uday Thulung for Nepali, Jayant Pawar (Marathi), Gourahari Das (Odia), Gangadhar Hansda (Santail), Lt. Indra Vaswani (Sindhi) and Peddibhiotla Subbaramaiah (Telugu).
 The selection committee for Nepali literature comprised of writers like Nanda Hangkhim, Padmashree, Sanu Lama and Mohan Thakuri took the decision on awarding Thulung with the Sahitya Akademi Award (Nepali literature).
 “I feel obliged and was moreover shocked. This award is dedicated to whole Nepali literary lovers” said Thulung. He also added that his responsibility towards the literature and the society has increased.
 The first Nepali writer to be conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award was Indra Bahadhur Rai in early 70’s.
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languages:- Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
Established in 1954, the award comprises a plaque and a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 (in 2009 Govt. of India has announced to increase the amount to Rs. 100,000). The award's purpose is to recognize and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends. The annual process of selecting awardees goes on for the preceding twelve months.