M’lore: Renowned poet Ashok Vajpeyi to deliver endowment lecture on July 13

Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 19 Jun 2013: The annual ‘James and Shobha Mendonca Endowment lecture on poetry’ will be hosted by Kavita Trust at SDM College of Business Management auditorium here on Saturday July 13 at 6 pm.

 

Well known Hindi poet, critic, and cultural activist Ashock Vajapeyi will deliver the lecture that is being organized in association SDM Postgraduate Centre for Management Studies and will be in both in English and Hindi.

 

The James and Shobha Mendonca Endowment lecture on poetry is an annual feature and one of the significant programmes organized by Kavita Trust. It is being held for the second year with the objective of better understand poetry from the distinguished poets. It’s during 2012, the well known Hindi, Urdu poet Gulzar delivered this lecture, much to the acclaim of the audience.

 

Those interested in participating and reserving their seats can contact: 

Mobile number: 9980136297 or email: kavitatrust@gmail.com
About Ashok Vajpeyi:

 

 

Ashok Vajpeyi, a Hindi poet-critic, translator, editor and culture-activist, is a major cultural figure of India. With more than 13 books of poetry, 10 of criticism in Hindi and 4 books on art in English to his credit, he is widely recognized as an outstanding promoter of culture and an innovative institution-builder. Over the years he has worked tirelessly to enhance the mutual awareness and interaction between Indian and foreign cultures. A frequent presence at some of the major conferences, seminars and poetry-festivals, he has raised his voice for the autonomy of literature and arts as against contemporary tyrannies of ideologies, markets and fundamentalism. As editor of many prestigious journals he has done much to promote critical awareness of contemporary and classical arts and young talent in poetry and criticism. As an organizer he has more than a thousands events to his credit relating to literature, music, dances, theatre, visual arts, folk and tribal arts, cinema etc. He has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Dayawati Kavi Shekhar Samman, Kabir Samman and awarded D Lit (honoris causa) by the Central University of Hyderabad.

 

He has written 2 large books on the Paris-based Indian master Sayed Haider Raza, one on 7 contemporary Indian abstract painters, a book on Hindustani classical music. He set up the renowned multi-arts centre Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal; has been the first Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University (set up by union government). For more than a year he doubled up as the Director General of the National Museum, New Delhi, the vice-chairman National Museum of Man, Bhopal. Until recently he has been the chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi, ministry of culture, union government, New Delhi. Ashok Vajpeyi had organized in 1989 a week-long World Poetry Festival in Bharat Bhavan Bhopal in which 27 foreign poets and 6 Indian poets participated.

 

A prominent public intellectual of India, he has been a creative global-trotter and visited Europe many times to attend conferences, deliver lectures and give readings. He has been a writer in-residence at Jamia Millia Islamia University and a fellow of K K Birla Foundation. He lives in Delhi after retiring from civil service. He has been decorated by the President of Republic of Poland by the outstanding national award ‘The Officer’s Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland’ and the French government  by the award of ‘Officier De L’Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres’.

 

He is presently serving as executive trustee of The Raza Foundation, New Delhi.