COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT
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Learn about the personal and professional successes achieved by our community members. Editorial Board of 'Shehjar' e-magazine encourages you to email us success stories of our community members so that we can share this information with our readers. Email: editor.shehjar@gmail.com | |
*Gopinath Raina |
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Not many of us really know about the physically handicapped littérateur from the beautiful vale of Kashmir, Avtar Krishan Razdan.
Born in 1942 in a middle class Brahmin family of Purushyar, near Habakadal, Srinagar, the award-winning author has never crawled, or stood up or walked in his life, struck as he was by a massive polio attack soon after his birth. A Prodigy A voracious reader, Mr. Razdan evinced keen interest in art, literature, poetry and history. By dint of his hard work, he gained mastery over several languages like English, Urdu and Hindi, besides the local Kashmiri dialect. He displayed his penchant for writing by contributing to local dailies and magazines. And in no time, he widened the scope of his contributions by writing for national journals as well. Contribution to Art & Literature So far, Mr. Razdan has to his credit a dozen books in English, Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri, in addition to about three hundred research papers, one hundred short stories, thirteen plays and nearly two hundred Radio talks.
The year 1976 shot him into fame with the publication of his first book in Hindi entitled “Kashmiri Lalit Kalaye”, the first ever book written in Hindi on fine arts of Kashmir. This major work of his is based on the history, growth and development of Kashmir arts. Almost all his short stories have been translated in English and major Indian languages--Dogri, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. So many of his unpublished scripts were unfortunately lost after his migration to Jammu in the wake of the mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the valley in 1989 forced by terrorist onslaught. |
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Honors & Awards Several social and cultural organizations vied with each other in honoring Mr. Razdan. Rashtriya Bhasha Prachaar Samiti honored him twice in 1980 and 1991. The Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan felicitated him in 1990, the Jammu & Kashmir Ladakh Cultural Forum honored him in 1996, Jammu and Kashmir Vichar Manch, Delhi, awarded him Shri Krishan Joo Razdan Saraswati Sammaan in 2004 and All India Kashmiri Samaj, Delhi, declared him as a Community Icon in 2006. Among the notable awards won by him was the one conferred by the President of India in 1997 for his book “Aatank Beej”. Unpublished works |
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*G.N. Raina retired from Indian Information Service (I.I.S.) in 1983 after completing 35 years as a distinguished editor, correspondent, commentator and administrator; All India Radio; Editor, AICC Journal, Varnika, (Jan.'84-Dec.'90); Editor-in-Chief, Koshur Samachar (March'91-Oct.-'95; Editor-in-Chief, Sanatana Sandesh, an official publication of South Florida Hindu Temple, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (1997-2005); Editor-in-Chief of KASHEER, KOA magazine (2003-2004), He presently lives in Miami, and spends his time writing personal memoirs. | |
We are thankful to the well-known social and cultural Activist, Shri Nagarjan Ganju, for providing us the picture and the background information of Shr Avtar Krishen Razdan. |
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Nice write-up on Shri Avatar Krishan Razdan. I know him personally, and he is always seen busy in reading and writing. His writings are based on the social set-up in Kashmir.
Added By Chamanlal Raina