Darshan Singh’s ‘Lota’ wins Canadian prize
Sunday, 13/09/2015
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CHANDIGARH: Punjabi writer Darshan Singh, who wrote the controversial biographical novel on communist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet, has won this year’s Dhahan International Punjabi Literature Prize.
The $25,000 CAD (`12.5 lakh) prize is awarded by the Canada India Education Society (CIES) in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC) to promote excellence in Punjabi literature. The Dhahan prize is awarded annually to the work of fiction published in Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi scripts.
Darshan Singh won the prize for his book ‘Lota’. Lota depicts opportunism in Indian politics. “At 88 I am too old to get excited over the award. But I am happy,” said Darshan Singh while talking to HT over phone from Delhi.
He said the award came as a surprise to him since he never sent the book for the contest. The writer who retired from the information department of Russian Embassy in 1993 said his next book is on political corruption.
“Lota was selected to receive the Dhahan Prize from eligible entries from five countries around the world,” said Barj S Dhahan, co-founder of the Canada India Education Society.
