GUWAHATI: Celebrated poet from Assam, Nilmani Phookan, has been named for the country’s highest literary award, Jnanpith, for his contribution to literature.
Phookan, who is the third literary stalwart from the state to be selected for the coveted award after Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya and Mamoni Raisom Goswami, was showered with congratulatory messages from a cross section of people, including chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
In 2001, when Mamoni Raisom (Indira Goswami) got the award, she had said during an interview that the next Jnanpith award would go to a poet from Assam. On Tuesday, when the state was celebrating the achievement of winning the third Jnanpith, the first one being won in 1979 by Bhattacharya, literary enthusiasts recalled Mamoni Raisom’s ‘prediction’.
What made Phookan stand out…
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