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| Arun Sarma |
Guwahati, Dec. 31: Arun Sarma, one of the most accomplished playwrights of present times in Assam, was today named the recipient of the prestigious Assam Valley Literary Award, 2005.
The 74-year-old playwright is considered a torchbearer in his field of work.
The Assam Valley award will be presented to Sarma at a function in Guwahati in March. The award, given by the Williamson Magor Education Trust, was instituted with the purpose of giving an impetus to education and cultural progress in Assam.
One of Sarma?s children?s plays, The Selfish Prince, is used by the BBC as a model programme for staff training courses.
Sarma was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2003 for his contributions to Indian theatre as a playwright. He got the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 for his novel Ashirbadar Rang, which has been broadcast as a 13-episode radio play by the All India Radio of Dibrugarh and Guwahati.
He won the Asom Sahitya Sabha Award as the best playwright in the Assamese language for two successive years ? 1966 and 1967.
Sarma?s book publications include 12 plays, four novels and a collection of 13 plays. This apart, five of his novels have been published in significant literary journals of Assam. He has compiled and edited an anthology of children?s plays written in Assamese for the National Book Trust, two volumes of 50 radio plays for Publication Board, Assam, and translated 11 reputed novels and plays into Assamese for the National Book Trust and Sahitya Akademi.
Sarma has also written and produced several plays and documentaries for the All India Radio. He has also written scripts for telefilms, serials and documentaries for Doordarshan.
He has received three international awards on radio documentaries ? Japan Prize (1980) for radio documentary All Buds to Bloom, ABU Award (1982) for Caution: Danger Ahead and Prix Futura Berlin Commendation Certificate (1983) for All Lips to Smile.
Born in 1931, Sarma did his BA honours in education from Cotton College in 1954. He completed his diploma in planning and production of educational radio programmes at BBC, London, and diploma in short-level language teaching through radio broadcasts at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. He was the station director of All India Radio, Dibrugarh, and went on to become the director, northeastern services, All India Radio.
