A PHARMACIST'S PASSION TO ENRICH SANTALI LANGUAGE

This year's Sahitya Akademi awardee Maheswar Soren is an author by passion and pharmacist by profession. Despite his busy work schedule, he promotes traditions and beliefs of the Santali society by writing about them. Diana Sahu brings out his story

- +ve BHUBANESWAR

DEVELOPMENT of a community's language is important to keep its heritage alive, believes Santali writer Maheswar Soren. Which is why, he has been juggling between his passion for writing and profession as a pharmacist for over a decade to enrich Santali language by authoring books, dramas and scripts for films on various aspects of his community. One of his dramas has been chosen for this year's Central Sahitya Akademi Award.

Maheswar will receive the award for 'Seched Sawnta Ren Andha Manmi' (Blind People of an Educated Society) that he had written in 2018. The drama is a take on people who do not wish to shoulder the responsibility of building a society that upholds human values.

The 44-year-old is the youngest Santali writer from Odisha to receive the prestigious literary honour, the others being Damayanti Beshra (2009), Gangadhar Hansda (2012), Arjun Charan Hembram (2013), Gobinda Chandra Majhi (2016) and Kali Charan Hembram (2019).