Dogri children’s book released

Tribune News Service

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Jammu, October 29

A Dogri book of short stories for children titled ‘Satt Kahaniyan’ was released by the Dogri Sanstha, Jammu.

The book is written by veteran Dogri poet and Sahitya Akademi awardee Gianeshwar Sharma.

Former Cabinet minister Sham Lal Sharma was the chief guest. Speaking on the occasion, Sharma said it was heartening that senior writers like Gianeshwar were meeting the challenges of present times by creating literature for children, who were getting alienated from their mother tongue and culture.

He said the only way to preserve and promote our heritage was to focus on imbibing a sense of pride among the younger generation for culture, language and literature and to achieve it, mother tongue was the strongest link.

He made a fervent appeal to all sections of society to use Dogri to maximum extent in all modes of communication, especially with children.

In his address, Lalit Magotra, president, Dogri Sanstha, congratulated the author of the book, which he hoped would be received enthusiastically by young readers. He said the onus of the survival of Dogri mostly lies with the community, but regretted that the state government was dismally failing in its obligation to promote the language through educational setup.

To popularise Dogri language among youngsters, Gianeshwar Sharma made some suggestions like dubbing popular animation serials on television in Dogri, institution of children literature awards by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages on the pattern of Sahitya Akademi and organising children’s play competition by the academy on an annual basis.