Alka Saraogi: Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman, instituted in 1998 by Stree Shakti, is an annual award in the memory of an extraordinary woman. This annual award is given
to ‘a woman who dared to dream and had the ability to translate her dream into
reality’. The late Dayawati Modi, a Karmayogini Sanyasini, was an ordinary woman
with extraordinary qualities. Smt. Modi was a champion of women’s cause. She
established schools and colleges in North India, driven by the motto ‘Work is
Worship’. During her lifetime, she received prestigious awards for her social and
cultural activities. Smt. Modi is today a legend. This award is in her loving memory.
Alka Saraogi is a novelist and short story writer in Hindi. Her first novel ‘Kalikatha
via Bypass’ won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 2001 and was published
by Editions Gallimard in French, Insel Verlag in German, Neri pozza in Italian and
Siruela in Spanish. It was also published in several regional languages of India.
Her other notable works are Shesh Kadambari. 2001, Koi bāt nahīn. 2004, Ek Break
ke Bāad.2008, Jānkidās Tejpāl mansion.2015 and Ek Sacchi Jhooothi Gatha,
2018. Her last published novel ‘Kulbhushan ka naam darj kijiye’ 2020 is focused on
the theme of partition, war and displacement of people of the subcontinent. Her latest
book is ‘Terah Halfaname’ a translated collection of thirteen stories by women
writers of various Indian languages, published by Vani Prakashan.
Alka Saraogi has participated in many international book fairs and festivals of
Letters, at Jaipur, Frankfurt, Berlin and Paris to name a few. Her works wander
seamlessly between present and the past to delve into the ideas of identity,
displacement and reclamation of the self in a historical perspective. We are privileged
to confer on her the twenty- first Dayawati Modi Stree Shakti Samman.
