NALBARI, Feb 1 � The Mohan Bhaira Memorial Award for 2015 was prerented to renowned flutist, Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Prabhat Sarma at a function held at the Nalbari Natya Mandir this evening.
Vice Chancellor of Gauhati University, Dr Mridul Hazarika presented the award to the renowned artiste. A cash award of Rs 10,000 along with a citation, seleng sador, phulam japi and a phulam gamosa were also presented to the artiste.
Earlier, Prabhat Sarma and the guests were accompanied to the Nalbari Natya Mandir from the Nalbari Inspection Bungalow by a colourful cultural procession.
In reply, Sarma called upon the people to show due respect to the various folk cultures. He added that the audience was the �capital� for the folk artistes as the latter thrived only because of their unstinted love towards them.
While addressing the meeting, Gauhati University Vice Chancellor Dr Hazarika also called for showing proper respect to the folk artistes.
For the record, the Mohan Bhaira Award was instituted by the Nalbari district unit of All Assam Students� Union and Nalbari Zilla Unnati Sabha. The award has been conferred annually since 2009 to a deserving folk artiste.
It may be mentioned that seven folk artistes, namely Punya Prava Dutta Tamuly (2009), Sitaram Ray (2010), Muktaram Baruah Ojah (2011), Manik Saikiya Ojah (2012), Ruhin Rabha (2013), Dwijen Gogoi (2014) and Prabhat Sarma (2015) have so far received the Mohan Bhaira Award .
The award presentation programme was presided over by Himan Barman, president of Nalbari district unit of All Assam Students� Union. As a part of the itinerary, the widow of Kamrupiya dhulia artiste Saraswati Barman garlanded the portrait of Mohan Bhaira.
