Celebrated poet, lyricist and writer, Javed Akhtar has been entertaining us with his mesmerising words for years now. He has been highly appreciated and loved for his contribution to Indian cinema and music. Now, the veteran songwriter has made the whole nation proud with his latest achievement. He has become the first Indian to be presented with the esteemed Richard Dawkins Award this year.
Proud son, Farhan Akhtar, took to his social media and wrote, “Congratulations pa.. for being the first Indian to receive the Richard Dawkins Award for critical thinking and advancing humanist values. You absolutely and unequivocally deserve it. So so proud.”
Have a look at his post:
Javed Akhtar’s wife, Shabana Azmi, also took to her social media to applaud him.
Her caption read:
Congratulations Javed Akhtar for unanimously winning the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award 2020 for critical thinking and advancing humanist values – the only Indian to have won it to date. Previous recipients include Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens . It doesn’t get bigger than this.
Meanwhile, in a conversation with Etimes, Javed Akhtar expressed his gratitude and said:
I am deeply honoured. I have been a great admirer of Richard Dawkins ever since I read his first book ‘The Selfish Gene’. I received an email from him informing me that I had been unanimously selected for the award by the board of Centre for Inquiry USA in which The Richard Dawkins Foundation is housed.
He also added, “Richard Dawkins is a fierce advocate of empirical science over superstition. I have read all his books and they have strengthened my own views on the need to expose religious dogma as an enemy of critical thinking and rationality.”
The lyricist also has a lot of other awards and titles to his credit that include The Padma Shri, The Padma Bhushan, The Sahitya Akademi Award, and five National Film Awards.
Congratulations, Javed Saab!