Borgohain assumes charge: Sabha to scout for new talent

DIBRUGARH, February 9: Homen Borgohain formally assumed charge of the Asam Sahitya Sabha today and spoke out his mind in issues staring at the premier literary organisation. To begin with, the noted journalist and writer said he believes that the State is in no dearth of talent to fetch out promising writers, and stressed that under his presidentship, the Sabha would strive to bring out as many new writers as possible. Addressing the first open session of the 66th session of the Sabha at the Sahityarathi Kshetra here this afternoon, Borgohain spoke at length on the strengths and weaknesses of the Sabha. He wanted the Sabha to be less dependent on State funds for its survival and that a corpus be generated to manage efficient running of the literary body. He said the State Government's annual financial assistance to the Sabha, at Rs 4 lakhs, "just takes care of half of the Sabha's core activities". He hinted at the possibility of raising money from the public, to manage the finances of the Sabha. However, Borgohain's first prerogative, as he spelt it, would be to bring out a proper dictionary of the Assamese language. He suggested that academics of the Dibrugarh and Gauhati Universities, along with the help of other linguists should get together for this purpose, and that the prime Mover for this be the Sabha, He said this is necessary since the writers in the Assamese language today are at a loss searching for proper usage of Assamese words, as well as in grammatics. "If Hem Chandra Baruah could work as a government employee and still find time to compile the Hem Kosha (it took him seven years to do so), then why cannot all our linguistics get together and bring out a worthy dictionary in a year?, he asked. In a lighter vein, he detailed how he, as a school boy, witnessed the Sabha's session in 1947 held in the city at the campus of the George Institution (now Bagmibor Nilmoni Phukan Higher Secondary School). "At that time, I did not find the proceedings very appealing to us youngsters, but now, as president of this institution, I know now important a body this is. Thank you for your trust in me". For him, the journey to the president's chair from being a mere spectator is a spectacular event, and a rare coincidence. Coming back to his priorities vis-?-vis the Sabha Borgohain said his second top priority as the president of the Sabha would be to see to it that the literary organisation publishes books on science and other subjects in the Assamese language. He quoted the constitution of the Sabha for this : "The Sahitya Sabha would also endeavour to publish books in as many subjects as possible in Assamese, especially in those where there is a lack of printed material in the language". He observed that in the Assamese language, there is no end to wants. The more wanting factor, according to him, is the dearth of writers in most of the subjects. Hence also, the need to promote more and more writers. As if to reassure the budding writers, he said he knows from experience that there is no shortage of readers for a book well scripted. He said his claim is buttressed by the successes of almost all the book fairs that are organised throughout the State. His thirty-page speech was full of anecdotes from history. At one time, he recounted the efforts of the then Prime Minister of France, George Clemence, who walked out of a Cabinet meeting sometime during the First World War just to enthuse a friend to not keep away from painting. His friend was none other than the French Impressionist artiste, Claude Monet. The moral behind this being that even the most talented persons sometime need some pep talk, to keep up their creativity. Earlier, inaugurating the open session, the former DIPR of Arunachal Pradesh, Lummer Dai who is a writer of repute by his own right, described Dibrugarh as the cultural melting pot for peoples of both Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. He said the State's anthem, O Mor Aponar Desh ... is relevant throughout the Northeast, and is the common property of all the sister States of the region. He wondered how two persons coming from two different backgrounds composed lyrics and music in the same tenor, with people-friendly verse and a common notation. "Certainly, the land and the air of Assam goes into a person's genes", he noted. The chief guest at the open session today, William L Smith of Sweden did not make it to the Sahityarathi Kshetra today, embarrassing the organisers. The last heard about him this evening was that he was enjoying a safari at Kaziranga. The entire proceedings of the open session was broadcast live by All India Radio's Dibrugarh and Guwahati stations. This is for the first time that a literary event was covered by the electronic media in the Northeast.