DIBRUGARH, June 13 ? With the flagging off a bicycle rally this morning, the birth centenary celebrations of Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla began today. One hundred youngsters, drawn from all over upper Assam, Tezpur and Guwahati are participating in the event, and are expected to reach Guwahati in the afternoon hours of June 17, where they would be received by Pushpalata Das. Giving company to the young bicyclists is a band of singers of the Suagmoni Silpi Gosthi and Shruti Sangeet Vidyalaya, both of the Naharkatia. The singers would be singing songs written by Jyotiprasad Agarwalla right from Dibrugarh to Guwahati. The rally will also touch Tezpur enroute to Guwahati, while night halts are being planned at Sivasagar and Numaligarh for the rally team. The rally commenced from the Tamulbari tea estate ? the birthplace of Jyotiprasad ? near here. The commencement ceremony was a muted affair, in sharp contradiction to the expectations of Jyotiprasad?s admirers. Dr Nagen Saikia and Debi Prasad Bagrodia were hurriedly drafted into lend weightage to the function. The rally is a project of the Sadau Asom Jyotiprasad Agarwalla Janma Satabarshiki Samiti, which is a Guwahati-based committee. On the occasion, a Jyoti Shikha was lit by Dr Saikia, before flagging off the bicyclists. The torch would be kept lit for a one-year period.
Locals here have expressed surprise that the birth centenary celebrations of Assam?s best known cultural activists got off to a very muted start at his place of birth. Dr Saikia himself wrote to the Asam Sahitya Sabha to organise a befitting function at Tamulbari on the occasion of Jyotiprasad?s birth centenary. However, the Sabha is yet to respond. Well-known drama and stage director, Munin Bhuyan has called for a proper preservation of Jyotiprasad?s birth place and even the construction of a museum or memorial structure. A few years ago, AASU organised a grand Jyoti Divas celebration at Tamulbari. On that occasion, it was resolved that a statue of Jyotiprasad would be installed at the Tamulbari tea estate campus. Six years since, AASU has forgotten about their resolution and has let the matter die a natural death. The absence of any family member of Jyotiprasad at today?s brief function at the tea garden was also conspicuous. It may be due to a communication gap as the organisers have totally fouled up the invitations. The media too was kept in the dark about the function.
Founded in 1874 by Jyotiprasad?s grandfather, Haribilas Agarwalla, the Tamulbari tea estate is a premium garden. Tea from the estate commands a respectable price at both the tea auctions and open markets. Jyotiprasad?s father, Chandrakumar Agarwalla took to managing the estate from 1890, even as he earned impeccable credentials as an outstanding poet and writer in the Assamese language. It was in this garden that Jyotiprasad was born on June 17, 1903 at 7-48 am. The Agarwallas? bungalow was dismantled long ago. Today, there are still some rare photographs at the director?s bungalow to help one go down memory lane. And of course, there is the piano which Jyotiprasad the maestro, played. The organ would need repairs before one can play it. Nonetheless, the instrument has been fairly well preserved. If the Guwahati-based birth centenary committee and the Sahitya Sabha have chosen to almost ignore Jyotiprasad?s birth place in his birth centenary, several celebration committees have sprung up here to fill up the vacuum. But what is unfathomable is the raison de?etre for so many committees here. The maestro, who worked for unification, would certainly have detested this division among his admirers and the race to outsmart each other by these committees. The state has certainly not imbibed what Jyotiprasad lived by!