‘Interest In Book Reading Not Lost, But Not Channelized’ Says Dr. Amar Jyoti Choudhury

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Led by Dr. Amar Jyoti Choudhury, the intellectual movement Kitaap Porhu Ahok has been successfully inspiring the people of Assam to read books for the last few weeks. Started at Guwahati, the movement has been adopted by many other places in Assam now.

To know about the smooth yet glorious journey, which is creating a sense of awareness among the people to cultivate the reading habit, the pioneer of this movement Dr. Amar Jyoti Choudhury talked with The Sentinel and shared the story that started this movement and the goal of this movement.

Dr Amar Jyoti Choudhury said, “Actually this idea is not really a new one, back in 2010 when I was at Tezpur University, I sent an email to the students and a few teachers that I’ll be standing in front of the administrative building at 6 PM, from where, I’ll go the library. Those interested can join me to the library, when to my surprise I received responses from 732 students. Later, it became a culture in the campus which is continued. It is not that it became a culture only because of that appeal but we’ve created some other additional advantages, like fitting AC in the reading rooms.”

Choudhury further added, “When I see people talking about the gradual loss of reading habits, I thought whether there could be any way to revive the habit when this idea struck my mind. Thus, it all started and I received my desired outcome. We’ve already completed three phases and in all the three phases we’ve witnessed students coming forward. So, I would say that students don’t lack the interest in books, but we’ve failed to channelize it. If this initiative keeps on spreading, then the reading habit will remain intact.” Sharing his future plans with the movement, he said that he would try to appeal to the people in rural areas to take a programme to gather publicly in winter season from 9-10 am and read books.

“Our movement outside Guwahati will be started from Nalbari. I’m glad to know that many colleges like JB College, Hajo College, Devraj Roy College, Digboi College, Assam Down Town University, Assam Donbosco University, Royal Global University has also started this initiative. This movement has one particular goal, of forming the society as a part of humanity at large with the help of books, so that we can stand up as a significant portion of the world,” said Choudhury.

Also Read: ‘Students must develop mindset to serve society’- Dr Amar jyoti Choudhury

Also Watch: CRPF seized 10 kg of Ganja in Sivasagar | The Sentinel News | Assam News