Women Dominate the 2022 Literary Scene in Assam

Last week,Nabin Baruah the famous author of Cotton College and the eminent publisher of PurbanchalPrakash received the Santosh Kumar Karmakar Memorial Award 2022 . He, with his PurbanchalPrakash, is the source of inspiration for many writers in Assam.

I met him while releasing Cotton Collegein the Bengali translated versionalong with Dr Nagen Saikia and NirupamaBorgohain. There I met a galaxy of Assamese writers.

In AngThhaiya, Purabi Baruah is a promising writer who published her book from Purbanchal Prakash. She wrote," The journey begins suddenly. Sometimes there is a companion. Sometimes there won't be.Joy is in both.The dialogue of unstable is also pronounced in both.But in the last journey only silence is around. Even in the running crowd, the silence makes the same way," Ajantathe other writer in Assamese from Arunachal Pradesh came there to release a book. Recently her book, A Solitary Place: An anthology of selected short storieswas published in the English translation. A Solitary Place: An anthology of selected short storiesof Ajantamostly in the backdrop of Arunachal Pradesh, is translated from Assamese, edited by Professor V.N Sheshagiri Rao, Department of Philosophy, University of Mysore, Karnataka and Er. S. Sumnyan, Chief Engineer, Highways, government of Arunachal Pradesh.

Book Fairs are an inspiration for publications of new books. This year the Guwahati book Fair saw the emergence of a host of Assamese female writers who came out with new ideas and themes. Meghna Choudhury's Nijagari is one such important book published by Banalata in its golden jubilee year.She gives a vivid description of manyneighbours in the village and uses the language of the villagers,there are several small and large ponds and across them,"The queue of old thighs, boats, tamarind trees. The little naughty boys roam around the fruit garden. Only silence lives in the banks of the village in the hills. There is no fear in her heart. Sometimes it feels like, when she sees her walking alone with a pitcher in her hand, someone will doubt her."

Chandana Pathak's Panthashalais the other notable book.Readers will enjoy reading it . The novel is like the story of life, and the main character,Dewangana,is presented in a conventional way. The novel tells the stories of her life. While reading the book the reader may think that 'Love' is the main substance of the novel, actually it is not so. The main theme of the novel is 'life' and maybe 'humans' too. Some dialogues from Dewangana'slips haveevoked a lot of musings. Agonies of life are the focus in the novel.

In life one never accepts defeat, that is what 'Panthashala' says to us. Strange that even though Dewangana's character is a mathematical character, even Apple has no hatred for the profession. Dewangana seems to be sharing more than her body with the customers who come to her. Actually, customers rely on Dewangana. The novel contains a new understanding of life, some realisation of a new look. Panthashalagives us a 'positive lesson' about life. Dewangana, is the listener of everyone's story.At the end of the novel, her story will stun the readers, Read a few lines from the book,

"What do you think waterfall? Has there never been love between day and night? Day and night fall in love with each other, so the morning and evening are born. But look, after this love, day never becomes night and night never becomes day. Day is day. Night is also night, so morning and evening are beautiful."

Mallika Hazarika's story collection,41, is released at the initiative of PurbayanPublication. Prominent film critic, story writer and senior journalist Bitupan Barbara has given his comments at the book launch meeting.I have not read the story of Mallika's 'Exteen'. But, the readers of the story gave me a very good idea about the story, which made me interested in the book. Two stories of Mallika were published earlier in Satsariand Anandini. In 'Forty One there are sixteen selected stories of the last five years.. As the news was presented with importance in Pratidin Times and News Time18 the book reached a huge number of readers also at the Guwahati Book Fair

Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee

a senior academician and a trilingual poet may be reached at profratanbhattacharjee@gmail.com

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