Thursday, December 25, 2014

A TRIBUTE TO LATE DR BHABENDRA NATH SAIKIA


A TRIBUTE TO LATE DR BHABENDRA NATH SAIKIA

Rajen Barua

Today we mourn the sudden death of Dr Bhabendra Nath Saikia, one of the giants of Assamese culture. I think his death may be called untimely and premature. In fact his sudden death has created a jolt in the literary circle of Assam. I am glad to see that the renown literary Assamese magazine “Gorioxi’ has donated the November issue of the magazine in respect of Dr Saikia. Many people have written immensely about Dr Saikia’s contribution to the Assamese society. Personally I also deeply mourn his death and think that it is a great loss to the Assamese culture. As a tribute to this him, I would like to reproduce what I wrote recently as an appeal for contribution to his projects through AFNA.

It is a great news to the people of Assam that in this dark days, Dr Saikia stands as an unfailing light of hope for the Assamese culture. Dr Saikia is a family friend of ours, and we are also fully aware of his great creative process and his contribution and achievement in Assamese literature, film making and his bold editorship of the "Prantik" megazine. Now with the two projects in Assam: 'Kalakshetra' and 'Aarohan', he is guiding the people of Assam how to preserve the culture and what we can do for our children.

One of the complaints of the Assamese overseas had been that they cannot trust anybody in Assam to contribute to the right cause. I think Dr Saikia has removed that mistrust. One can feel safe that any donations to the projects under him will not be wasted in corruption. I think AFNA can take
the opportunity in guiding and channeling the donations to these projects from overseas Assamese. Making a Webpage for the purpose, as suggested by you, is the right step.

His Childrens project "AAROHON" is being built with his personal donation of land and his hard earned award money. I am glad to see that now donations are pouring to this much needed project from many quarters.  I recently had a short discussion with him during our Mag.h Bihu celebration regarding these projects. You are right. He has very big plans for Aarohan.

'Srimanta Snakaradeva Kalakshetra' is another project which was his brainchild and where he is taking the right leadership in trying to present and preserve the Assamese culture. Regarding Kalakshetra, I discussed with him regarding a particular idea, creating an 'Assamese 'Hall of Fame' so to say. I was very pleasantly surprised to know that such a project is already under way under his leadership. A separate hall is being organised where  pictures and information of about 400 selected Assamese cultural leaders will be highlighted for everybody to see. Assamese painters have been
selected who will paint about 400 paintngs in the same size picture frames. As you can imagine, this itself is a very expensive project. As a rough estimate, one picture will cost about Rs 5000 (say) including the Painter's remuneration, paints, canvas, photo frame (part material recently bough from Delhi). Thus 400 x Rs.5000 = Rs.20,00,000 = $40,000. I was excited to hear about the project because I was also thinking (am still thinikng) of a similiar project. I told Dr Saikia that I will donate to this project.

I conclude with the thought like Ms Nirupoma Buragohain did in her article in ‘Gorioxi’. Quoting Wordsworth who said to Milton, I also say: “Dr Bhaben Saikia! Thou shouldst be living at this hour in Assam. Assam needs you.”

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