From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Sahitya Akademi Awards for the year 2011 to three writers from the Northeastern region was a very refreshing news for the people region who were trying to come into terms with the back to back deaths of two iconic figures in the arena of culture and literature – Bard of the Brahmaputra and legendary musician Dr Bhupen Hazarika and Jnanpith Award winner litterateur Dr Indira (Mamoni) Raisom Goswami – in the same month of November this year.
Sahitya Akademi has posthumously honoured Assamese poet and a scholar in English literature and critic Professor Dr Kabin Phukon for his book Ei Anuragi Ei Udasi , Bodo poet Premananda Mushahary for his book Okhafwrni Dwima (River of the Moon) and Manipuri novelist Kshetri Bira for his novel Nangbu Ngaibada (Waiting for you)
A heartening consequence of the death of Dr Bhupen Hazarika is that his band of popular music has got a fresh leash of life given that his timeless numbers are being hummed and played every nook and corner of the state while a section of his ardent followers have joined hands to establish a new genre of music called ‘Bhupendra Sangeet’ in the line of Rabindra Sangeet.
At the death of Bhupen Hazarika, the people of Assam showed the world the way to pay tribute to a legendary singer. The world sat up and notice the way an ocean of humanity converged at the historic Judges’ Field in Guwahati for two days to pay respect to and have the last glimpse of their revered cultural icon.
Death of Jnanpith Award winning writer, an acclaimed expert on Ramayani literature and a former head of the department of Modern Indian Language in Delhi University, Dr Indira (Mamoni) Raisom Goswami at the age of 69 was another heart breaking event in the field of literature in the region in 2011.
Preferring to write in the pen name of Mamoni Raisom Goswami, she authored several novels, short stories collection and scholarly treatises that particularly focused on the sufferings and pain of people from varied backgrounds.