From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Much acclaimed Assamese poet, Hiren Bhattacharyya passed away in a Guwahati hospital on Wednesday.
He was 80. Bhattacharyya who is called ‘Hiru Da’ by his fans, was admitted into the Intensive Care unit of the Dispur Polyclinic Hospital here on June 12, after he suffered from asthmatic problems. Among the greatest poets of Assam of all times, Bhattacharyya’s death has cast a pall of gloom across the state.
He had been undergoing treatment at a private hospital since last month and specialist doctors from New Delhi and Kolkata were flown in by the government to assist a panel of experts attending to Bhattacharyya.
Doctors attending the poet said that water had accumulated in his lungs due to which he had difficulty in breathing. Bhattacharyya breathed his last at 11.25 AM on Wednesday.
Besides the prestigious Sahitya Akademy award, Hiren Bhattacharyya has won numerous other awards including the Bishnu Rabha Award (1985), Soviet Desh Nehru Award (1987) and Assam Valley Literary Award for the year 2000. Some of his published anthology of poems include ‘Mor Desh Mor Premor Kabita’ (1972), ‘Bibhinna Dinar Kabita’ (1974),’ Kabitar Rode’ (1976), ‘Tomar Gaan’ (1976),’ Sugandhi Pokhila’ (1981) and ‘Saichar Pathar Manuh’ (1991).
A pall of gloom descended all over Assam on Wednesday as the news of his death spread like wildfire. “It is a great loss for Assam,” Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.
“I feel as if I have lost my soul. It’s a loss for the entire Assam. I don’t have words to express my personal grief,” modern Assamese poet Samir Tanti said.
“His demise is surely the end of an era. He would however continue to live forever by way of his poems,” said noted academician and poet Dr Amarjyoti Choudhury.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi termed his death as a great loss for the state. “Hiru da shone like a bright constellation in the literary and social life of Assam… he created a new era for Assamese poetry,” he said.
“It is the end of an era. Hiru da had termed death an art but we never imagined that one day we would lose him,” said poet Pranab Sarma.
The state government declared a half-day holiday at all government offices with people from all walks of life making a beeline to the poet’s residence where the body was kept.
Impromptu prayer meetings are being organised in Guwahati and across the State at the demise of the beloved poet. His mortal remains will be consigned to flames here on Thursday. (With inputs from PTI)
