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| Photo from net uploaded by Atlaf Majid |
Growing up in Assam in gloomy eighties had a toll on our psyche. The otherwise hyperemotional people didn’t have a single positive thing to think about. Already we gained a reputation for our step motherly attitude to humour and laughter; I clearly remember we felt guilty if we were enjoying something.
May be it is not normal to enjoy as everything is going from bad to worse.
All the schools, colleges, streets, shops buses- mostly remained closed.
Unexpected deaths were (still is) daily headlines so were the sense of losing identity prevailing everywhere.
The effect of surroundings was terrible and on top of everything –the bombardment of negative, egotistic, remunerated news.
Conflict had no end but the intolerance were at its peak –among people /language /religion /media house/views ,politicos /students parents and from left right centre and periphery everyone were against each other.
Those who had the power either betrayed or exploited our faith.
The situations lead to an era of darkness.
What we all wanted was little bit positive news. (ভাল খৱৰ, শুভ সংবাদ)
But there weren’t any ……
At that time two greats of contrasting characters came out with similar prayer-.
One was Bhabenndra Nath Saikia ,who accepted the society as it was but never given up and tried to bring changes being a part of the system.He wrote a full length play শুভ সংবাদ meaning Good news for the moving theater of Assam so that prayer can be herded across the Bramhaputra valley
The other person I am talking about was a different person altogether .A master in his craft and far ahead of any other contemporary in case of the momentum of his thinking. So naturally when it comes to personal feeling about the surrounding; he was very cynical and far more frustrated than any one else.
I have never met him but neither any other person in this universe .As the great craftsman Sourav Kumar Chaliha lived in complete obscurity .The man whom we have known as the man who knew SKC best Surendra Nath Medhi was by mean less noteworthy . Though petrified with the moronic behavior of natives it doesn’t mean that they (SKC and him) shy away for their responsibility for the society .Both SKC and Surendra Nath Medhi (the man who knew SKC best) were fierce critique of the all evils without any kind of fear. Be it insurgency (Like on death of journalist Parag Das ,or on issue of insurgencies ), or intellectual vacuum in the valley both of them came out with article/stories that can open the window of knowledge .
Two decades ago may be still not old enough to wake up with a hangover on New Year’s dawn ; I was enjoying the sunshine with news paper in one hand and morning cup of tea on another. As a new kid on the block we had upbeat dream but due to the situation we couldn’t think out of out of that sense of nihilism.
It was neither about negativity nor an optimistic article talking about a utopian tomorrow.
But after reading it I felt better and it made me believe that there can be a better tomorrow while living with the darkness at hand.
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