Creator of several popular and award-winning novels and a prolific short story writer, Dr Lakshminandan Bora turns 75 recently. Excerpts from an interview on the occasion of the celebrated writer’s platinum birth anniversary:
How does it feel to be celebrating your 75th birthday?
To live longer and lead a healthy youthful life, one should forget his age. The celebration of my birthday reminds me that I’m ageing and advancing a step further towards death. So personally, I’m not in favour of a birthday celebration, although paradoxically I was constrained to give my consent for celebrating it simply to please my admirers, family and the publisher of the voluminous anthology of 75 of my short stories in Assamese entitled Lakshinandan Borar Charita Dasakar Galpa Samagra.
As a writer, what do you think have been your successes/ achievements and failures?
I have a wide circle of readers and enjoy immense popularity. I have received a number of awards too. From that standpoint, I cannot say that I am not successful. I was elected president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha (1996-97). This gives me the clue to think that I have social recognition. Some impartial critics say that I am a successful writer because some of my short stories and the novel Ganga-chilanir Pakhi, written about 40 years ago, are still read avidly and discussed. Also, two of my novels, based on the lives of Assamese medieval saints Sankardeva and Madhavdeva, are to be found in most of the households of Assam. All these, they say, are indices of my success, although I am not satisfied with what I have written so far. I am not the writer of that standard set by myself. I am the staunchest critic of my own writings.
Do you still feel the zeal to write?
Yes, writing fiction is my obsession. In spite of my age, the world still fascinates me.
What major literary work are you engaged in at present?
During the last five months I wrote two novels which cannot be categorised as major works, but their themes are refreshingly untrodden. I have been collecting material simultaneously on the life of Gopaldeva, another religious saint of Assam, and that of Hem Chandra Baruah, our first lexicographer and rebel reformer. So, I do not know which one I will take up first. It will depend on the availability of material.
You had plans to write a book on Lakshminath Bezbaruah and an autobiographical novel...
I had to abandon the plans. Bezbaruah’s autobiography is unsurpassable. Instead of writing an autobiographical novel, I decided to write my autobiography itself. I have finished a sizeable portion of it, titled Kal Balukat Khoj, which, I am informed, will be serialised in the Assamese fortnightly Prantik from coming July.
Of late, has your work been affected by the present sociopolitical situation in the state?
The dismal sociopolitical scenario has a deleterious effect on creative writers too as we may lose our identity in the wake of the foreign citizens’ preponderance and ceaseless infiltration into the state. Insurgency too has created a law-and-order problem and retarded economic growth. All these find place in my recent writings.
Your suggestion for a lasting solution to the foreigners problem...
People should take the initiative themselves. This should take the form of a mass movement.
Your comments on ULFA’s sovereign Assam...
The idea of a sovereign Assam stems from the Centre’s perpetual apathy towards Assam. And yes, Assam is a victim of the Centre’s negligence. But rigid attitudes of both the Centre and ULFA and present activities of both indicate that a sovereign Assam will remain a distant dream, and violence will go on unabated.
One hypothetical question: you have a dream in which God comes and offers to solve any one of the following three burning problems plaguing Assam — unemployment, corruption and illegal infiltration. Which one would you ask God to solve?
Certainly infiltration. Corruption can be curbed through honest governance and unemployment through proper economic planning, but the problem of infiltration must be the first priority because it may jeopardize our sociocultural and economic stance and strengthen the hands of religious expansionists.
The Assamese language faces threats to its very survival from different quarters. How can it be made to not only survive but also grow?
For this we should take up two steps. First, management and teaching in Assamese medium schools must be improved so that parents will not be inclined to send their children to English medium schools. Second, there must be concerted efforts to increase readership of Assamese books and a movement in this regard is of utmost necessity in the wake of growing popularity of the electronic media. Also, an intellectual environment needs to be sustained for facilitating the writers to produce works of lasting value. A language cannot survive without a rich literature.
A few words of wisdom for those Assamese parents who take pride in announcing that their children cannot read or write in their mother tongue...
They should be told that a strong base in one’s mother tongue helps the student to learn English better because the student develops his conception about words much better. English-savvy parents should be reminded that to show disrespect to one’s mother tongue is equivalent to insulting one’s own mother.
Back to literature; do you agree that undue publicity makes many a mediocre writer famous while lack of publicity sends many good writers into oblivion?
I don’t agree. Publicity-shy Saurav Kumar Chaliha, a powerful short story writer, gets maximum publicity whereas some writers getting maximum publicity are not well-received by the reading public and may soon melt into oblivion.
What would you prefer to be called – a novelist or a short story writer?
I enjoy writing both. I am equally known as a short story writer and a novelist. Nowadays people mention me as a novelist because my novels are more in circulation than my anthologies of short stories.
Your opinion on the new generation of writers?
Nearly twenty of them are my favourites as they are refreshingly new in their approach and treatment. But their contributions are not enough to gauge them totally. The new generation of writers has very few novelists.
How would you define love?
Love is unique and celestial. It defies definition.
A traveller tires out after a long journey. What about a writer?
A writer should travel hopefully to unveil or reveal the mysteries of life. The world is always fresh for him. As such he is ever enthusiastic and must not feel tired. But if someone finds himself waning in creative ability, he may feel tired, bored and depressed. But some writers produce works of great literary merit even at an advanced age. There are many such instances in world literature. To me, writing is an obsession. It pleases me, makes me feel happy and relieves me of depression and boredom.
