Nirupama Borgohain is one tireless woman who has been relentlessly taking up the cases of the harrased and oppressed. An in doing so her pen has not bowed before any force however powerful it might be. Ditimoni Gogoi talks to this fearless woman and creates a picture of her many roles--as a writer, mother, teacher, lover of nature and most important of all, a crusader for social justice.

From 1979 to 1984 the political scenario of Assam was swelled up with the movement called Axom Andolan led by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU). The motto of the movement was to wipe out illegal migrants from the State. One lonely woman journalist, protesting the movement, advised the agitators to be reasonable instead of being emotional.

Having read the news published in various newspapers this woman journalist investigated all the minority camps in the district of Nalbari and in other parts of the State. The investigation led her to the conclusion that the illegal migrants had not attacked the Assamese people who had tortured these minority people at many places. And to prove this to the people of Assam she got some photographs taken by photographer Utpal Datta. These photographs were later in the weekly Kalakhar edited by noted critic and intellectual Dr. Hiren Gohain.

This courageous woman journalist later became very famous in the literary world of Assam. She is Nirupama Borgohain, Nirupama Tamuli of 1930's. After visiting these minority camps Nirumpama raised the curtain of emotions to show the people the bitter reality where the minority people were harassed by the local people of the State. And for expressing the bitter reality she lost her job from weekly Nilachal. She had worked there for 12 years, from 1968 to 1980, looking after the women and cinema sections in the weekly. Courageous Nirupama has proved time and again that she could take any challenge in her life -- whenever she hears of any torture upon woman, she is the first to raise her voice.

From the journalist Nirupama to the noted literatteur Nirupama -- she has come a long way and in this journey she had to lose much. But all through she has been toiling hard and today she has an exalted position which cannot be swayed away by the sweeping emotions of others. She is not alone today, she has her glory, she has her creations around her -- where, whenever she finds it necessary, she can glide about. She can reach any corner of the universe through her depicted feelings in her numerous books.

Great social consciousness is one of the striking factors of her novels. She conceived the social realities with her great inner force and presented them with deep emotions and little sprinkling of reason to make them more impressive. Sometimes her stories stand like a big challenge to the existing social fabric. In fact, she wants to reflect the social realities in her novels. Her writings are innovative and thought provoking and feminist. She never hesitates to write what is right and just. She never cares whether it is against the social conservativeness or in clash with populist surge.

Born in 1932 to Jadab Tamuli and Kashiswari Tamuli, Nirupama was born and brought up in Guwahati. She had completed her initial schooling from Uzanbazar Balika Vidyalaya which stands there at Uzanbazar even today in the same old building. Then she she was admitted to the Panbazar Girls' High School and after studying there for one year she was shifted to Tarinicharan School which was at Uzanbazar then.

She was one of the proud members of the first batch of matric examinees of Gauhati University. At that time the matriculation examination used to be conducted by Gauhati University itself. She had appeared for her I.Sc. (Intermediate Science) examination from Cotton College and graduated from the same college with honours in Education. she got letter marks in Sanskrit and History. It is interesting that her interest from one horizon to another. Having done her Intermediate with science, she graduated from arts stream. And in 1954 she did her MA in English from Calcutta University and in 1956 she did an MA in Assamese.

Her father Jadab Tamuli was the head clerk to the Income Tax Officer. Mother Kashiswari was a housewife. Nirupama narrated an interesting story how her mother got her name after Kashi. One Ata from her village went to Kashi and returning from there he learnt that a beautiful child had been born to a couple of the village. He named the child Kashiswari. Thus Nirupama's mother got her name after Kashi, one of the most visited holy places of India. Though her family was a liberal one, her father never compromised where there was a question of honesty. He always taught his children to be honest. Nirumpama wrote about her father in her autobiography Biswas aru Sansayar Majedi that her father taught them "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be" and whenever she had to face some difficulties her father chanted before her the dialogues of Columbus: "Danger is the breath of my life. I cannot live without danger." Such was the impact of her father upon her. In spite of the contemporary world where many women were bound to follow their age old tradition spending their life within the boundary of four walls, Nirupama could do well enough as she belonged to such liberal minded parents. She could even successfully clear the scholarship examination in the fourth standard which in fact was a very tough task in her time. This success transformed her life, like that of The Ugly Duckling of Anderson's folktales -- as she termed it herself. She was a mixture of talent and charming demeanour that any parent would be proud of.

When I decided to meet this top personality of Assamese literature I was not sure what would be her response and how much of her time could she spend with me but her humble appearance and very friendly nature bowled me out so much so that I could spend almost three hours talking to her that afternoon and roaming from Assam to London through the pages of her album. She also showed me her reading room which is choc-a-block with books. Many of them are her own creations and others are collections of various writers. The walls of her reading room also proudly display the felicitation letters -- decorated with golden letters of adoration and respect on precious muga clothes -- received from various organizations and institutions which also showcase the love of the people of Assam for her.

Nirupama is an ardent traveller too. She had travelled to many historical places of India and abroad. When she described the historical importance of Udaipur in Rajasthan which she visited recently I was convinced that I was with a person who had a treasure of knowledge about history and the present world. She has also visited the historical places of England -- especially the spots where the memories of Shakespeare and Bronte sisters are still alive.

Nirupama started her service life in Netaji Vidyapeeth at Pandu, Maligaon as a teacher. That was in 1956-57. Then she was invited by Troilokyanath Goswami, renowned litteratteur of Assam and then principal of Nalbari College, to join as a lecturer in Nalbari College. After one year of service, Nirupama went to Majuli with her husband and then they shifted to Chhaygaon. She spent three years without any job. She had to live in one place and then in another as her husband had a transferable job and also had to resign from her jobs at these places ultimately lending herself without any job. She also contributed three years' service in Lakhimpur College and Jorhat College.

In 1968, on October 2, she started a new chapter of her life joining as the sub-editor of the Saptahik Nilachal. She proved to be a courageous journalist and the bitter truth as already mentioned that she revealed about the Axom Andolan compelled her to sacrifice her job after rendeirng 12 years of service there.

After losing so many positions it became difficult for Nirupama to get a permanent job to earn her bread and butter, and her passion for writing became her new profession. She also applied for the post of a lecturer in Assamese in Handique College and Indira Miri who was the member of the selection committee advocated Nirupama's case knowing that there were no other candidates better than Nirupama but the selection committee did not agree. Nirupama was deprived from getting a job in Handique College.

Nirupama started her conjugal life with another noted writer-journalist of Assam, Homen Borgohain on March 12, 1958. Their marriage took place at Nalbari and that was the culmination of a long drawn love affair. This intellectual couple became parents to two sons and after several years of togetherness they mutually decided to live separately. This may be a breakdown of a relationship but Nirupama never lost heart and struggled hard to continue her duties towards her two sons and to the Assamese society. "I had to struggle hard to raise my sons. If they were not brilliant 1could not help even myself. But today I am proud of my sons as they could attain glory having attained brilliance in their own fields."

Her elder son Anindya Borgohain is now in the post of Manager of State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur in Rajasthan and her daughter-in-law also is a bank employee there. She is Shobhini Sarma, from Himachal Pradesh.

After the separation from her husband in 1977, she began a life of struggle. She had to resign her job in 1980. From 1989 to 1993 she lived with her elder son Anindya in Kolkata and then onwards she is with her younger son Dr Pradipta Borgohain at their Kharghuli residence. Dr Borgohain is a professor of English literature at Gauhati University and I had the privilege of having him as my teacher in Gauhati University and found him helpful in every respect. Nirupama, in her autobiography, said, "I am thankful to my sons. I am lucky to be their mother."

She has also an intimate attachment to her daughter-in-Iaws and grand daughters. When I asked her for some photographs she spent much time in finding out a photograph with her younger son and daughter-in-law Rupa and grand daughter Pupi.

Though her life is not swamped with awards galore she is happy with whatever she has got. In 1987, she got Shaswati Award for her novel Anya Jivan and in 1989-90 she got Basanti Devi Bordoloi Award from Axom Xahitya Xabha for the same novel. In 1994 she received Hem Baruah Award from AxomXahitya Xabha for the the novel Abhijatri based on the life of Chandraprava Saikia. In 1996 she was awarded with Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel Abhijatri.

Shaswati Award is a national award and given every year for a selected zone, the country having been divided in to four zones. Her Anya Jivan was selected as the best book for this purpose by the women writers. In 2000 she received Prabina Saikia Award and Assam State Dalit Sahitya Academy Award and in 2003 she was awarded with Adwait Malla Barman Memory Award. This award was sponsored by the Tripura Government. Among all these Nirupama recalls that the Shaswati Award has given her more joy than any other. She is also happy with the Adwait Malta Barman Award -- which was awarded to her for writing about the oppressed class of the society. Adwait Malla Barman was a writer of the oppressed class. His book Titas Ekti Nadir Naam has been translated to Assamese by Medini Chaudhury.

Her literary career is studded with jewels like Abhijatri, Anya Jivan, Ipar Hipar, Ei Nadi Nirabadhi and many others which include 16 story collections, 33novels and novellas, nine essay collections, and six translation works from other languages. Her new arrivals are Ganar Nisina Din and Ei Dwip Ei Nirvasan (travel story). She has been also writing novels -- Jivanar Bate Ghate, Eti Duti Katha, Nanarangi Jivanar Swapna Smriti Bikhad which have been serialized in newspapers and weeklies like Aji, Asom Bani and Janambhumi respectively.

Writing is in her blood. She might have honed her pen through writing but the actual spirit was in her blood. She showed me the magazines she had published in her school days. She had bound notebooks, neatly written with a cover and sometimes using sketches and collages, according to the need of a poem or a story. The names of her VIIth and VIIIth standard magazines were Xalita and Janani. She designed her cover pages with sketches of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru relating to their visits to Assam. She also proudly disclosed that her Anthropologir Xapcmar Pisat is now included in the BA syllabus. She had written this book when she had appeared in the matriculation examination!

She likes reading Saurav Chaliha, Roma Das, Imran Hussain, Robin Sarma, Apurba Saikia and Manorama Das Medhi from the new generation and Dr Bhaben Saikia is also her favourite. She also likes reading stories by Moushumi Kandali.

Rivers play an important role in her novels. Whether it is Pagladiya or Sarikodia she has a great love for rivers. River Pagladiya alwaysappears in her novels as a flash and dash and it is the image of life and nature -- mysterious, unknown and sometimes devastating. She has depicted the mystery of the river Pagladiya in various aspects -- how the riverine people have to live with fear and anxiety because they don't know when the flood water will wash away their paddy, homes, cattles and all hopes or the river may also hug them with love and care spreading silt to facilitate growth of healthier crops -- so mysterious like life itself. "The name of Pagladiya makes me mad. Look at this. This is Pagladiya" -- she showed me the photograph where she is in the knee deep waters of Pagladiya. Really she is obsessed by Pagladiya. Her novels also express the deep intuition and feelings of a woman that may be compared to a dormant volcano. It may erupt at any moment and results could be disastrous. Her Anya Jivan reflects her feminist ideals in general and humanity in particular. She has unwittingly established a feminist ideology everywhere in her novels. Except for feminism, she has been compared to Hardy for her imagery of nature in her works.

Despite many odds and hardships, Nirupama Borgohain has remained invincible like a rock and I found her very down to earth, simple and easy going. Name and fame have not made her proud...

"So much have been said, what to tell you more...," she asked me. But I know in my heart of hearts that in spite of so much having been said, so much more remain unsaid. "You have to tell more and more," I exhorted her. She has written everything about herself in her autobiography Biswas Aru Sansayar Majedi. But the people of Assam expect more from her.

When Nirupama feels lonely and depressed she reads these lines: He is his own best friend, and takes delight in his privacy; whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his worst enemy, and afraid of solitude...

Read Nirupama Borgohain’s stories