Once again the people of Golaghat district of Assam have reasons to hang their heads in shame if they have read Kamalakanta Bhattachara who rued What is the use of washermen in a naked state. That’s the exact anger and frustration to be manifested in his pioneering poem he penned several decades back. Whatever he feared with anger is true if you get a glimpse of the hoardings and posters in the name of Sahitya Rathi Laxminath Bezbaruah in the nook and corner of Golaghat town. The hoardings erected to observe the 150th birth anniversary of the pioneering figure of Assamese literature and culture have been languishing in dying agony.
“This is nothing but a sheer disregard for the legendary Assamese figure who took Assam and its people into a new height. But strange are the ways of our people who have not learnt to respect the giant. Even we are not fit for that,” said Suvansu Bora, a young entrepreneur.
Talking to Assam Times he said,”we lack knowledge and awareness. Our system is as such. Our children are not properly taught. A section of the parents is not interested to allow their children to know Bezbaruah. What pain these people will take if the hoarding is allowed to remain in a shamble.”
Prabir Gogoi, insurance official told Assam Times that a section of people is known for their ungratefulness. “We have never learnt anything. He was Bezbaruah who gave us a fresh lease of life after Sankardev. Without Bezbaruah we would have been groping in darkness. But we are forgetting him,” said Gogoi after spotting the hoarding at the Bata Point of the town where a section of the people dump bottles, chips and cigarette packets.
This is how, the doyen of Assamese literature is utterly disregarded whose contribution needs no introduction. The hoardings were erected by the Golaghat Chambers of Commerce to observe his one year long 150th birth anniversary. Will the knowledgeable circle wake up?
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