World Storytelling Day: Five torchbearers of Assamese literature

During school, most children’s favourite time was the story session. The class would sprawled out in whatever was the most comfortable position, listening attentively as the teacher read out loud. And when the teacher showed those colourful pictures, our imaginations would wander wild. However, the common fond memories we all have is of our parents or grandparents narrating tales by the fire-place or under the blanket on cold winter nights – of ash gourds rolling and crawling across the streets, or the talking bird trying to take a sneak at the kitchen.

March 20 is World Storytelling Day; a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling which has its roots in Sweden. And today we’re celebrating our oral traditions of narrating stories, cross-culture and across boundaries. The art of storytelling has seen some notable torch-bearers in Assamese culture and literature; writers whom we’ve grown with or learnt our first steps into imagination. Here’s our list of few, in no particular order.

Lakshminath Bezbaroa (Rasaraj, Sahityarathi)

A prolific writer of humour and sass, specifically satire, Bezbaroa had quite an adventurous life. A poet, novelist and playwright, Bezbaroa was one of the most notable Assamese writers of the “Jonaki” period – the age of romanticism in Assamese Literature. A milestone to modern Assamese literature, Bezbaroa dominated the literary scene for almost half a century. In his autobiography, Rosoraj (Roxoraj) looks at his birth as the first mark of humour, born in a boat on a sand bank near Nagaon, on the Lakshmi Purnima night of November, 1868. A wanderer from his childhood, Rasaraj’s family constantly tarvelled because of his father’s professional commitments, before finally settling at Sivsagar.