Asam Sahitya Sabha session begins

The main gate of the 73rd session of the Asam Sahitya Sabha in Kaliabor on Saturday. - UB Photos As reported in local English daily 'The Assam Tribune' : by - TARUN MUKTIAR KALIABOR, Jan 31 – The five-day 73rd session of the Asam Sahitya Sabha got under way at the Atmaram Sarma Samannoy Kshetra here today. Delegates from far-flung areas are thronging the Samannoy Kshetra, which is developed on a plot of around 500-bighas of land. Delegates also include litterateurs from some other states, including Maharashtra, besides those from various districts of the State. The local people, including the young and elderly, are also thronging the venue of the Sabha session with great enthusiasm. The local people are mainly crowding the venues of the book fair, trade fair and exhibition organised on the occasion. Eighty-foot-long Gunamala: An 80-foot-long Gunamala woven by Hemo Prabha Chutiya of Moran in Dibrugarh district of the State proved to be a crowd puller. Chutiya has woven the holy book on an eighty-foot-long cloth with Muga yarn and metallic yarn (called Jari in Hindi and Guna Suta in Assamese). It needs mention here that Srimanta Sankaradeva had prepared the holy Gunamala as the shortest version of the holy Madbhagavata at the instance of Maharaja Naranarayana. Chutiya, who is also weaving a 300-foot-long holy Namghosa, told this correspondent that she took nine months to weave the Gunamala. She has already woven ten metres of the Namghosa, which is expected to take three years, Chutiya said, adding the venture would cost her around Rs 70,000 and she is reeling yarn for the purpose. Chutiya was seen reeling yarn in the exhibition stall here today. Voluntary organisation WWF has made a man roam around the exhibition ground wearing a mask of rhinoceros made of paper in its bid to generate public awareness on the issue of protecting this precious animal from the hands of the poachers. The exhibition was inaugurated by PWD Minister Ajanta Neog in presence of Reception Committee president and MLA Keshab Mahanta and Sabha general secretary Prahlad Tassa. However, there was a goof-up at the time of inauguration of the exhibition. The organisers had to procure afresh the scissors being used to cut the ribbon of the exhibition gate, as, the original scissors bought for the purpose went missing. This upset the schedule of the inauguration of the exhibition.