BARANIYA SABDA-SAMBHAR: A brief introduction

Ranjan Kumar Mahanta

(ranjanmahanta068@gmail.com)

Introduction:

Name of the book: Baraniya Sabda-Sambhar

Name of the author: Anjan Baskota

Name of the publisher: Hamro Prayash, Samar Dalani

Edition: First, April 2021

Genre: Criticism (in Assamese)

Price: INR 150.

About the author and the book:

Anjan Baskota is a popular name among the conscious readers of the present years. He is very well known to the people of the state and abroad as he is recently honoured by the prestigious Sahitya Akademi with its 'Yuba Puraskar 2020' as a mark of his literary excellence so far. Mr Baskota is the first person to receive the covetous award 'Yuba Puraskar' in the Nepali language from Assam and the entire Northeast region. By profession, Baskota is a school teacher in the historic Sootea under the Biswanath district. Belonging to a cultivating family in Samar Dalani, he dedicated himself to the wellbeing of the rural society at large. By being a son of a good teacher father, Baskota lastly presented 'Baraniya Sabda-Sambhar' to the society in the fond memory of his respected home-teacher-cum-cultivator uncle Ram Prasad Sarma and is published by 'Hamro Prayash' for the first time as a token of honour for Mr Baskota.

It's very important that just before entering into the book, readers can go through the preface which is very shortly elaborated by our respected and well-known scholar Dr Madan M. Sarma with a few words. In his words, he congratulates the author for successfully including several books by various writers in his collection uniformly. Mr Sarma also encouraged the author for his neutral and humble criticism in the entire book so far and it's only possible because of Baskota's progressive outlook as well as the attitude he possesses. Finally, he views Baskota as a simple, coverless and justifiable one in his criticism so far including poems, articles, novels, research books, discussions on folklore etc.

The two main caretakers of 'Hamro Prayash' Mr Puspa Dahal and Pradip Dhakal in the publisher's note very positively highlighted Mr Baskota for his multilingual discussions so far published in various newspapers, journals and periodicals in the state and nation particularly in Assamese, Nepali, English and Hindi languages simultaneously. Moreover, they have encouraged and highlighted Baskota for having been selected by the national academy of letters for its prestigious 'Yuba Puraskar 2020' (Young Writers Award) for 'DRISTI'; a collection of Nepali articles in the Nepali language published in 2016 as the first person to receive such a prestigious honour in the entire Northeast so far.

'Baraniya Sabda-Sambhar' by favourite writer Anjan Baskota is a well-versed collection of criticism in Assamese. Twenty-seven reviews of various books on varied tastes and flavour are included altogether in this book and presented to the readers accordingly. It is indeed a noble work by the author. In his words in 'Anubhabar Dapun' (author's note), he admires gratitude to the teacher and poet Ranjan Mahanta for his literary inspirations in this regard so far. Moreover, he upholds the Bihaguri area near the historic town Tezpur at large for his literary works, especially mentioning the times he spent in Bihaguri as a teacher recently.

To criticize a book especially based on criticism at large is a very difficult task. In this respect one must have gone through the main points of the concern, the reason behind the publication, related area, concept and thoughts of the book, use of language as well as the use of colourful words and finally critic's exceptional neutrality as what I believe. In this regard, Baskota is considering all these elements in criticizing the entire inclusions in his book. Relatively, Dr Madan M. Sarma's expression regarding the concept of negative publicity is although true, it should be mentioned that some of the young writers of these days are trying to publish various books without considering the proper and specific requirements for the same. I hereby request all concerned for their minimum development themselves with the innate qualities they possess. Without mentioning any of the inclusions I should say that 'Baraniya Sabda-Sambhar' plays the spokesman role in the case of several important books it included. They may be a collection of poems, conversations with special personalities, a collection of short stories of multilingual personalities, colourful traditions of a special society and life sketches of a few prominent Indians etc. With very formal and important criticism of some books included, the writer very briefly has to criticize a few books with negative views, although it should be ignored as minor ones. I finally request for positive sincerity of all concern in all aspects. I Hope, this book will largely be accepted by the readers in the days to come. Wish Baskota once again in each means forever.

Conclusion:

In short, I must say 'Baraniya Sabda-Sambar' is the first book on criticism by the author. There are lots of scopes to enlarge the book by adding some more reviews of the same category. Some of the reviews are short in size. The significant point of the book is that all the cover pages of the books reviewed have been placed at the very beginning of each text. The language used here is very colloquial and up to the easy grasp of the common reader. The methodology and style of critique are scientific. I must say everybody should read this one book instead of reading twenty-seven books by different writers.