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Jorhat, June 2: A book comprising one sentence has been heard of before. But a book written with 5,555 words strung into one sentence is a rare achievement.
This is exactly what Sunil Kumar Saikia, a teacher of Jan Khowa ME School here has done. He has written a children’s book named Dissoi Paaror Mel (A gathering on the bank of the Dissoi), which has 5,555 Assamese words, 534 commas and 11 semi-colons.
His mission is dual: “to reach out to children and impart knowledge about everything important in Assam” and “to make Assamese language known around the world through record books”.
Saikia, who addressed a press meet here today, said the sentence has been certified to be correct by a number of litterateurs, including former Asam Sahitya Sabha president Nagen Saikia.
“At first, I would like to get the book recognised by the India Book of Records and then try for the Guinness World Records,” he said. “My aim is to make the Assamese language known throughout the world,” he added.
Sunil Saikia claimed a sentence written by French writer Victor Hugo in Les Miserables contained 423 words, 93 commas and 37 semi-colons, was so far considered to be the longest sentence.
“In Assam, Lakshminath Bezbaruah had written a sentence with 628 words and Prafulla Sharma written a one-sentence book containing 3,601 words,” he said.
The teacher-cum-author said he had begun his endeavour four years ago and completed the text towards the end of last year. The book, which is under publication, is slated for release on June 17.
“The topic of my book is based on the famous moina mels (children’s gatherings) of Assam, where kids in the age group 4-14 are quizzed, asked riddles and allowed to show off their talent on stage. Here on the bank of Dissoi river, a lady (baido) sits among small children and asks questions, then tells them the right answer. She also tells them jokes and asks riddles, through which she imparts knowledge on festivals of the state,” he said.
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