Diraj Kumar, a student of Class III at Durga Charan Primary School, did not know a thing about novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who hailed from the same school, until on Friday, when he found a throng of people at school.

These men and women had come to pay tribute to the writer, whose magnum opuses dominate most Bengali households, on his 139th birth anniversary.

Members of the Bhagalpur chapter of Bengali Association, Bihar paid floral tributes to Chattopadhyay's statue at the school on Friday.

The association donated a football to the students of the school, while members of Khela Ghar, a local club, donated carrom board to the school to mark the occasion.

Secretary of the managing committee of the school Sanjoy Kumar Ghosh admitted that the present generation of the Bengali community lacked basic education in their mother tongue. He, however, blamed the rapid migration of Bengalis from the silk city and the non-availability of sufficient number of Bengali books for the lack of knowledge.

"At present, we have 112 students and out of them, four speak Bengali. The managing committee of the school deployed a Bengali teacher," said Kumari Renu, the headmistress of the school.

The association also organised a small function, in collaboration with the writer's descendents, at Ganguli House, his maternal uncle's place at Manik Sarkar Ghat Road. "We are observing his (Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay) birth anniversary today, in accordance with the Bengali calendar," said Nirupam Kanti Pal, the general secretary of the association.

He, however, expressed concern about the small gathering on such an occasion. "People are forgetting Sarat and the new generation is quite ignorant of his contributions," said Uttam Devnath, an association member.

Despite several requests made through letters and memorandums to officials concerned, nothing had materialised so far in connection with the naming of a road and a train in the writer's honour, he added.

Many Bengali-speaking residents also expressed their concern at the fact that Sarat's name was gradually being relegated to oblivion. "In developing countries, history is given the topmost priority but we ignore history here. The new generation, in particular, is completely deprived of history," said Amlan Kumar Dey, a resident of Bhagalpur.