The first edition of Shilpey Anonyya, the oldest little magazine of Dhanbad, following the grant of RNI registration was launched on Sunday by Dipak Kumar Sen its founder editor in presence of host of literary gems, including Siddharth Roy, editor of Patna based Bengali magazine, Diner Sheshey, at Dhanbad’s oldest literary club Lindsay club.
Addressing the gathering, Sen who is the retired the head of department of Mathematics of RS More College, Dhanbad apprised the gathering about the 44 years journey of the quarterly magazine, Aami Ananya, launched by him in 1977 including the challenges with regard to its funding as well as dwindling readership in the present digital era.
Sen also pointed to the difficulties faced by little magazines published outside Bengal due to lack of support from the respective government.
He appealed to young writers, independent thinkers to contribute their articles in large numbers as little magazines in the present era serve as the flag bearers of independent thought in the present era of globalisation and commercialisation.
“In order to help each other the publishers of little magazines constituted a forum for little magazines published outside Jharkhand during the little magazine fair held in Dhanbad in November 8-9, 2019 at Lindsay Club of Dhanbad itself,” said Sen and added that facing a lot of constraints on financial and health front he is committed to bring out the magazine which has been registered as the first Bengali Magazine of Jharkhand.
“We have recently organised a story writing contest during the lockdown on the experience of the people during the lockdown after the first phase of pandemic and we were overwhelmed with tremendous response as altogether 127 entries were received on wide range of subjects which shows that the people are still inclined to writing and reading in the present era” said Sen.
Siddharth Roy, Chief Editor, Patna based little magazine, Diner Sheshey said lauded the effort of Dipak Kumar Sen for bringing out the magazine since 1977 and shared his concern about the little magazine, “Little magazines publishers due to lack of government support all across the country except in Bengal are facing a lot of difficulty and we had decided to organize the little magazine fair at different other cities and towns in order to popularize our publications during the little magazine fair of Dhanbad of November 2019 but due to pandemic we could not hold the same.”