Bora (second from left) with his family

Dibrugarh, Aug. 26: When he first jotted down his thoughts in a personal diary as a schoolboy, Ajoyananda Bora had no idea that his new hobby would become an abiding passion.

For sheer volume, Bora’s diaries are now hard to beat. And the 60-year-old resident of Dibrugarh is legitimately seeking a place in the Limca Book of Records for maintaining personal diaries for the past 43 years, without a day’s break.

If his feat is recognised, Bora, the senior-most programme announcer at the All India Radio station here, will edge out retired Indian Air Force officer Kehar Singh from the Limca Book of Records. The former officer from Ropar in Haryana maintained diaries for 37 years at a stretch.

“Though I developed the habit of writing a diary in 1954, when I was still in school, I do not have records of the initial years because most of my jottings were on loose pages,” says Bora.

He started maintaining hardbound diaries only in 1961, after completing his matriculation. “I was inspired by my teachers, particularly by former education minister Golak Rajbongshi,” Bora, who is due to retire from service on August 31, recalls.

Born in 1943 at Pavoi tea estate, near Bishwanath Chariali in Darrang district, Bora joined All India Radio in 1969. Before taking up an announcer’s job, he was a schoolteacher for four years.

The eldest among nine children, Bora’s diaries contain interesting nuggets of information, including his salary when he joined All India Radio on February 1,1969. It was Rs 313.35, a reasonable sum in those days.

Bora is confident about getting into the Limca Book of Records. His personal notes run into over 15,000 pages, while Kehar Singh’s record is of 11,730 pages.

Bora’s lesser-known distinction is that he was the first of three radio announcers recruited for the Dibrugarh station of All India Radio when it was commissioned on February 15, 1969.

“B.K. Nehru, the then governor of Assam, inaugurated the station. I still remember the first line: “Akashvani Dibrugarh kendrar hoi ami samuh sruta loi preeti aru sambhasan jonai anusthan mukoli korichu,” he says.

The world record for writing diaries is held by Col. Ernest Loftus of Harare, Zimbabwe. He maintained personal notes continuously for 91 years, beginning May 1896. The marathon man died in 1987, aged 103 years and 178 days.

Ask him if he has set a similar target and Bora says: “Let us see. I am already 60, and how long can I keep it up? But one thing is sure: I will do it till my last day.”