Covers of two books, Sahitya ka Mahakumbh and Rupkonwar

Guwahati, Nov. 24: Sixty-plus Navarun Verma is Bihari by birth, but the love of his life is Assamese literature. Ravi Shankar Ravi, admittedly “a poet first and then a journalist”, is just as enamoured of his adopted state’s literary treasures. Dinkar Kumar, Ratnesh Kumar and Ravi Kant Niraj share the same passion.

Theirs is a common story about building bridges of amity, of silent efforts to popularise Assamese literature among Hindi-speaking people throughout the country. Born and brought up in Assam, Verma confesses to drawing inspiration from freedom fighter and writer Ambikagiri Raichoudhury’s “fiery zeal”. His own literary credentials are impeccable, having translated such lofty works as Srimanta Sankardev’s Kirtan Gosha and Madhav Kandali’s Ramayan into Hindi.

Since 1960, Verma’s translations have been read and admired by Hindi-speaking people across the country. The Asam Sahitya Sabha honoured him on two occasions, once during the Dibrugarh session and again at Goreswar, where he had the privilege of inaugurating the kabi sanmelan.

Pained by the anti-Bihari backlash in Assam, Verma minces no words in criticising the people behind the senseless attacks. ”After living in Assam for so many years and doing whatever we can for the state, it is painful to see Bihari people being hounded this way.” Like Verma, 40-year-old Ravi Shankar confesses to having fallen in love with Assam the moment he arrived here several years ago. Out of this love was born Ulupi, a quarterly little magazine in Hindi that contains translations of Assamese literary works and is popular across the country.

“It is a small endeavour on our part to take the essence of Assamese literature to the Hindi-speaking people. How far we have succeeded only the people can say. But we feel satisfied that we have been able to do something for our adopted state,” Ravi Shankar said.

The cover story of the forthcoming issue of Ulupi, priced Rs 15, is on the multifaceted genius of Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwalla. Earlier issues of the little magazine included special stories on the Asam Sahitya Sabha and the Assamese poet Aboni Chakravarty, who went missing in 1994.

Helping Ravi Shankar in his endeavour are Dinkar, Ratnesh and Ravi Kant.

Dinkar, who has translated as many as 40 Assamese classics, said the defining moment of his life was being conferred the Som Datt Award by an Allahabad-based literary forum for one of his works.

Being based in the state since he was 12, he cannot think of settling elsewhere. “Assam has become my home and I have striven to strengthen the bond between Bihar and my adopted state through literature,” he said. Ravi Shankar said the ethnic backlash should not be allowed to disrupt the “cultural link” between the Bihari and Assamese communities.