'The info-explosion or better called the info-revolution that occurred during last half century has colored the curiosity of men multifarious and more intense than ever. Man now has to keep in the mind the information of the entire world in order to understand the significance of many occurrences as various countries have reciprocally become interdependent due to numerous networking systems making the world a single whole.The essence of this is that a journalist in modern times must not only be a messenger, he must also be a pundit nourished in study. Apart from politics and economics, he must study subjects like history, geography, anthropology, sociology, international affairs etc in order to make himself fit for the improved journalism of the day.’
Diganta Oza with Homen Borgohain
I wrote this in the month of December, 1994.I was invited that year to deliver the first lecture of the Mahesh Chandra DevaGoswami memorial lecture series at Nowgaon (Assam).The afore-written ideas haunted my mind when I tried to analyze the nature of modern Assamese journalism with comparison to its international counterparts. I have not found a single Assamese journalist till this date that befits my definition.Diganta Oza is the first of the few who have tried to connive at the point and have been successful to a larger extent in that mission. I want to say him a rare species among the Assamese journalists. The proof of the truth of my statement is all present throughout the pages of this book.
The cross-road in human civilization has not appeared for once alone. Many cross-roads did happen throughout the ages. It will repeat itself in future also. Matthew Arnold spoke of such cross-roads when he wrote of the two worlds in Ninetieth century as “wandering between two worlds, one dead/the other powerful to be born”. The thinking men temporally stop their journey when they arrive at such cross-roads and cruise through the entire history and passed experiences of men to garner befitting lessons in order to tread on their uncertain paths.Diganta Oza has undertaken this attempt in this well-planned and well-meditated book. The expanse of the gamut of his study is large enough to dazzle the readers. He will very naturally demand a little more time to attain the originality in thinking. Yet the well-planned essays in this book do not remain a mere conglomeration of data related to the past; his curiosities rife in pain in life represent all modern men. It is indubitable that the book will introduce the readers into many arenas of information and provide them with novel sources of thoughts.
Renown Assamese novelist, essayist, critic, poet and journalist Homen Borgohain (b. 1932 Assam) is has attracted the attention of a wide number of readers and many acclaimed critics as well. He was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in Assamese language for his novel, Pita Putra in the year 1978.
Borgohain wrote this piece of writings as the foreword of Diganta Oza’s sociological- philosophical book Sandhikhyanat manuh. This piece is translated by Hemchandra Dutta
No comments:
Post a Comment