BOKAKHAT, March 18 � Hema Prabha Chutia, an expert weaver and ardent devotee of Srimanta Sankardev, who weaved the Gunamala of the revered saint recently was felicitated by the Kamargaon Regional Journalists� Union, a branch unit of Bokakhat Subdivisional Journalists� Union as the �Guest of the Month� in a public meeting held on March 14.
Hema Prabha, an inhabitant of Fotika Chowa Abhoypuriya gaon of Moran fabricated the hymns of Gunamala at her handloom with utmost effort. The office-bearers of the scribes� body headed by senior and leading journalist Mahen Saikia felicitated her with phulam gamosa, citation and a safura. Kamargaon unit of the AASU also honoured the lady for her unique achievement.
Expressing her gratitude and satisfaction, Chutia said that she is very happy that she got a response from all sections of the society. She said that she had a long-standing desire to fabricate the Gunamala at the loom and with the grace of God she could somehow materialise her dream. Chutia started her job on July 12, 2013 and completed it on April 14, 2014. She had demonstrated her product at an exhibition at the 73rd session of Asam Sahitya Sabha held at Kaliabor. The entire product, 80 feet long and one and half feet broad has been made of muga yarn and black coloured woolen threads have been used to weave the stanzas.
Pleased with her skill, the Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi had announced an award of Rs one lakh to be given to her. Of course, till now she has not got the money. However, the artist with a missionary zeal has started to weave a fabric by interlacing on the yarn the Naam ghosha, popularly known as Hazari ghosha, a collection of 1000 stanzas of Mahapurush Madhabdev. She is using self-spinned muga and endi yarns in this case.
The felicitation meeting held on the occasion was presided over by Prasanta Borah, Asstt Professor of HPB College, Golaghat. Bubul Dutta, speaking as the distinguished guest, praised Chutia�s work and appealed to the Government to preserve the most product. Earlier, Pradip Changmai Borua formally inaugurated the exhibition while Md Imran Hussain inaugurated the folk story telling competition.
