GUWAHATI, March 23 � Noted Bengali writer Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay today underlined the need for a writer to understand the trend of his or her surroundings. Mukhopadhyay was presenting the 22nd Assam Valley Literary Award of the Williamson Magor Education Trust to noted Assamese writer Purabi Barmudoi at a function held at the Machkhowa Pragjyoti ITA Centre for Performing Arts here this evening.
He described the mental set-up of a human being today as more complicated than what it was decades back. Therefore, he said, a writer�s task has become far more complicated and difficult these days.
�A fiction writer today is a narrator only; a poet is not just led by his or her passion or romantic outlook. They have to travel hand in hand with the contemporary world of myriad complications and puzzles,� he said.
Though depression and melancholy, feeling of loneliness, dejection and hopelessness is spreading slowly and apparently the world seems to be cruel and life not worth living, the eternal truth is � we are all born of a source of happiness, he said.
Accepting the award, the writer of Rupowali Noir Sonowali Ghat fame writer Purabi Barmudoi said that she believes that the function of literature is not just to amuse and entertain.
She further said, �I wish my writing to do good the society from which I took my first lesson on life and has been taking lessons ever since.�
Explaining her concept of the source materials of a writer, Barmudoi, who had to receive the award from Mukhopadhyay on a wheelchair because of her illness, said that a writer can write only about history, the past. For, she said, �We are living from moment to moment and every moment that passes becomes a part of history, our past. From that point of view a writer can write only about history, the past.� Her address was read out by her husband Dr Ananda Barmudoi.
Tributes were also paid in the function to renowned artist Late Sobha Brahma, who designed the citation and trophy of the award.
The function was also addressed by RS Jhawar of the Williamson Magor Education Trust. The function was followed by violin recital by Sunita Khaund Bhuyan and performance of Mizo dance.
