The Saurabh Kumar Chaliha Fan Society will celebrate January 1, 2022 as bhal khabarar din (a day of good news) in Guwahati.
As part of the celebration, the fan society has organised a lecture programme and the screening of a film at Guwahati press club from 3 pm on January 1, said a statement.
Distinguished scientist and science writer Dr. Dinesh Chandra Goswami will deliver a speech titled “Science in the Stories and Essays of Chaliha”.
Also, a recent short film Revisiting Chaliha which won the Best Director Award at the Indian Short Cinema Film Festival, September 2021, in Bengaluru, will be screened, followed by an interaction with the director Indranil Gayan.
The film is less than 15 minutes long and is based on several characters and events from Chaliha’s short stories.
The Anuragi Samaj (Fan Society) is celebrating this event since 2011. On January 1, 1998, Chaliha (more popularly referred to as SKC) wrote an article that was published on the front page of an Assamese daily.
The article narrated his discovery of a small piece of news item in a morning paper that gave him hope and optimism for the future.
The news was about a young boy committing suicide because of his father’s involvement in a financial scam.
The incident was shocking but reflected the sensitivity of the younger generation; it conveyed something beyond the depression created by the world around us, it was about remaining humane in the midst of so much chaos.
And thus SKC came up with the idea to start the new year with a bhal khabar, a piece of good news, on a morning newspaper on the very first day of the year.
His anuragis (fans) decided to continue his tradition, in the form of a small gathering, to celebrate the memory of the author, as SKC chose to remain in anonymity by refusing to come out in public (as author).
It was important to focus on something larger than the person, something to do with an idea originating in the storyteller himself.
SKC Anuragi Samaj invites everyone for the celebration of bhal khabar on 1st January 2022, at 3 pm, at the Guwahati Press Club.