The centenary celebration of Mangaldai Sahitya Sabha, one of the premier wings of Asom Sahitya Sabha formed in 1918, got off to a colourful start on Friday with the hoisting of altogether one hundred flags of its parent body by prominent local citizens, former office bearers of the literary body and office bearers of different public organizations in the morning at District Library premises.
Jiten Bhatta, President of Mangaldai Sahitya Sabha, t unfurled the flag while choir group of the sister organization “Akash” presented the Asom Sangeet “O’ Mor Aponar Desh…”. This was followed by the ceremony paying tributes initiated by Dr Amarendra Narayan Deb, former President of Darrang Zila Sahitya Sabha.
Pratap Bordoloi, Chairman, Mangaldai Municipal Board formally started the event of planting of one hundred saplings across the Mangaldai.
Two books authored by Harendra Rajbongshi, a State Government employee were released. Gurujyoti Das, Mangaldai Legislator released his collection of stories titled “Bakular Subashere Subashit Karangajanar Rati” while his other book “Sapon Kunwarir Sadhu”, a collection of tales for children, was released by prominent cultural activist Swapan Kr Ghosh.
The first of the three-day celebration also featured district level “Biya Naam” (wedding song) presentation contest among women groups and lighting of one hundred lamps. Veteran singer Dr Anima Choudhury formally inaugurated the “Biya Naam” contest while the lighting of lamps ceremony was initiated by Khanindra Rajbongshi, President of AASU, Darrang District unit.
The celebration is also going to feature variety of other literary, cultural and social programmes in the next two days which included felicitation to prominent persons, poet meet, programme of ‘Akash’, cultural procession, book release, release of the souvenir titled “Sumangala”, among others.
The open session scheduled from 11 am on December 23 in the district library auditorium will be graced by President of Asom Sahitya Sabha, Dr Paramananda Rajbongshi as the Chief Guest while Dr Samujjal Kr Bhattacharya will address the session as the appointed speaker.