Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi - Assamese Writer , Poet and Lyricist

A notable poet, lyricist and writer from Assam, Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi is one of the recipient of won Sahitya Akademi Award. She was born in 1933 in Sibsagar district and was married at a very tender age of 11. However, she continued to study and later earned several degrees. This great poetess has contributed remarkable towards the development of Assamese literature.
 

Nirmal Parbha Bordoloi has faced several hurdles in the course of becoming a renowned name in the field of Assamese literature. She was left by her husband at a very young age with a small daughter and she had to struggle a lot to bring her up and give her a good life. She wrote a number of poems and lyrics for various famous singers of Assam. The central theme of most of the poems of Nirmal Prabha is the emotional crises which the poetess underwent at the different stages of her life. Her poetry is often marked by her stringent protest against social ills and the establishment. But the dominant note of her poetry is a sad note woven around the main texture of her poetry. We cannot say Nirmal Prabha is always groping in the darkness glorifying the sad notes of humanity. Often she betrays her hope and optimism.

She was emotionally involved in Assam’s agitation for identity, the Assamese identity threatened by perilous inroads of migrants from neighboring erstwhile East Bengal, now Bangladesh. Also known as a poet of love, most of her poem reflects the feeling as she expresses her unique experience of transgressing the body, and thus has left aside the beaten track in Assamese love poetry. Winner of the President’s Award for Children’s Literature for her book Chil Chil Chila, the former president of the Asom Sahitya Sabha, Nirmal Prabha as a cultural ambassador represented India in many international poetry conferences. In the International Literary Conference held in Tokyo, Japan, in the year 1983 she was honoured as the president of the poetry section. She was selected by I.C.C.R to represent India as the only representative in the World Poetry Conference held at Kualalumpur. In 1986 in the seminar held in Hamburg of South Germany, she received the award of the best scholar. In 1990 she visited China and participated in a seminar held in Kunamang.

MY FAVORITE POEMS

Does the day break
With the sound of guns?
Not at all.
It breaks with the cry
Of that bird
Which nibbles through
The night’s darkness
Very slowly.

 -------------------------

As the smell of the autumn field
Somehow reaches my nose
I get my father back.

In the aroma
Of an unfolded gamosa of a shop
I get my mother back.
Where shall I leave myself
for my children?
Oh where?

[ Translated by Niren Thakuria ]

Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi wrote over 54 Assamese and English books and thousands of Assamese songs. She also wrote several children’s fiction and on Assamese folk culture books. She won Sahitya Akademi Award in the year 1983 for her book Sudirgha Din Aru Ritu, which is a collection of poetry and in the year 1987, she was conferred with the Sawaswati Sanman. She also presided over the Dudhnoi session of Asam Sahitya Sabha in the year 1991. Antarang, Bon Phoringor Rong, Samipesu, Antarang, Asamar Luko Sangonskriti, Sudirgha Din Aru Ritu, Siba and Asamar Luko Kabita are some of her poetries that have touched the hearts of the readers. On June 1, 2004, Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi passed away after a prolonged illness.