Dear friends let me have the honor of introducing you to
Ajayananda Borah an extremely interesting person and in his own words 'a wannabe record breaker who seeks entry into
Limca Book Of Records by penning his thoughts since 1961 till date without a single day's break.'Mr.Borah has been visiting our dental clinic for the last many years and in spite of various chit-chats between us ,this interesting side of him was not known to us.In the first week of Feb he invited us to attend his Golden celebration of continuous diary writing (1961-2010) at
Guwahati press club.This Thursday evening me and my husband visited his place .Here is a personal account of the things we talked about.
Here in the above picture you see the man himself.Below is the picture of his diaries 50 in number all labelled year wise.
When he first jotted down his thoughts in a personal diary as a schoolboy,he had no idea that his new hobby would become an abiding passion.'My diary is entirely personal,i do not claim it to be a detailed record of contemporary events,but definitely is a non stop journey of half a century i.e.1961-2010'.He is
legitimately seeking a place in the
Limca book of records and if his feat is recognised,
Borah' will edge out present record holder
Chandulall Chowdhury of
Mumbai who wrote diaries from 1965 only.Mr.
Borah's personal notes run into 17,900 pages and more till this date.We had the pleasure of peeping through all of his diaries with his due permission as he believes that now his diaries don't belong to him alone.For my blogger friends i clicked this picture where the very first and the latest page of his diary are shown together.
He was born in the year 1943 at
Biswanath Gymnkhana European Club near
Pabhoi tea estate in Assam,India.In 1964 after his graduation he started his career as a high school teacher and later on joined All India Radio
Dibrugarh as Programme Announcer since its inception in1969,after 35 yrs of service retired in 2003.He has produced a number of Radio plays and dramatized multi serial episode serial novels .His very popular radio programme '
DAK PAKHILI' is still remembered by the listeners where he used to reply listener's letters.
Though he developed the habit of writing in 1954 when he just got admitted in high school,he had no records of initial years ,because most of the jottings were on loose papers.He started maintaining hard bound diaries since 1961 in
Darrang college where in influenced by Principal
Bipinpal Das and Dr.
Amalendu Guha ."I was not directly influenced by anybody but indirectly inspired by my high school teachers like
BirenKakoty,
KeshabMahanta and many more."
Running my fingers through the pages of his diaries was amazing ....he read out to us many interesting incidents from his diary...his wedding day,the cost of the gold at that time of the year(1978...gold was rs 880/10 gm),annual expenditure of the year 1963 was Rs 308,he bought cloth for his trouser at rs 3/ ,Petrol per Lt cost RS 1.60 in the year 1973.Apart from keeping record of national,international and local important current events he kept record of the climatic conditions too.Events of Burning Assam Agitation are all portrayed very vividly in his diaries.
His day always starts at 5 am and he always carries a piece of white paper and a pen so that he can note down important things and at the bed time he finally records them in his diary.He maintains an Index Volume of diaries for easy reference -like he showed us the day when he for the very first time visited our dental clinic.
Borah's record has been entered in
Asomiya Book Of Records edited by
Santanu Kausik Baruah 1st edition2006(see the page in the picture above).
Here is a picture of the letter written by the people of Gupta Diary of
Kolkatta...he has been writing on the diaries sold by this company since the very beginning.He has submitted adequate documentations to the
Limca book of records and is awaiting their response.World record of writing diaries is held by Col.Ernst
Loftus of Zimbabwe,who wrote diaries for 91 yrs and died at the age of 103
yrs in 1987.Asked him if he has a similar target,Mr.
Borah quipped....."it is simply impossible,i am already 67,let me see how long i can continue,i will go on writing till the last day of my life.He is trying to contact Guinness Book(International British Ed)to ascertain whether his feat of 50 yrs of continuous diary writing has any parallel in this particular discipline.
His wife Mrs Bella is a very sweet and soft spoken lady,they have two kids ,one medico son
Abhinandan and a daughter
Monmayuri ,both of them presently residing at Delhi.He tells me that inspired by him his daughter too has been maintaining a diary for the 10 yrs while one of his sister wrote diaries for almost 20 yrs .I asked Mrs Bella if she too maintains a diary to which she replied that each year since they are married he has been gifting her a diary but most of them are blank....we all broke into a laughter hearing that.We were treated grandly by many snacks , savouries and tea and later he showed us his large collection of music
cds and movies
dvds,a large number of different styled set of playing cards,his badminton racket .Over all it was an evening that would be etched in our memories for ever.I came back highly inspired and motivated ...i hope to be more regular in updating my blog .
Shillong is the capital of Meghalaya state of India .It was a part of undivided Assam , on 21 Jan 1972 it achieved its statehood.This beautiful state is the homeland of three of India's ancient hill tribes/communities Khasis,Garos and Jaintias.The state is called Meghalaya which means Abode Of Clouds as the hilltops are generally covered by dense and beautiful clouds making them almost indistinguishable and inseparable.It is a landlocked territory of lovely hills.Agriculture is the main source of livelihood here.The state has rich source of deposits of coal,limestone,sillimanite,fire clay,dolomite,feldspar,quartz.Its thick forest produce timber species like Sal,Teak,Titachapa,Gamari,Pine ,Birch etc.It is also rich in wildlife ,there are also some rare species of birds like the adjutant stork which can be seen here.It is also rich in orchids.The famous insect eating pitcher plant which is a botanical wonder is found abundantly in the hills of Meghalaya.Here in this picture above you see young girls and boys wearing traditional Khasi attire.....i clicked this picture back stage right after their dance performance during Rongali bihu cultural event at Shillong.
Bejeweled women attired in traditional finery , silver clad men in colorful costumes dance along with the drummers and flutists. Male wear Jymphong which is a long sleeveless coat without collar, fastened by threads in front and a dhoti with an ornamental silver waist-band. The attire is complimented by a turban or a headgear. Ladies wear Jainsem a two piece unstitched wrap around garment woven from the mulberry silk cultivated in the local region and they too wear a beautiful silver crown on their head.
Here is another group of young ladies wearing traditional Khasi dress Jainsem. ...they were about to present a Christian devotional chorus in the same event . Meghalaya is one of the three states of India to have a Christian majority with approx.70%of the population following Christianity.The Khasis are believed to be the remnants of the first Mongoloids overflow into India.They have matrelineal society where the descent is traced through the mother .It is only the youngest daughter or Ka Khadduh who is eligible to inherit the ancestral property.If she dies without any daughter surviving her the property is inherited by the next surviving elder sister.Ka Khadduh needs to obtain an approval or consent from her uncle and brothers in case she wants to dispose the ancestral property.
As Shillong is known for its scenic beauty and cool climate ,it is considered one of the most favorite tourist destination of NE region of India.We were there on a short trip but still we managed to take the kids to Ward's Lake which is situated right at the heart of the town and is very near to our home there.
Feeding the fishes and pedal boating are the main attraction .....we did little bit of both.We were lucky to get a sunny weather through out our stay .
This is Lady Hydary Park ....not only it is beautiful but also it has a mini Zoo attached to it.
