Jiban Narah

Jiban Narah is an Indian poet , novelist and teacher writing in the Assamese language . As a social activist he has been consistently voicing his concern over the safeguarding of mother-tongue as the medium of instruction. He was born in 1970 at Morongial, a village by the Gelabil river of Golaghat district with the Dhansiri, Brahmaputra and Disoi rivers to its western, northern and eastern sides respectively.
Jiban Narah is one of the prominent poets belonging to the succeeding generation of poets after Nilmani Phookan , Harekrishna Deka and Hiren Bhattacharya . His poetic eminence has , meanwhile, spread beyond the frontiers of Assam states Pre-eminent critic, scholar thinker Dr. Hiren Gohain According to Poet-critic K. SATCHIDANANDAN, Narah is easily one of the finest Indian poets writing in Asomiya Pratidin. He has participated in a number of national and international poetry festivals. His poems have been translated into a number of Indian and foreign languages (Polish and Italian). His poems have been published and reviewed in The Hindu, The Book Review of India, The Telegraph, The Indian Express, The Indian Literature, poetryinternational.org, The Oxford Anthology, The Penguin Anthology, Bloomsbury, Frontline, Matribhumi etc. 
At present he works as an Associate Professor at Anandaram Dhekial Phookan College , Nagaon , Assam .
The distinctive appeal of JIBAN NARAH'S poetry has been able to impress both the common readers as well as the harshest of critics alike. His poems appear to be simple and lucid where, within the deep structures of the soft and restrained array of words, and in the action and reaction of force and counterforce of a multitude of voices, sparkle codes of multi-layered links of meanings. With his characteristic artistry, he unravels before the readers the perceptible forms of worldly phenomena most accurately. Simultaneously, his poetic entity unties the links of earthly decrees and transports the readers to a new level of consciousness by blending the experiences of form-colour-flavour-odour-taste-sensation with new meanings where humanity in its liberal and profound solemnity finds manifestation. With the ideas of variegated rural life and folk consciousness, tribal folk sensibility and its expression, urban life and the quests, consciousness of heritage and the self, primeval characteristics and their modern connections, essence of the multi-layered life-cycle, severing of the expanse of time and the quest of the unsplit sensibility through it, and other such comprehensive issues, Jiban Narah is one of the few poets through whose contributions Assamese language|Assamese poetry has made a marked change in its course in the ninth decade of the twentieth century. 
The Father of modern Assamese literature , Lakshminath Bezbaroa's immortal creation, O Mor Apunar Desh " (O' my endearing motherland) was composed in 1912. The song went on to be recognized as the anthem of Assam and got ensconced in the hearts of all sections of people in Assam and the north-east. During the sesquicentennial ceremony of Bezbaroa, a significant enterprise was undertaken from 2012 to have the anthem translated into about 41 languages/dialects and, through its performances in different parts of the state and outside it, pay homage to the venerable personality and spread the message of integration. The prime objective of translation and presentation of the Assamese anthem was to arouse a general consciousness among the people with the underlying motto -- "SAVE MOTHER-LANGUAGE, SAVE CULTURE, SAVE UNITY, SAVE IDENTITY " 
At a time when people are growing more inclined to embrace English-medium schools for their children instead of vernacular-medium schools on the pretext of future establishment and the changes brought about by globalisation, the invocation made to the people through the anthem was to have their children get educated in vernacular-medium schools and thereby contribute their bit in keeping alive their language, medium and culture. 
Endeavours on this wake-up call are still continuing across the length and breadth of the state over the dire necessity of establishment of vernacular-medium schools and the schooling of the new generations in the vernacular medium of instruction. After all, without one's own language and culture, his/her very identity remains at stake !
== Poems included in leading books/magazines of the country : ==
* Keralakavita (1999).
* Anthology of Contemporary Poetes of Northeast, (NEHU, Shillong 2003);
* Dancing Earth, An Anthology of poetry From North East India (Penguin India, 2009).
* International Review of Black and White Photography and text, (USA Canda, 2009), 
* www.poetryinternational.com (2009).
* An Anthology of writings From north East India poetry and Essays (Oxford, 2011),
* In Indian Literature 1957-2007 (Sahitya Akademi Delhi, 2012).
* 100 More Great Indians Poems (Bloomsbur Great Indians Love poems (Bloomsbury, 2020)
* The Matribhumi ,special edition, 20021.
* The first post
* The sentinel
== Poetry collections: ==
* Dhou khela loralir saan (Billowing shadows of boyhood) -- 1997 (3 editions)
* Tumi poka dhanor dote gondhaisa (You smell like ripened paddy) -- 1999 (3 editions)
* Tari-Ri -- 2000
* Momaideor Phulanihttps://www.scientiabooks.in/product/momaideur-phulani-jiban-narah/ (Maternal uncle's garden) -- 2008, 2021
* Halodhiya Upama (Yellow resemblance) -- 2010 to 2015
== Jiban Narah's translations of Mising folk poetry collections to Assamese : ==
* O' mor dhuniya kopou phul (O' my beautiful foxtail orchid) -- 1994
* Xuna mor phulkoli (Listen, my flower-bud) -- 2004
== Translations of Jiban Narah's poetry to other languages : ==
1) Jiban Narah Asomiya poems (Selected Assamese poems of Jiban Narah) : translated to Bangla -- Akshya, Tripura-Kolkata, 2002
2) Jiban Narahsi Asami kabita: translated to Marathi -- Sabdalay, Maharastra, 2005
3) Suwansiri aar Jon-Beli (Suwansiri and the moon-the sun) : translated to Bangla -- Monfakira, Kolkata 2008
4) Listen, my flower-bud : Mising tribal oral poetry -- Sahitya Akademi, 2008
5) The Buddha and other poems -- Monsoon Edition, Kerala, 2009
6) The Orange Hill
== Prose collections : ==
1) Xuwaranir Saan (Shadows of reminiscences) -- 1999
2) Bhumir Phul
== Novels collections : ==
1) Oikoli (Hey bud) -- 2000
2) Suwa Pitambar shyam boronor megh ure (Look Pitambar, dark-hued clouds fly) -- 2011
== Essays collections : ==
1) Mahim Borar Rachana Xamagra (Collected works of Mahim Borah) -- 2008
2) Bezbaroar xadhur alamat ankita sobi aru akanir xadhu (Paintings and children stories based on Bezbaroa's tales) -- 2013
3) O' mor aponar dex : Lakshminath Bezbaroa (O' my endearing motherland : Lakshminath Bezbaroa) -- 2013
4) Bezbaroar jatiya xangeet sarcha aru xamanayar path (Studies on Bezbaroa's state anthem and the path of integration) -- 2015
5) Sarita romantic prabanddha (Four romantic essays) -- 2017
== Awards ==
1) Sabda Bota -- 2011
2) Soubhratra Sanman (Prof. Nagen Saikia Sarswat Nyas) -- 2014
3) Asom Sahitya Sabha Satabarsha Sanman -- 2017 (not accepted)
4) Santosh Kumar Karmakar Rajyik Bota -- 2021
5) Mahendranath Hazarika Suwarani Sahitya Bota -- 2021
== Achievement of doctorate degrees through research of Jiban Narah's poetry with others : ==
1) Dr Sudakshina Gogoi, Dept. of Assamese, Dibrugarh University was conferred the Ph.D degree for her thesis -- 'The study of structure and background of modernist poetry after the eighth decade of 20th century'. Her research included the poems of Jnan Pujari, Sameer Tanti, Anubhav Tulasi, Nilim Kumar and Jiban Narah.
2) Dr Momin Nazina, guided in her research work by Dr Esther Syiem, Dept. of English, NEHU, Shillong was conferred the Ph.D degree for her thesis -- 'Voice from the periphery : a study of select poets from north-east India' with Jiban Narah ad one of the poets.
Category:Indian people
Category:Indian poets
Category:1970 births