In 1950, I was just eight years old when Assam experienced a devastating earthquake. The catastrophe scarred me so deeply that, many years later, it compelled me to write a poem on the subject. Titled Hai! Hai! Mahaproloy, it was my way of overcoming the trauma.

When I was in college, my stories were regularly published in newspapers and magazines in Assam. It was exhilarating and inspiring to see my name in print. I am pleased to say that my passion for writing got me the Asam Sahitya Sabha award in 2013, which was followed by a literary pension. At present, I have 28 books in Assamese to my credit.

I tend to write about women characters, whether the agony of women in a patriarchal society in my novel, Snehamayee, or the anxieties of a little orphan girl in my children’s novel Maram and Monmi.

Writing short stories and novels are second nature to me, so I decided to emerge from my comfort zone and try my hand at satire, poetry, lyrics and plays. You can imagine how thrilled I was when my play Ajoli Aitar Sanghat was broadcast by All India Radio, Dibrugarh in 1988.

I live in Jorhat with my sons and daughters-in law and try to use my time in the most productive way. Apart from writing, I am associated with a few women’s organisations and am a member of the Assam Lekhika Samaroh Samiti, a women’s literary body.

My current creative preoccupation is a short story collection called Jadi Jibone Koi (‘If Life Speaks’) that I am working on while writing my autobiography!

—Dipika Baruah, Guwahati

Photo: Tapati Baruah Kashyap
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
May 2018