An ambitious project to digitize as many as 29 Assamese magazines has been taken up by The Nanda Talukdar Foundation along with independent journalist Mrinal Talukdar, Naba Goswami, a US based surgeon and other prominent literary.
The work on digitizing the magazines began back in June, this year and the digital versions are expected to be available by the end of October.
The first Assamese magazine from the golden era, Orunodoi, which was published in 1846 from Sivasagar will also be available in a digital format. The project was started with the aim to give a digital boost to Assamese magazines.
The 29 magazines that will be available in digital versions are Orunodoi (1848), Jonaki (1902, 1903, 1904), Asom Hitoishi (1925, 1926), Bijulee (1892,1902), Bahi (1913, 1915, 1917,1923, 1925, 1928,,1929,1930, 1936), Jayanti (1938, 1940, 1941, 1945, 1952), Pachowa (1948), Janambhumi (1922) Nabajug (1965 1966), Deepak (1969), Urulee (1959), Awahon 1930 1931 1934 1938 1939 1954 1955 1955 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1966, 1967, 1971, 1973), Panchayjanya (1970), palasi (1971), Chetana (1925), Amar Alochoini (1973), Junbiri (1980), Saptsikha (1980), Patrika (1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1979), Moina (1945), Alochoni (1938), Milon (1925), Moina (1945), Alochoni (1938), Milon (1925), Monideep (1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969), Ramedhenu (1950, 1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961 1962 ,1963, 1964, 1979), Hundor (1968), Pratidhowni (1968), Chitrapot (1971), Jagriti (1970), and Uttarkal (1970).
Moreover, Jonbai (1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965), Ronghhor (1948, 1949), Jonbiri (1969), Chetana (1919, 1923, 1927), Prakash (3rd Vol 4th Vol 5th Vol) Usha (1906, 1907, 1908, 1909), Assam Bandhab (1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919), and Parijat (1949) are in line and will be available to readers soon.
Mrinal Talukdar was quoted by IndiaTodayNE as saying, “For how long people will go to libraries to read magazines, and how far one can keep the books? Since 1846, Assam has been publishing various books, journals, and magazines. After the advent of technology, we house a large number of 19th century and the first half of the last century in the Nanda Talukdar Foundation (NTF). We have been pioneering digitalization for future generations by scanning these copies and keeping them on our server.”
Talukdar called it an ambitious ‘community project’ saying that the Nanda Talukdar Foundation has received technical support from Amtron. The goal behind the digitization is to preserve the historical magazines, as well as make them available for everyone on the internet, he added.
The senior journalist further said, “However, with the collaboration of Amtron, access to the much-needed server has been established as it is extremely costly for any private organization to maintain a dedicated server for a huge repository. During the same time, noted US-based Surgeon Dr Naba Goswami came forward and supported the digitalization process.”
Meanwhile, many universities have also joined the project and are working to preserve Assamese literature, said Talukdar. He informed that Professor Shruti Goswami from a private university, along with a few students have joined hands and are currently working on the ‘Jonaki’ magazine.
He said that the universities had so many books, however no one is taking the initiative as they are not aware of it. In an age when anything is available on the internet with a simple search, Assamese books and magazines are still not on it.
“If the British can find out their history of the 17th century, why can’t we? Instead of giving lectures to preserve our literature, we should work for it. My father started this and I’m still carrying on with this work for the past 30 years,” he said.
It may be noted that the Nanda Talukdar Foundation runs on interest generated from the corpus fund which comes from the proceeds of the books written by Mrinal Talukdar and the occasional consultancy works taken up by him.
