By Nava J Thakuria
Assam’s well known journalist Rupam Barua has been selected for the Prestigeous Devarshi Narad Jayanti award this year, which will be conferred on the nationalist media columnist on Saturday. Barua, who also edits popular Assamese children magazine Sofura, was recently selected for the coveted award, informs Kishor Shivam of Visva Sambad Kendra Assam.
As part of the annual Maharshi Narad Jayanti celebration, three senior city-based journalists namely Jitendra Choudhury of Dainik Asom, Saumya Bharadwaj of Amar Asom and Sewali Kalita of Doordarshan Kendra Guwahati will also be felicitated in the function to be held at Sudarshanalaya in Barbori area. Narendra Kumar, Sah Prachar Pramukh of RSS, will grace the function as the appointed speaker.
Devarshi Narad was a great scholar, musician and a devoted follower of Vishnu. Revered as the son of Brahma and a disciple of Jupiter, Narad travelled across the three realms of existence and earned the reputation of a selfless messenger and communicator of public welfare. The 84 Bhakti Sutras composed by Narad inspired many modern scholars including Swami Vivekananda to write commentaries on them.
Narada used to bring news only and thus his main task was the circulation of news indicating his activities as a full-time journalist. In today’s context, his discourse can be considered as objective journalism, where he emerged as the most efficient public communicator for social welfare. With a Veena on hands, Narada inspired dialogues among various entities for a successful resolution, which the present-day media ought to do.
