Arun Sarma

Arun Sarma was born in Dibrugarh where his father Tilak Chandra Sarma was the editor of The Times of Assam. In 1935, the family migrated to the village of Halemguri near the tea hamlet of Halem, where the elder Sarma, inspired by Gandhian ideals, decided to take up farming and engage himself in social work. The young Arun did his schooling in Tezpur High School and completed his matriculation in 1948. Sarma completed his B.A.(Hons in Education) in 1954 from Cotton College, Guwahati. He began writing drama and poetry during this period.[5]

Sarma started his career in Guwahati in the editorial staff of The Assam Tribune in 1954. In 1955, he moved to his native village in Halem and joined as an Assistant Headmaster in Madhya Chaiduar High School popularly known as MCD High School established in the year 1948 (Now MCD Higher Secondary School) at Barangabari. In 1960, he came back to Guwahati to join All India Radio. From then till 1986, Sarma was associated with the Guwahati Station of All India Radio, working first as a producer and later as a senior producer. He headed the Educational Broadcasting Section, and did pioneering work in using radio as a potent medium for supplementing classroom education. He had a six-month training stint on Radio Programme Production in BBC, London, in 1969.[6] Through the 1970s and 1980s, Sarma was instrumental in shaping the Drama section of the Guwahati Station. During this period he wrote and directed 47 plays and a good number of radio documentaries for the Station as well as for All India Radio's national programme and received three international best awards for his documentaries. He served as Station Director of the Dibrugarh Station of the All India Radio (1986–89) and retired from government service as Director, AIR, North East Service from Shillong in 1990.[7]

Post retirement, he became the founder editor (1990–92) of the weekly Assamese newspaper Purbachal, and served from 1992 to 1997 as the Director of the Tea Centre of the Indian Tea Association. This was a period of strife in Assam and Sarma was called in to design and execute a set of projects to bridge the local tea industry and the Assamese people. In 2005, Sarma designed, scripted and executed a son-et-lumiere (sound-and-light show) describing the history of Assam which is played daily at the Sankardeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati every evening.[5]

In 1959, Sarma married Arati, granddaughter of Assamese Freedom Fighter, Karmaveer Chandranath Sarma. They have two children – Nandinee and Ochintya.[8] He died on 27 March 2017 at the Medanta medical institute.[9]

For literature

• Asam Sahitya Sabha (Drama) Award – 1967
• Asom Natya Sanmilan Award – 2001
• Sahitya Akademi Award – 1998 for the Novel 'Aashirbador Rong' (translated into English titled as 'On a Wing and a Prayer')
• Sangeet Natak Akademi Award – 2003
• Assam Valley Literary Award – 2005
• Padma Shri – 2010
• Sankaracharyya Avatar Award Literature – 2010

For radio broadcasting

• Japan Prize (1980) International for the radio documentary "All Buds to bloom".
• ABU (Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union) Award (1982) for the radio documentary "Caution : Danger Ahead".
• Prix Futura Berlin Commendation certificate (1983) for the radio documentary "All Lips to Smile".
• Akashvani Award (Second best radio play in India) for the play titled "Kukurnechia Manuh".

• Arun Sarma, The Pride of Assam Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
• Padma Awards 2010 Press Information Bureau
• Centre for Development and Peace Studies Archived 20 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• Assam Tribune profile, May 2009
• The Telegraph profile, 5 January 2004
• The Assam Tribune, 26 January 2010