[Assam] Assam’s French daughter-in-law restores 18th century tome

[Chan Mahanta]

Very nice to know. The last time I stopped by at 
LBS, perhaps three years back, it was a sad 
looking place. Sadder still were the sullen and 
totally disinterested demeanor of the 
sales-folks. I hope Bhaskar and Caroline will 
breathe new life into the dying institution of 
that ancient book store.









At 6:00 AM -0700 3/12/08, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
>Caroline and Bhaskar Dutta Baruah chose to go 
>back to Guwahati from London after Bhaskar's 
>father passed away, just to keep the family 
>business Lawyer's Book Stall going. Bhaskar now 
>has another line of business called "LBS 
>Publications".
>   I commend Caroline for her dedication and effort.
>   Dilip
>
>   
>             The Norman connection
>- Assam’s French daughter-in-law restores 18th 
>century tome     OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 
>Caroline Dutta-Baruah with her book in Guwahati 
>on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projections 
>Guwahati, March 11: In 1752, a snobbish 
>Frenchman who had travelled to this part of the 
>world as a representative of the French East 
>India Company went back home and wrote about his 
>travels in Assam.
>   Two hundred and fifty-six years later, a 
>Normandy-born researcher stumbled upon the 
>worn-out pages of the 18th century travelogue 
>and as chance would have it, she happened to be 
>married to the scion of one of the oldest 
>publishing houses in Assam.
>   Three years of back-breaking research and 
>Caroline Dutta-Baruah is ready with what she 
>describes as her labour of love — Adventures of 
>Jean-Baptiste Chavelier in Eastern India, a 
>loyal translation of Chavelier’s Journel de mon 
>voyage a Assem.
>   So was it just academic interest that drew her 
>to this 250-year-old manuscript?
>   Not really. Caroline’s “interest in Assam” 
>peaked when she became a daughter-in-law of the 
>state in 2000.
>   Being married to Bhaskar Dutta-Baruah, whose 
>family owns the Lawyer’s Book Stall, one of 
>Assam’s oldest publishing houses, provided the 
>necessary encouragement.
>   “I found out about the historical memoirs from 
>the French researcher Jean Delouche with whom I 
>had worked for a brief period. It was such a 
>fascinating piece of work that I had to bring it 
>to the people of Assam,” said the 31-year-old.
>   There have been many references to Chavelier’s 
>travels to Assam in several documents and 
>research works but his manuscript remained 
>hidden under thousands of other papers at the 
>Bibliotheque de l’Institut in Paris till 
>Delouche discovered it in 1985 in a very bad 
>shape.
>   “Delouche restored the manuscript, filled in 
>some missing pages and gave it a proper shape,” 
>Caroline said.
>   The Adventures of Jean-Baptiste Chavelier 
>includes the part that is most relevant to the 
>state, Journel de mon voyage a Assem (Journal of 
>my travels in Assam).
>   Caroline, of course, took Delouche’s help for 
>translation, which was a “very tedious job” 
>since Chavelier’s language was Old French and 
>many words have been either lost or changed over 
>the years.
>   The 214-page was launched at the World Book 
>Fair in Delhi recently but will be available in 
>Assam only next week.
>   Delouche, who has written the introduction for 
>the book, describes Chavelier as “kind of 
>Asterix in Assam, brave, bold, but impatient, 
>besides being full of his Gallic superiority and 
>incapable of appreciating any other type of 
>culture. He simply missed the magic potion of 
>the cartoon hero to make a feat of this journey”.
>   However, the simple flaws apart, Chavelier’s 
>observations could become major source material 
>for researchers and even “pleasurable reading 
>for the common people,” Caroline said.
>   Having met her husband at Leeds in England, 
>when both were studying there, Caroline is also 
>working on popularising Assam silk in the West.
>
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