Guns in hand, poetry in mind

Men in khaki pursue their hobbies

But some policemen in Assam, do not fit into this image. They  pursue their hobbies even as they perform their duties.

All of them have largely been treading their individual creative paths, but here comes a rare collaboration between a senior police official and a subordinate officer that has resulted in a music album. Titled "Jui Jole" (A Fire that Burns), the album has six of the ten songs penned by Prasanta Sagar Changmai, the Superintendent of Police of Assam's eastern-most Lakhimpur district, known for a relatively strong presence of ULFA. The singer is Deepak Saikia, the Officer-in-Charge of Boginadi  station in the district.
 Changmai has been writing poetry since he was in school in Dhubri town in Lower Assam, and compilations of his poems have also been published, some of his poems even been recited in an album. But this is the first time that someone has decided to treat his poetry as songs, and that too by another police official. Changmai says it happened quite accidentally. "I had released the album 'Andolito Konthor Uchcharito Sobdo' recited by Anupjyouti Choudhury at Padumani Than in Boginadi village.  It was then that Deepak, who is the OC of Boginadi police station, insisted that I write poems for him," he says.
 The next thing they found doing, as they were sitting around a bonfire, was that Changmai was reciting the poem "Jui Jole" and Saikia was jotting it down. Then happened "Kuwoli" (Mist), and then "Emuthi Akash" (A fistful of sky) and so on. Saikia himself got inspired enough by his boss to pen down a couple himself while another assistant inspector of police pitched in with a song on the beauty of Sirajuli in Arunachal Pradesh. A song written and composed by local citizen Majin Sonowal completed the package.

 Now, even as the album soon hits music stores in Assam, Changmai says it is not because of what is usually perceived - the contrast between his "hard" job and the "soft" world of poetry - but because of his love to create images through poems that he pens those rhythmic lines.