Do you agree that a book can be more engaging than a movie? If you don’t, then let’s talk about Ranju Hazarika and his world of suspense storytelling.
Noreen Borooah
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What can be more engaging than watching a thriller movie? Reading a suspense story or novel by an Assamese writer? Yes, if it’s a Ranju Hazarika novel.
We all like to watch movies specially thriller and suspense movies. But what if you need an alternative ? Pick any Ranju Hazarika novel and you will lost into an imaginary world.
The sheer fun of having a mind-blowing read through a book that gets onto your nerves every few chapters, is incomparable to any other activity you might do. Ranju Hazarika is the legend who made it possible for all generations of Assam to read books for the ultimate thrill of imagination.
Let’s explore the real story of the King of Suspense, Ranju Hazarika, and uncover how he has created a legacy of fictional storytelling for the upcoming generations.
An ardent reader from his early childhood
Ranju Hazarika was born in the Monabari Tea Estate and brought up in the Sonari village of Assam. A lesser-known fact and an even more interesting story is how he changed his pen name from Kumud Chandra Hazarika to Ranju Hazarika, which helped him pave the way to his legacy of exciting novels.
Ranju Hazarika was a curious child; as a young boy, he got the opportunity to borrow books from the library next to his grandparents’ house. He used to enjoy reading so much that he could read two novels overnight.
When urged by the librarian to read books of other genres, Hazarika discovered his disinterest. To check if Ranju really read the books he borrowed, the librarian challenged young Ranju that he could only borrow books from the library if he could summarize the books he borrowed and submit a written summary to him the next day; only then would Ranju be allowed to borrow new books.
In the midst of all of this, Ranju Hazarika learned to shape his thoughts into words and got into writing short stories and poems. At fifteen, after his board examination, Ranju Hazarika tried his hand at writing suspense stories, and thus his first book, “Bahurupi,” got published in the year 1973.
His grit to be an author, to his bestsellers
For Ranju Hazarika, this was a huge step towards what was coming from his vast expanse of imaginations. He experienced a different kind of joy in spending his time reading and writing.
Yet his joy was very briefly cut off when, due to financial instability at home, Mr. Hazarika had to take up a job in the cooperative society during college. He worked his way into multiple jobs, including one as a commandant in the Indian Armed Forces and back at Balipara Tea Estate, where he started writing horror stories.
Even during his exhausting work life, Ranju Hazarika made sure to express his mind by penning down suspense thrillers in a series. His inspiration was always his own mind. And he soon recollected his true passion in his gifted imagination.
Continuing his journey, Ranju Hazarika joins Assamese Magazine Sangket as the editor. In Guwahati during that time, on the advice of his friend and colleague Prafulla Kumar Dutta, Ranju Hazarika met the publisher Narayan Das of Axomi Publication. Das urged Ranju Hazarika to write children’s stories, and he gave him the ever-famous Jason series, followed by the Pawan series, and his audience loved it. Ranju Hazarika believed in the power and impact of books and stories in shaping young minds, just how it shaped his own.
His limitless imagination
After such remarkable hits, Ranju Hazarika became a full-fledged author. He wrote books of many diverse genres, from horror, thrillers, and science fiction to children’s stories, comedy, and romance, and nearly all were incredible best sellers.
But Ranju Hazarika’s best work has been his collection of extraordinary thrillers, from detective and suspense thrillers to psychological and socio-criminal legal thrillers. Ranju Hazarika has more than 150 thriller novels, and he has explored every subgenre of thrillers alike. His books are filled with incredible cliffhangers that get the readers to flip pages after pages until the book is over.
Hence, Ranju Hazarika is also accredited as “Rahasya Samrat” or The King of Suspense. Every book that Ranju Hazarika has written to date, which counts to around 800, is unique and one of a kind. The stories are all elaborately described with such precision that one might think Ranju Hazarika writes one book at a time, but the extraordinary fact is that Hazarika’s mind works multiple ways; he writes more than 2 books at once as the ideas flow; he shapes multiple stories.
Even more surprising is that Ranju Hazarika has a history of seating 4 of his people with him, and he used to dictate to them parts of different stories, and that’s how he could complete so many books. His imagination is incomparable.
A gem to Assamese literature
A gem to Assamese literature
In the vastness of Ranju Hazarika’s imagination, he has created history in bringing such a range of stories into the world in pure and untampered Assamese. His stories were so appealing that there was a demand for translations, and his works were then translated into multiple languages. His books have appealed to old and young alike.
His creations have been an irresistible and irreplaceable part of Assam’s literature. Even after being such a household author among the people of Assam, Ranju Hazarika is a man of few words, extreme humility, and simple living. He lives like any other person you know and believes that as an author he is grateful to be celebrated in the hearts and minds of his audience.
Ranju Hazarika has also written his autobiography, the first part of it was titled Jibanor Phool Aru Kaint (The Flowers and Thorns of Life) and the second part was titled Jibanor Saat Rang (The Seven Colors of Life). The books in themselves are sources of incredible inspiration. He describes some paranormal encounters he faced, crediting his success in horror fiction to such ghostly experiences.
His indispensable humility has won hearts
Ranju Hazarika is a man who has captured the hearts and minds of numerous people, and he continues to do so. He was awarded the title of Rahasya Samrat in 2008, Preronar Bota in the year 2008, the Literary Award in 2011, and the Sahitya Unmesh Award in 2024.
With over 50 years of spending his time crafting extraordinary pieces of literature, Ranju Hazarika is truly an unsung hero of our land. His legacy and directed future for Assam will be ever so beautiful as the youth are joining in to become fellow authors and readers under his mentorship; his students have written books. Inspired by his books, his team has compiled a series of audiobooks called “Ranju Hazarika’s Dustbin of Audiobooks” on YouTube.
Hence, the characters that Ranju Hazarika created will be capturing the hearts of the upcoming generations, and his work is always going to be immortal and never-ending, just like his expanse of imagination.
Hello! I am Noreen Borooah, a psychology student, storyteller, and podcast host. I am from Guwahati, Assam, and currently I am studying at Delhi University. Being a storyteller and an Assamese, I am here to tell you the untold stories of Assam. My email: noreen@diversityassam.com.
