The closing ceremony of the workshop on Ol’Chiki Script (Santhali) commenced at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Ranchi Regional Centre’s office, here on Wednesday. Two sessions of the workshop were conducted on the concluding day attended by more than 60 participants.
In both the sessions of the last day, an overall revision and practice of Ol’Chiki script was conducted including alphabets, vowels, consonants, symbols, formation of sentences, basic grammar, pronunciation, etc. The speaker of the first session was Bhogla Soren, an Ol’ Chiki expert and the Chairperson was Prof. G. R. Ganjhu, Department of TRl, Ranchi University. In the second session, Ganesh Murmu, an eminent scholar Santhali language was present as the speaker and the session was chaired by Dr. H.P. Sinha, Former Dy. Director, Department of Art and Culture, Government of Jharkhand.
After the completion of both the sessions of the day, the Valedictory session was organized. Shri Chandra Mohan Murmu, Former DG, NABARD, who is also an expert of Ol’Chiki script graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Prof. V.N. Jha ‘Vidit’ was present as the Guest of Honour. Other eminent guests including Padma Shri recepient Mukund Nayak, Dr HP Sinha, Ganesh Murmu, Bogla Soren, Prof. G.R. Ganjhu also graced the occasion.
Dr. Bachchan Kumar, Regional Director, IGNCA, RRC welcomed all the guests, speakers, the chairpersons and the participants of the workshop to the closing ceremony of such an eventful endeavor. He presented a brief report about the seven days’ workshop, the teachings, the participation and also the outcome.
He portrayed the picture of the essentiality of dissemination and popularization of this script. He discussed its importance mentioning it to be mandatory for the Santhalis to learn and teach further.
The Guest of Honour, Prof. V.N. Jha ‘Bidit’ said that this workshop shall be the ignition of the spread of this script. The participants who gained knowledge about this script should take the responsibility to teach Ol’ Chiki to five more people. This way, this script would be further popularized. Only then will the aim of this workshop be fulfilled.
Few Santali and non-Santali students who participated in the workshop expressed their heartiest gratitude to IGNCA, RRC for conducting this workshop. They said that they were extremely benefited by this intensive educative workshop.
Chandra Mohan Murmu, chief guest, congratulated IGNCA, RRC for organizing the workshop successfully where more than 60 students were benefited. He also spoke briefly about Ol’ Chiki script’s history, its origin and its importance. He said that it was of great pride for him to see such enthusiastic students showing interest in learning this script.
After the speech of the Chief Guest, the participants were awarded with certificates. After its completion, Anjani Kumar Sinha, Coordinator (Accts and Adm) delivered the vote of thanks.
