Second Limca Book of Records feat for Assam poet

SILCHAR: The name of Paulose VD, a teacher in the English department in N C College, Badarpur in south Assam has been entered in the Limca Book of Records, 2013. He was honoured for his 1002-line mono-syllabic poem titled "Elegy Written at Elavoor", which was published in his book 'Home Thoughts' in 2012.


This is the second time Paulose has found his name in the prestigious Limca Book of Records. His name was first entered for writing a 600-line mono-syllabic poem titled 'Thoughts on the Site of My Old Home' in 2010.

His latest poem is unique in two ways. First, a 1002-line poem using only mono-syllabic words has been written for the first time in the world. Secondly, the number of words is more than the number of syllables in the poem which again may not be found in any other poem. The poem has 8,110 words, but has only 8,016 (1002x8) syllables.

As far as the content of the poem is concerned, Limca Book of Records, 2013, writes, "In the poem, Paulose bemoans the loss of a beautiful time he had in his village cottage under the cool foliage of trees with his parents, good neighbours, pet animals and birds. The loss of his parents,friends, neighbours and the death of his pet dog are deeply lamented. The pulling down of his old house, the village school and church, all in order to make new ones, are deeply entrenched in his mind too. Dr Paulose was inspired to write the elegy when he visited his old home at Elavoor soon after the death of his father, making him nostalgic and reminiscent of the days gone by".

Paulose's name had been in news when both Oxford and Cambridge University Press accepted his corrections in their dictionaries. The Oxford University has honoured him by permanently entering his name in the 6th edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

Though born and brought up in Kerala, Paulose has spent 40 years in the northeast as an educationist. Some of his other recognitions are two awards from Italy for his poems 'Ode to a Hyacinth' and 'Beggars: White and Black' and translation of his poems into eight international languages and publication of the poems in 14 countries.

~TOI