Dig Boy Dig - A Novel on Oil Exploration In Assam  (Paperback, Dipangkar Malla Baruah)

Dig Boy Dig is a historical eponymous novel about oil exploration, the first commercial success in Asia, and the second in the world. It is a faithful and authentic translation of a best seller Assamese novel by the same name that captures the late 19th-century background of early oil exploration in Digboi, Assam with uncanny accuracy. The story vividly narrates the discovery of oil serendipitously by elephants, the drilling of the first oil well in 1889, and the famous chanting of "dig boy, dig" by an engineer that encouraged the workers which is now a part of the romance—and the map of India as the town of Digboi as a mondegreen. The setting up of the refinery in 1901 was to revolutionize India economically, strategically, and geopolitically. Dig Boy Dig narrates some wonderful fictional love stories spread across continents and epochs with the backdrop of those historical events and scenic banks of the River Brahmaputra, and the verdant tea estates, the source of the world-famous Assam Tea. An intermixing and interplay of history with a few romantic stories of the present is educative as it is entertaining. We have Anupama, a university student from Digboi, Assam meeting Kevin, a researcher of oil and gas exploration of the world in Oxford. Kevin proposes to go to Digboi for his research work along with his girlfriend Clara, who is a student of cinematography and plans to shoot a documentary on oil exploration in Assam. When Anupama meets Nancy, Kevin’s ninety-year-old grandmother, she discovers that Nancy too longs to visit Assam. This heady mix of emotions and human equations across time, clime, and region, and race makes for fascinating reading. Dig Boy Dig is a must-read for all oil professionals and enthusiasts as it provides a glimpse of the hardship of their comrades of yesteryears. The novel will also be enjoyable for people who want to know about the glorious past of the oil and gas industry.