DHAKA TRIBUNE | SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2016

Bangla poetry

A poetic expedition
n Hasnin Hassan

Editor
Zafar Sobhan
Editor
Arts & Letters
Rifat Munim
Contributors
Sabrina Fatma Ahmad
Shuprova Tasneem
Sabiha Akond Rupa
Hasnin Hassan
Design
Asmaul Hoque
Mamun
Cover
Syed Rashad Imam
Tanmoy
Colour Specialist
Shekhar Mondal

oetry often acts as an escapade from the mundanities of reality. It actually paints the face of a reality we try hard not to see. A poet stirs the souls
of millions and pens down even the most short-lived human emotions.
This year, Dhaka Lit Fest was truly a celebration of poetry. In a very short span
of time and in a sea of panels and sessions going around, poetry managed to
capture the limelight. Poets from all over the country and across the border
came together to reflect on their collective strength and resilience. The versatility of Bengali poetry was put forth to be savoured by a global audience.
The programme titled Somoyer Kobita Somoyanter Kobita (poetry of
transition) was the beginning of a poetic excursion comprising both emerging and established voices of Bengali poetry. It was mostly significant for
young poets who have just embarked on the road as they got a rare opportunity to read their poetry out to their predecessors on the beautiful lawn of
the academy. Quazi Rosy, Habibullah Sirajee, Asad Mannan, Shihab Shahriar, Jewel Mazhar, Obayed Akash, Audity Falguni, Zafir Setu, Hasan Mahmud,
Kumar Chakroborty, Pablo Shahi and Mahmud Shawon, among many others,
charmed the audience with their verses. The session was moderated by poet
Mohammad Nurul Huda.
On the second day, poet Nirmalendu Goon appeared before a crowded
lawn. A noted poet from the 1960s, he is widely known as the poet of love and
revolution. At the age of 72, he evinced an astonishingly sharp memory and a
gift of oration. Titled Kobi Jibon: Jiboner Kobita, moderated by poet Shamim Reza, the session unfolded some not-so-known facets of his life. He impressed the audience with his wit and marvelous sense of humour. He shared
quite a few anecdotes from his early life. When he realised he had a penchant
for versifying life, he began to view the world from the lens of a poet. He humorously disclosed how his first few attempts to get his poems published
went unsuccessful, how he was caught red-handed by a then-prominent editor while plagiarising Madhusudan. He concluded his eloquent speech with
the burning issue of violence against the Hindus. His recitation of a poem on
the same topic pierced through the hearts of the audience.
On the third day of the festival, the second part of Somoyer Kobita Somoyanter Kobita-2 took place at the same place. Mohammad Nurul Huda started
the event quoting Wordsworth who defined poetry as spontaneous overflow
of powerful emotions. Then came the renowned poet of the 1970s Muham-

mad Sadique who took the audience on a voyage to rediscover romance with
legendary singer, lyricist Hason Raja and his beloved. Shakira parvin captured
modern-day romance in her poems and the satirical undertone was very powerful in Altaf Shahnewazs portrayal of modern life. Poets from across the
border, Jahar Sen Majumder and Akber Ahmed, delighted the audience with
their soulful recitation. Poets like Shahnaz Parvin , Mostak Ahmed and Asad
Chowdhury were also present with their compositions. They discussed how a
poem stands the test of time to be termed classic that is embraced by people
through ages.
Dhaka Lit Fest definitely was a big event for poetry lovers as well as for
those who are not big fans of this genre. Younger poets met their predecessors
and they, together, cast a spell over the audience. A wonderful poetic expedition came to an end and both the audience and the poets parted ways with the
hope of meeting again next year. l

Sazzad Hossain

Syed Zakir Hossain

Syed Zakir Hossain

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2016

Interview

Bangladesh has to transform

the way the world sees it now
n Rifat Munim

bangla Tribune

he November issue of Arts & Letters carried an interview with Vijay Seshadri, the 2014 Pulitzer winning American poet. So I was determined
not to interview him again while the DLF was going on. After the inaugural, I saw him standing alone on the terrace in front of the Abdul Karim
Sahitya Bisharod auditorium. I thought Id just have a little chat with the poet
whose 3 Sections I really liked and then Id go about my own business. But as
the talk began, (it went on for about half an hour), I was taken in and found
myself pulling out my recorder. What followed turned out to be an American poets very interesting takes on DLF, Urdu poetry and translation of South
Asian literatures.

Do you think this kind of literary festival has any true potential?
These festivals have a lot of potential, especially in Asia because they are
sort of integrating these societies into a world order, and also because they
are building a relationship between the global and the local, between Bangladeshi culture and literature, and world culture and literature. It also helps to
bring about a change in the evolution of literature, so literature does not stay
stagnant and takes on new reality, and that new reality is not in encountering
another world but in synthesising new experience into the already existing
imaginative world. I hope the DLF flourishes because I think Bangladesh is
at a crossroads right now. There are things that are pulling it apart. It seems
to me that Bangladesh is at the intersections of economic globalisation, climate change and Islamic fundamentalism, and all these come to rest here in
a particularly dramatic way. Bangladesh, you know, is kind of unknown to
the world and the world doesnt realise how interesting Bangladesh is. The
Americans associate Bangladesh with poverty, overpopulation, and a cyclone
that killed a million people although it happened more than forty years ago.
Bangladesh has to transform the way the world sees it now, I mean it is a functioning and vibrant country. Considering all these points, I cant overestimate
the importance of a festival like this.

While reading your poetry collection, 3 Sections, I found a few translations

of Urdu poetry. I remember the one by Mirza Ghalib. What exactly drew you
towards Urdu poetry?
You know my experience is very American, but when I came back in New York
in my late 20s -- I got a grant at the University of Colombia -- I decided Id find
out about India. Then I took a Sanskrit course and learned Urdu and Hindi
there and the people in those departments liked me very much and they asked
me to do a PhD. They expected me to study Urdu literature but what I was
really interested in was politics. Then I went to live in Pakistan and studied
Urdu and Persian literature. Soon I found I was not really that interested in
politics anymore and I wanted to go back to New York and be a poet. But in the
process I managed to acquaint myself with a lot of Urdu poetry. I also spent
two years doing course work and learning a lot about the history of Islam in
India. So what happened is Urdu literature and culture became a part of my
knowledge, and I thought why not try translating some Urdu poetry? Then I

Rajib Dhar

DHAKA TRIBUNE

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2016

ARTS & LETTERS

started translating and I found it really fun.

As a poet I dont know if the Urdu tradition is congenial to me. Im a different
kind of poet, basically Im an American poet, but I found the translating experience fascinating just as a linguistic experience, you know, to work out the puzzles and to make Khalid sound like Khalid. Let me tell you this: translations of
Urdu classical poetry are horrible, and thats a real problem with the translation
of all the South Asian languages into English. That is kind of a real impasse to
the appreciation of these literatures into the English speaking world. Just think
of the great Indian Urdu novelist Qurratulain Hyder. When she is translated,
shes translated too badly. People say that she should win the Nobel Prize. Her
novels are about the Muslim culture as also about the history of pre-partitioned
India. She is a very intelligent, interesting and radical kind of writer but shes
unknown in the west because of the poorness of the translations.

Its very interesting to note that Bangla literature has suffered massively
from the same problem.
Yes. So I think Ill go back to translating more of Urdu poetry. You know why?
Because they in the USA dont know that Urdu has such a rich and lofty poetic
tradition and it is so revered in South Asia. But they dont know it at all.

Theres one problem that always comes up when UK and US publishers are
approached for translated works of Bangla literature. In fact, it is common to
Urdu and Hindi literatures too. They somehow make it clear that our fiction
does not go with the European or American taste of modernity or postmodernity or post-coloniality. How do you think this can be addressed?
I think we should approach the university presses rather than the commercial
presses. I think you could try persuading the commercial presses but the chances are very small that a translation of Bangla literature is going to make any impression on the marketplace there, but they can make a long-term impression
on the university presses and the small presses and thus can affect the culture
there. The small presses there have a very strong distribution chain. So you have
to target those places where literary culture is valued, not commercial culture. l

Rajib Dhar

Interview

It is important to ask when and how

the stigma against them is evoked
In conversation with Dr Nayanika Mookherjee
on the Birangona like this is happening constantly. There are a lot more details in
my book, although obviously I couldnt look at everything. The ravaged mother
figure is also very commonly associated with the image of the Birangona.

Do you think the mother figure in the nationalistic discourse is problematic?

Rajib Dhar

n Shuprova Tasneem & Rifat Munim

Do you think the Birangonas are associated more with a sense of shame
rather than their heroism?

ayanika Mookherjee is the writer of The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 which traces
the public memory of rape in 1971, and how that memory of wartime
rape has been invoked and changed in the years after independence. On November 17, two Dhaka Tribune journalists sat down with Mookherjee, whose
panel on Birangonas caused a stir at the Dhaka Literary Festival 2016, and
delved into her understanding of our war history. During the talk, she highlighted the wounds of the war healed for the Birangonas long ago, but the
societal violence they face every day in the form of stigma is what they find
impossible to recover from.

As I argued in my book, on one level the heroic imagery of the Birangona is

there, but there is also an ambiguity about her sexuality having been transgressed. But I think rather than just focusing on what happened to them then,
its important to look at what has actually happened in the womens lives after.
For example, one of the women I worked with had a brother who went off
to war, leaving his young wife in his elder sisters care. When the Pakistani
army came, the elder sister put herself forward to protect her sister-in-law.
Her parents were crying knowing precisely what their daughter was risking
and every night, the jeep came and took her away. After the war she moved to
Dhaka and one day on a bus, she heard people laughing as they went past the
Birangona office. But despite the scorn, she said it made her feel a quiet sense
of recognition, even if people didnt understand what she had been through.
Another woman I know was married to her childhood sweetheart during
the war, and got pregnant. When the army came, she had to watch her husband get killed and then they found her, but her narrative cuts off there, and
jumps to after the war. She said, Because of what happened to me, I had to
marry my cousin whom I never respected, and I am not allowed to even have
a picture of my first husband in the house.
So for her, the real loss is that she cant evoke the memory of her first husband whom she loved so much, more than the shame or heroism so these
terms are actually loaded and mean nothing.

How did you get drawn into researching the Birangonas?

In 1992, when I was an undergrad at Presidency College, one of the first formative political events of that time was the attack on Babri Masjid. I remember the
curfews and the rumours of inter-community sexual violence, and that brought
forth the question to me why are men killed and women raped? It initially
came from my feminist sensibilities. It was also a time when violent conflicts
were going on in Bosnia and Rwanda, and finally, at the time the government of
Bangladesh named the raped victims of the 1971 war Birangona. As Ive argued
many times before, this is an unprecedented step taken by Bangladesh that has
not been taken anywhere else in any other instance of wartime sexual violence.

Shuprova
Tasneem is feature
writer, Dhaka
Tribune.
Rifat Munim is
editor, Arts &
Letters, Dhaka
Tribune.

On one level scholars say that using the mother figure as a mobilising troupe
is putting lots of women in these boxes of respectability and ties them down
into these perfect motherly structures. So questions should arise if we can
have a sex worker as a figure of the nation, or even a single woman who isnt
a mother? At the same time, the mother figure has been very mobilising - the
very song Shonar Bangla is extremely moving and it powerfully evokes people to think of their nation in different ways. I can only imagine how much
power that song would have on you when your country was being ravaged by
war, and we cant deny that.

Your critique of the visual narratives, in terms of stereotyping the

Birangonas, is very original. How would you view their representation in the
literature written after the Liberation War?
In my book, I did a review of Bangladeshi war literature and I talked about literary and visual representations of the Birangonas. The literature of the 1970s
had various instances where the Birangonas are referred to but in very black
and white terms and there is a reemergence of this in the 1990s as well. But in
the 1980s, you see the imagery of the Birangona with a much more critical and
interrogative voice. After 2000, there is a shift in the literature and there are
a lot of different kinds of material coming from Bangladeshi writers as well as
filmmakers, such as the film A Certain Liberation by Yasmine Kabir.

Would you tell us something more about the literary stereotypes?

Its coming up throughout in various kinds of literary accounts in various ways.
For example, in Rudro Mohammad Shahidullahs poem, Batashe Lasher Gondho, he refers to the flag as being a bloodied sari the superimposing of the nation

How do you think we could address the problem of stereotyping the Birangonas
that underlies the societal expectation that they should always feel shame?
For me the wider question that all this leads to is -- how can we talk about
women who were raped without the wound? My research is about getting
away from the idea that this woman has become abnormal after the war because of what happened to her. Many of these womens lives are carrying on.
What happened next depended on the power structures that they were based
in if this woman was already poor, people would try and belittle them even
more by reminding her of the incident.
I remember a story where the husband of a Birangona went to the bazaar
and was bargaining for vegetables and someone said, Bagaan ujar hoye gelo,
shobjir dor kore ki hobe? (your gardens been raided, why bargain for vegetables prices?), and he stopped, and that night they only ate rice and salt.
The everydayness of the violence enforces and perpetuates existing hierarchies and inequalities on people, and it is important for us to ask when, why
and how the stigma against them is being evoked. l

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Workshop & book review

3 lessons from Richard Beard

Write, edit and produce your best work
Director of the National Academy of Writing, in London. Between his two panels and editing workshop at the DLF, to the interview he was kind enough to
grant us, the man has given us plenty of food for thought for anyone attempting to write. Here are three quotes that make great lessons.

On inspiration
When you start off as a novelist you write about your own life, so you have
maybe 2-3 books in you where you can write about whats happened to you,
and then there comes a point where you run out of stuff. Then either you can
stop being a novelist, or you can write about something else, and you find
what interests you in a different subject.

On rewrites

Rajib Dhar

n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

ne of the pleasures of visiting events like the Dhaka Lit Fest is the
chance to meet and discover amazing writers that the average reader
living in Bangladesh would not otherwise probably never even hear
of - given the paucity of bookstores and reading spaces in the city.
This year, the discovery that will probably stick with yours truly has undoubtedly been UK writer/teacher/translator Richard Beard. Author of six
novels, including Lazarus is Dead, Dry Bones and Damascus, Beard is also the

The first time you put something on a page its a process of loss. Youre losing
this idea that youve had in your head, which is often very perfect in your
head. When you put it down on paper and it becomes something which is
mediocre, substandard. Then you rewrite it. Every time you rewrite it, it gets
better and thats where the joy comes.

On what makes a good story

I think a good story is one where you stay in the story. It can be about anything; it can be as long, or as short, but there has to be a part of you which is
entirely engrossed by it. That doesnt mean you have to be immersed in the
story; you might be immersed in the language, you might be immersed in the
technical skills, but it has to completely involve you in what its doing. l

A lesson in un-death
A review of Lazarus is Dead
n Sabrina Fatma Ahmad

op culture is currently celebrating the Age of the Undeath. Vampires, zombies,

and hauntings continue to enjoy staggering levels of popularity across the
media. Dead characters in tv shows and movies are constantly brought back to
life via magic, time travel, or Divine intervention with a nose-thumbing to plausibility.
Dead shows are being rebooted and re-imagined, their stories put on life extension via
spinoffs.
You cant talk about resurrection without ultimately cycling back to the original
Comeback King, aka Lazarus of Nazareth. Of all the miracles performed by Jesus Christ
prior to his crucifixion, none capture the imagination as completely as the feat of raising
the dead. While Lazarus wasnt Christs first resurrection attempt, he was definitely the
most spectacular - at least until the Ascension.
Interestingly enough, while Lazarus continues to inspire from beyond the grave,
everything from classical paintings to contemporary pop songs, details about his life,
death, and resurrection are relatively spotty. Only one of the four gospel writers mention him, and even then the account is viewed with skepticism.
British author Richard Beard explores exactly that in his novel Lazarus is Dead.
Drawing from many sources and inspirations past and present, Beard zooms in on and
amplifies the friendship that reportedly existed between Lazarus and Jesus. While the
Messiah has several well-documented disciples, Lazarus is the only person named as
his friend.
Beard traces the relationship back to the childhood days in Nazareth, when the two
boys were inseparable. He reimagines Lazarus as the bolder one, taking risks where
Jesus cautious, the follower. Upon reaching adulthood, however, their paths diverge.

Jesus becomes a spiritual shepherd, guiding his growing

legions of followers into the light, while Lazarus turns to
business as a sheep trader, underpaying the shepherds
and overcharging the priests.
Then, as the son of Mary and Joseph begins to
perform his miracles, his childhood friend, the once hale
and hearty Lazarus mysteriously falls ill, and continues a
dramatic decline unto death. The author creates a tense,
graphic, suspenseful countdown to the demise, merging it
with a character study in a way that creates a fairly unlikeable character, and then makes him pitiful in his suffering.
When death arrives, even despite the spoilers posted
from the get-go, it feels like a shock.
The narrative tone balances the gravitas of the material with moments of dark humour, so that youre surprised
into smiling at certain parts, and it makes the gut-punch of
the death that much darker. This is the story of friendship,
betrayal, and reconciliation. It is a story of faith being
tested to the breaking point, and then restored. It deals with lofty themes such as
Gods experiment with humanity, the silence of the infinite, and the place and purpose
of mere mortals, but does so with a deft hand, teasing out the story, making it matter
whether or not you subscribe to the faith.
If youre looking for a read thats slightly challenging (Beards prose isnt for the faint
of heart), but ultimately very rewarding, this book is definitely worth a try. Lazarus is
Dead can be found at The Bookworm. l

Sabrina Fatma
Ahmad is features
editor, Dhaka
Tribune

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ARTS & LETTERS

Essay

Naipaul under the spotlight

n Rifat Munim

ome of our writers have taken issues with the way Naipaul was not engaged in a conversation about his controversial stance on Indian Muslims, when he and Lady Nadira Naipaul were speaking to poet Ahsan
Akbar about his life and works on the second day of the festival. Some have
even gone one notch higher, asking what is so great about him at all?
They have pointed out Naipauls virulence against Indian Muslims, his ideological positions that hes nurtured and upheld in his nonfiction books, especially in The Wounded Civilisation. Those ideologies correspond directly to the
Hindutva movement, especially to the extremist section of Hindu ideologues
who believe the demolition of the Babri mosque was a righteous act and the
role of the Muslims in India was as invaders and destroyers of Hindu temples
and culture. We are fully aware of what these ideologies have led to.
One had expected hed stop there, but he didnt. While on a tour in India
in 2004, he attended a reception accorded to him by the BJP, then in power.
He went as far as endorsing, though indirectly, the attacks in Ayodhya, Uttar
Pradesh. Writing about this reception, a surprised William Dalrymple said,
It might seem unlikely that a Nobel Laureate would put himself in a
position of apparently endorsing an
act that spawned mass murder -- or
commend a party that has often been
seen as virulently anti-intellectual.
Its still a conundrum to me that
a writer with such unsurpassable
accomplishments in the sphere of
fiction can be so prejudiced against
people of another religion. So theres
no doubt he has pathetically failed to
stand the test of political and ideological correctness.
But the important question is if
this failure should mean turning
away from him altogether, dismissing all he has achieved, rejecting all
he has contributed to the world of
English fiction and literature in particular and world literature in general. As a writer and editor working in
the English language, I believe the answer is: no, we should not turn away
from him, much less dismiss his achievements and reject his contributions.
Nor should we stop criticising him for his views on Indian Muslims. We should
rather give the devil his due, the word devil intended both proverbially and
metaphorically as a critical principle: praise him for his achievements and
criticise him logically for his failures, and if possible, engage him in a productive dialogue.
When Humayun Azad brought out a poetry collection, Adhunik Bangla
Kobita, as an editor sometime in the late 1990s, he dropped three poets Al
Mahmud, Fazal Shahbuddin, and if my memory is not betraying me, Abdul
Mannan Syed. All three of them are big names in our poetry, with Mahmud
certainly topping not only this list but any that you might prepare. Shamsur
Rahman is regarded his only competitor in the poetic world, and yet Azad
dropped him as well as the other two. In his introduction, he employed just
one small paragraph, explaining somewhat curtly that he dropped them because of their literary associations with ideologies and people and forces that
opposed the freedom fighters and the creation of Bangladesh. Im not sure
about Syed, but everyone knows for a fact about the swerve that Mahmud
took, both in terms of an ideological shift in poetry and political association.
Much like Naipaul, Mahmud attended several receptions accorded to him by

Jamaat-e-Islami, the party that collaborated with the Pakistan Army and killed
thousands of freedom fighters and Hindus. After all these years, whenever
they get a chance, the Jamaat still act fast to oust the Hindus from this country
and Mahmud endorsed the activities of that party on many occasions. I was
shocked at this and the hurts I received from this news are not fully healed
yet. But what Azad did was a total dismissal of everything that Mahmud has
achieved and by this rejection Azad actually committed a literary crime.
If put in context, may be Naipauls association with Hindu extremist elements had more serious social impact, and though Naipaul and Muhmud politically represent two opposing poles, but structurally they both failed the same
test for which they must be criticised. But their dues must be paid too, for their
achievements, in their respective languages, are too great to be turned down.
As for engaging Naipaul in a dialogue and letting the audience be a part of
that, I believe those who attended the jam-packed session must have seen
he came on stage in a wheelchair that was pushed by another person. Sadder
still is the fact that he was having frequent problems hearing the questions
and when he took them in, after brief pauses, he answered them slowly, very
slowly, and his short witty answers, one perhaps couldnt overlook, did not

Syed Zakir Hossain

fail even once to raise a ripple of laughter in the audience. It was obvious that
in this physical state he was incapable of answering any serious questions.
This description, I believe, will dispel all concerns that the dialogue was deliberately avoided and should help us understand that the dialogue actually was
an impossibility. If anything, he must be thanked umpteen times for showing
the courage to fly in this state of his health all the way to Dhaka where fear of
attacks on foreigners is actually running high.
Now I should move on to the question of his achievements. An objective
analysis would do better but I have decided to take a subjective route.
I studied English literature at a public university. So, reading English fiction
was indispensable for us. Not that everyone read the novels selected in a particular course but when they did, they spoke highly about them, never asking
(due to the hegemonic status attached to English studies) why we should be
so impressed by a work that had nothing in common with our lives or history, a question Im sure any American or British student would ask incessantly
if s/he were to read even one novel by Mahasweta Devi or Akhtaruzzaman
Elias as part of their course work. So unlike most of my peers, I always suffered an identity crisis caused by what I think was a kind of absurdity. The absurdity for me lay in the way our teachers expected us to devote ourselves to
See Page 9

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Book launch

Celebrating Monirul Islams

life and works
n Hasnin Hassan

aunch of Monir: Selected Works, 1961-2016, featuring the artworks of

Monirul Islam, was perhaps the brightest programme of that segment
which celebrated the richness of local art and literature. Islam is one of
Bangladeshs few artists who have gained international acclaim.
Asaduzzaman Noor, minister for cultural affairs, Anwar Hossain Monju,
minister for environment and forest, Marsha Stephen Bloom Bernicut, US
ambassador to Bangladesh, Teyada Chakone, Spanish ambassador to Bangladesh, Mustafa Zaman, editor of Depart and an art critic, and Javed Hossain,
managing director of Energies Limited, were present at the programme. The
book is the first attempt to capture his creations from the beginning of his
career till now.
From his formative years in his home country to his journey into the western hemisphere and finally striking a balance between the two, everything has
been featured in the short span of this book. Energies deserves accolade for
funding the publication of this much-needed book.
The programme started with a documentary on the artists life. Born in
Chandpur, Monirul Islam nurtured a passion for art from his early childhood.
Nature inspired him immensely and he could respond to its vibes. He chanced
upon the local cinema posters and those gaudy paintings were too enticing
for a toddler not to notice. This was his gateway to the magical world art could
offer. To translate his passion in reality, he got admitted in the East Pakistan
College of Arts and Crafts (now Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University) in
1966. Later he was granted a scholarship under an exchange program from the
Spanish government.
He moved to Spain in 1969. Thus he maintained a perfect balance by remaining rooted to the local art scene as well as being exposed to the trends in
European art. This duality in his experience explains his versatility in diverse
media such as print, etching, watercolour, acrylic and oil. While many of his
works are in Bangladesh, a few pieces, especially some print works and etchings, remain in Madrid, Spain where he has been residing for more than three
decades now. He is a noted printmaker in Spain and has influenced a flock of
experimental artists there.
The book is foreworded by Zarin Mahmud Hosein and introduced by Marzia Farhana. A long, analytical article by Mustafa Zaman considers different
aspects of Moniruls art. The individual artworks have been annotated with
lucidity. The book contains some of his previously unknown pieces.
Islam uses conventional as well as unconventional materials in his artwork.
He believes art is limitless so it is not limited to a few mainstream ingredients.
He plays with local pigments, coffee, corrugated boards, wastage papers, register books, pages of torn-out magazines, newspapers, to name just a few. He
believes each and every creation has its own life and artwork surpasses the
artist.
His fondness for geometric abstraction has made him the trailblazer of abstract painting in Bangladesh. Through his creation, he attempts to transcend
sensory perception and connect to something higher. His imageries are filled
with contradictory forces.
In his speech, Asaduzzaman Noor said, Ive known him for a long time. We
often had coffee together. He is a total workaholic. I doubt if he sleeps at all.
Jerin Hossain of Energies said, Art often remains the personal possession
of an artist. It hardly reaches out to the masses. We initiated documenting art
for the sake of common people.
In the art of Monirul, who has won many prestigious awards both in Bangladesh and Spain, the richest traditions of the east and the west are bridged
with a mastery that is unique. This book is a fitting tribute to the life and
works of the artist. l

Sazzad Hossain

Hasnin Hassan
writes for the Arts
& Letters.

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2016

ARTS & LETTERS

Book launch & review

The Book of Dhaka: A remarkable

creative collaboration
n Rifat Munim

Rifat Munim is editor, Arts & Letters,

Dhaka Tribune.

hat better occasion could one have imagined for the launch of The
Book of Dhaka all the stories in which are set in Dhaka, the capital
of Bangladesh, each bringing out a unique aspect of the bustling
city with high-rise buildings and sleek cars on one hand, and slums and the
ubiquitous presence of rickshaws on the other? The perspectives in them differ, to the point of clashing at times, but they complement each other too. This
is a Dhaka seen through the fictional lens of writers who have lived through
the citys ugliness as well as its sheer beauties.
It was November 19th, the closing day of the Dhaka Literary Festival 2016 at
Bangla Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. As anticipated, the crowd was bigger
and thicker around the KK Tea Stage a little before a quarter past four when
the programme was scheduled to begin.
The last panel on the same stage, Words under Seige, saw Hamid Ismailov, an Uzbek writer in exile, and Kanak Mani Dixit, editor of Himal,
among others, speaking about the overt state mechanisms and the covert ideological pressures through which voices of dissidence are silenced. Enthused
students, readers and journalists were streaming out of the room where the
stage was set, while new batches, mostly young, were going in.
As I walked towards the entrance of the room, I came across Arunava Sinha,
one of the editors of The Book of Dhaka and a prolific translator of Bengali fiction and poetry. Before I could congratulate him properly, he took the stage
with Kaiser Haq, a Bangladeshi English language poet; Syed Manzoorul Islam,
a famous bilingual fiction writer; Pushpita Alam, the other editor of the book;
and Daniel Hahn, a British author and translator who moderated the session
marking the launch.
Right from the beginning, Hahn brought a vibrant touch to the session and
his witty quips created an ambience for a lively discussion. After a quick introduction of the speakers on stage and a short description of the book, he
passed the mantle on to Kaiser Haq. An illustrious translator himself, Kaiser
traced the somewhat sinuous route of what appeared as a remarkable instance
of creative collaboration between writers organisations, publishers and quite
a good number of creative individuals from Bangladesh, India and the UK.
Kazi Anis Ahmed, a fiction writer and co-director of the DLF, formed Ben-

Sazzad Hossain

gal Lights Books and Dhaka Translation Centre (DTC) with the aim of giving a
boost to English translation of Bengali fiction in Bangladesh. Haq became the
director of DTC and the first translated book of the centre was launched at the
2013 Hay Festival Dhaka (now known as DLF), which was attended by Emma
DCosta of Commonwealth Writers. Emma then approached Haq and Khademul Islam, director of Bengal Lights Books, with the idea that they should collaborate on a workshop where the participants would dissect a story in the
presence of the author.
Soon English PEN and The British Centre for Literary Translation (BCLT)
came on board. The first workshop was conducted in 2014 by Arunava Sinha
and the author selected for it was Shaheen Akhtar. Most importantly, the participants each were assigned to a story and the workshop next year took the
translators up with their assignments, working diligently to improve their
craft. The much-needed funding and organisational support to hold the workshops in Dhaka were provided by English PEN and Commonwealth Writers,
a cultural initiative of Commonwealth Foundation. Thats how, according to
Haq, The Book of Dhaka was born. l
See the full version of the article online

Dojas brilliance shines through in Drift

n David Leo Sirois

David Leo Sirois,

host of SpokenWord Paris and a
critic himself.

hehzar Doja possesses, to quote the accomplished poet himself, the poets capricious space. Whether playing with language (Look Icarus he
flies /amaze, a maze?), with poetry as a whole, or with the reader or proclaiming, albeit in a characters voice, My words settle down/please settle
down). At times he simply utilises humour Mustard was the colour of the
day. Dojas playful brilliance shines through in Drift.
At the beginning of the collection, in the short poem Distance, which
touches upon spaces and closeness (Distance, an illusion/our senses take
comfort in), the contemplation ends with Our prose becomes hyperbole/
and poetry no space for that. This is not only capricious, but a marvelously
humble and unusual way to begin a poetry collection.
The masterpiece Compos Mentis, which reads like a theatrical monologue -- I had the great pleasure of seeing Doja read it aloud when I had the
honour of featuring him at my open mic in Paris. There it became clear that
it was, indeed, originally intended to be a theatre piece. The voice of the po-

ems speaker came to life but reading it on the page, I can see how alive it is
intrinsically.
The poem Colour Blind, is, I believe, the collections highest moment,
which is playful and profoundly serious at the same time: Thanatos, the
all-seeing dog, is my best friend/Thanatos, the all-seeing dog, is my only friend.
The tender melancholy of Autumns Kiss has a gentle joy to it as well in
the meditation on a memory of a loving moment: I remembered the first
winter snowflake/began its journey that year/on your trembling cheek. Another line that particularly struck me with its originality is waiting for the
auburn tears/of autumn to finally well up.
The poem Foetus, which begins with the utterly lovely Let the velvet
shade of twilights touch also has its own eternal lines to time, as Shakespeare would say, such as Life exists like a lingering reverie/trapped incoherently in infinite folds.
I love Drift dearly, and it moves me greatly. I hold its brilliance, ingenuity,
capriciousness and grace in its place as high literature. l
See the full review online

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DHAKA TRIBUNE

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2016

Feminism

The society needs more of nasty women

n Arts & Letters Desk

mong the many scandals, controversies and lawsuits that have mired
the US presidential race, one of the most highlighted has been Trumps
attitude towards his female opponent and it has put every feminists
teeth on edge. Out of the many low moments that Trump had during the presidential debates, one particular moment that stuck and went viral on media
was when Trump called Clinton a nasty woman.
This election has been defined by gender politics, and Trumps comments
have sparked some very serious concerns regarding cultural prejudices
against strong, accomplished women.
At the Dhaka Lit Fest, a discussion on feminism entitled Nasty Women
was held in a panel that had Lady Nadira Naipaul, a noted Pakistani journalist,
Deborah Smith, winner of the prestigious 2016 Man Booker Prize, British-Australian writer Evie Wyd and famous journalist Rosamund Erwin on the main
stage. It was moderated by journalist and writer Bee Rowlatt. The speakers exchanged views on how feminism was subjected to serious misinterpretation,
how it remained a far-reaching concept both in the east as well as the west and
what could be done to ensure gender parity.
Evie Wyld said she was shaken to the core as she witnessed how a misogynist was entrusted with the duty of governing one of the most powerful nations on earth. Rosamund chipped in with a comment about how mainstream
politics forced women from a diverse range of ethnic background to vote for
Trump. Deborah Smith declined to highlight Trumps statements or Hillarys
defeat. She opined this was a part of the struggles women were going through
the ages in every corner of the world. In this male-dominated society, women
scarcely get what they deserve in a not-so-woman-friendly system. To much
surprise, Hillary was not even supported by a good number of women from all
age groups who viewed her as the face of elitism in politics.
Lady Nadira Naipaul, wife of Nobel Laureate in Literature VS Naipaul, reflected on how Pakistan treated women and how they were locked up and tortured
by husbands when they raised their voices. About Trump winning the US election, she said lack of faith in mainstream politics and the economic circumstances of the country earned trump a good deal of female supporters. Though sexism
is strongly rooted in the US, she said, Hillary lost due to her Wall Streetfriendly
image. She reprimanded the fact that women, when in power, try to imitate a
man or be a man, which make them worse than their male counterparts. According to her, femininity does not clash with assuming power and women can rule
over a nation without compromising femininity. When Rowlatt referred to her
article in which she stood against Muslim women wearing burkha or hijab in
England or other western countries, quite a few women in the audience opposed
her. She wound up the discussion saying she didnt mean to hurt anyone.

Continued from Page 6

Nashirul Islam

The speakers drew attention to the trend of women running a country in

Asia. While it still remains an abstract notion in the west, the east has set an
example by electing female leaders. Soon a Bangladeshi writer from the audience stood up and shared with the speakers that women leaders were chosen
in Bangladesh as well as the other South Asian countries because of family
ties and also because no man was found to represent the family.
The conversation then veered towards how women faced the linguistic
bias. They are represented in a language created by men. Smith said how some
pre-established notions regarding women affected their freedom, making
them act according to family or society expectations. Wyld said most women were afraid of coming out, speaking for themselves and being labelled as
feminists. The speakers concluded the discussion by remembering Begum
Rokeya, the noted 19th century Bengali feminist and how she constructed a
feminist utopia in her English novella, Sultanas Dream. They wished to create
their versions of utopia and before winding up, they also remembered the first
nasty woman of Europe, Mary Wollstonecraft.
The world needs more of nasty women to make the society better. Nasty
and angry women are blessings to be cherished and they are beneficial to both
men and women. They partner with men in saving humanity and together
they can lift each other up. It is on this wonderful note that the engaging discussion ended. l

Naipaul under the spotlight

foreign writers, writing about whose alien works you will neither be recognised
here (or the east, broadly speaking), nor there (in the west). Yet, thats what were
doing, dissecting Lawrence and Woolf, Becket and Pinter, Shakespeare and Webster, reading all those volumes of structural, Marxist, post-structural, psychoanalytic, post-colonial critiques of their works and gaining so much knowledge
that even now, after a gap of almost ten years, I can write more fluently about
Lawrence and Shakespeare than about Hasan Azizul Haque or Rokeya Shakhawat Hossain, though no one would actually want to publish them.
My alienation with English fiction began to grow more and I got tired of
having to spend most of my reading and writing time over works I could hardly relate to, until I picked up A House for Mr Biswas. It was not like we were
unfamiliar with Mulk Raj Anand or RK Narayan who wrote about Indian people. Anand was too realistic and too focused on the Dalits while Narayan was
too fictional and his world too removed from reality. Then I started Mr Biswas
and I was overwhelmed by the subject he was dealing with as also by the way
he was doing it. The life of Mohun Biswas and his induction in the Hanuman
House after his marriage with one of Mrs Tulsis daughters. Im not sure if

an European student would love the book in the same way as I did, because
the people he was portraying were my people. This was the first time I felt I
was reading an English novel where I found my own people: The way they
value collectivity over individuality, the way they gossip and fight in groups,
the way they treat their children and show their greed for money and love
for others, and the way they build their houses. He didnt miss a single thing
about that society the Hindu families of Indian immigrants in Trinidad and
Tobago. There was no big tension in the novel, other than those anxieties felt
by Mr Mohun towards different people in the Tulsi family. The psychology
of the characters is intricately revealed and the sociology of the war brought
in as much as was necessary to build up the story. But the sparks of wit and
humour and sarcasm are such that you wont be able to stop laughing till you
reach the end. It was he who first demonstrated to me that you could write a
great novel about a simple Bangladeshi or Indian family as well, it was he who
first showed me that what actually matters is how you tell your story. Not all
of his novels are set in such contexts but that most of them are, in my eyes, is
something for which I will always owe my literary aspirations to him. l

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ARTS & LETTERS

Books at DLF

The festival of books

n Sabiha Akond Rupa

t was no doubt the biggest festival of English books in Dhaka. Bookworm,

a bookstore which sells imported English books, put up a large stall, displaying the latest books by the 60 foreign authors who attended the Dhaka
Lit Fest 2016.
Naturally, it was swarming with book lovers on all three days. The local

publishers who bring out English titles, too, had their stalls, and they showcased their new and old titles. In fact, one of the most interesting segments
this year was the new books, brought out by these publishers, some of them
fiction, some poetry collections and some translations of Bengali literature
and poetry. Bangla Academy, University Press Limited, Bengal Lights Books,
Writers.ink, Ignite Publication Limited and Daily Star Books displayed their
new titles.

The University Press Limited

Ignite Publication Limited

The University Press Limited unveiled four of their newest titles at the festival. The titles are Drift by Shehzar Doja, Samudragupta - The making of an
emperor by Bappaditya Chakravarty, Detached Belonging by Dilruba Z Ara, and
The Inheritance Powder by Hilary Standing. Drift is Dojas debut poetry collection. Detached Belonging is a book of twelve short stories set in Bangladesh,
Sweden and the Middle East. Samudragupta tells the story of Samudragupta,
the most powerful king of the Gupta dynasty, who ushered in Indias golden age, bringing peace and prosperity to a land divided by religion and small
states. On the last day of DLF 2016, development specialist and author Hilary
Standing discussed her book The Inheritance Powder, which is not only a story
of mass arsenic poisoning, but also of misguided endeavours and development agencies, haunted by scandals and corruptions.

Book on Muslin
Another unique book was
Muslin: Our Story by Saiful Islam, which was featured in a session that saw
Fakrul Alam, Shahidul
Alam and Islam, among
others, talking about the
history of Bengals finest
fabric but which, they
said, was destroyed by
the East India Company.

Sabiha Akond
Rupa is feature
writer, Dhaka
Tribune.

Dhaka Lit Fest 2016 has been a great platform to launch childrens books. Ignite
Publication Limited (IPL), a new publishing endeavour devoted to the publication of childrens books, launched two books for children: Asha and the Magic
Moshari by Pushpita Alam, and Hansher Paye Ghuri by Nazia Zabeen. Alams
book is an English book (For ages 5-7) where children will know through Ashas
story that even the scariest and most unfamiliar journeys can lead to wonderful, magical adventures if you can keep an open eye. Zabeens is a Bengali book
where little Minu finds a way to make her wishes come true.

A session on Ocean of Sorrow

A session on Ocean of Sorrow, an
English translation of Mir Mosharraf Hossasins Bishad Sindhu,
was one of the main attractions on
the first day of the festival. Bishad
Sindhu is the first substantial work
of fiction by a Bengali Muslim writer. The story is about the prophets
grandson Hasan and Husayn, and
their deaths at the hands of enemies. Around 3.30 pm at the main
stage, Fakrul Alam, translator of
the book, and writer Syed Manzoorul Islam with EMK Center Director MK Aaref talked about the
significance of the book.

Bengal Lights
Bengal Lights brought out four new books of translation at
Dhaka Lit Fest 2016. Under the Library of Bangladesh series,
two translated novels: Rizia Rahmans Rokter Akshar, and
Moinul Ahsan Sabers The Mercenary were published. The other two are: A collection of poems by selected Bangladeshi poets in Khademul Islams translation, On My birthday and Other
Poems in Translation, and The Book of Dhaka, a collection of
translated short stories by selected Bangladeshi prose writers.

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On the
cultural front
Rajib Dhar

n Hasan Mansoor Chatak

It is only fitting that a city as perpetually transforming as Dhaka should have
a dynamic, international literary festival. Apart from numerous panels and
book releases, the three-day event offered some treats in the cultural sphere,
seeking to showcase our rich cultural heritage to the outer world.
On the opening day, a captivating performance was held at the Nazrul
Mancha featuring ten bauls. Titled Bauliana Caravan, it had renditions of
baul songs alongside discussions on the philosophy of Fakir Lalon Shah. The
discussions reflected not only on the philosophy and interpretation of Baul
songs but also brought out the life that Lalon led and how the religious bigots,
both from the Muslim and Hindu sides, attacked him and felt threatened by
the popularity of his songs in a time when communal tension was on the rise.
Lalon did not believe in any preconceived ideas about class or caste or race,
though he had all the faith in the power of music which can transcend us to a
higher state of spirituality.
Staging of the play, Bondhon, by BRAC popular theatre, was highly praised
by the audience on the same day. It is a unique genre engaging common people during the staging. The BRAC popular theatre uses this unique way to raise
awareness, and stimulate discussions around a variety of social issues.
A panel discussion on theatre, When the Stage is Mine, was held on the

second day of festival, featuring Sara Zaker, Mita Rahman and Samina Luthfa
Nitra. Moderated by Bonna Mirza, the discussion covered how theatre in Bangladesh evolved and came to its current shape. When questions were invited
from the audience, the panellists were asked if theatre can change the society.
In her reply, Nitra said, As a tool theatre alone cannot change society, it needs
some other components essentially. It can only be a catalyst to change.
The second day of the literary festival had a tribute to Bob Dylan, performed by Stone Free, probably the best in town in rendering Dylan songs.
The band also paid homage to the recently deceased Leonard Cohen by performing Hallelujah. Cohen is widely celebrated as another legendary lyricist
in folk-rock after Dylan.
In another panel on Baul songs, panellists opined that Bauls, who lead an
essentially non-elite and unconventional life, have made a huge contribution
to our secular culture. Folk singers Arup Rahee, Mehedi Hasan Nill, and Shofi
Mondol took part as panellists in the session.
Under the vibrant canopy and colourful stage lights, Dhaka Lit Fest 2016
ended with a captivating show by the baul group, Shikor Bangladesh All Stars.
They paid a tribute to their guru, Rob Fakir, who passed away recently. In the
show, the singers engaged with the audience in conversation between the acts
as the conversational style holds true to the tradition of baul performances, as
dialogue is part of the treat. l

Hasan Mansoor
Chatak is culture
reporter, Dhaka
Tribune.

Rajib Dhar

Syed Zakir Hossain

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ARTS & LETTERS

DLF overview

What we achieved
n Rifat Munim

uring an interview conducted over email sometime in the first week

of November, I asked Deborah Smith how she was feeling about attending the Dhaka Literary Festival 2016. What the 2016 International
Man Booker winner said in reply brought out the most beautiful side of Bangladeshs biggest literary congregation. Referring to Tilted Axis, her non-profit
publishing endeavour dedicated to translating Asian literature in English, she
said, Very excited! ... This years lineup includes three Tilted Axis authors,
Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, Prabda Yoon and Hamid Ismailov, plus our wonderful translator Arunava Sinha, so Im looking forward to the five of us getting together for a chat and possibly an embarrassing selfie.
The selfie didnt happen as imagined, she told me on the second day, but
she did mingle with all of her authors as well as a whole lot of others. In a world
where the rise of conservative ideologies is stoking up intolerance against religious and ethnic minorities, for three days beginning on November 17, the
grounds of Bangla Academy, which hosted the festival, became the place

Sazzad Hossain

Syed Zakir Hossain

where writers of all ilk and colour came together in an uncompromising spirit
of embracing diversity to carve newer avenues of thoughts through engaging
exchanges, discussions and performances. The response of local writers was
equally encouraging with most of Bangladeshs renowned poets, novelists, activists and artistes participating in panels alongside the foreign guests.
And there lies the biggest achievement of this years DLF: wrapping up a
programme of this magnitude, with more than 60 foreign authors representing 18 different countries, when fear of attacks on foreigners was running
high following the brutal terrorist attack on a Gulshan restaurant in Dhaka
that left 23 people dead, including 17 foreigners. The three festival directors
(Sadaf Saaz, Kazi Anis Ahmed and Ahsan Akbar) deserve as much praise for
their courage and commitment as do the foreign and local authors and the
Bangla Academy who extended their all-out support ignoring all risks. In other words, the DLF was perhaps the strongest demonstration that to fear is to
play into the hands of perpetrators of such heinous attacks.
The cultural ministry and the home ministry, too, deserve thanks for addressing the security concerns. l

Rajib Dhar

Rajib Dhar

Syed Zakir Hossain

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