
An old writer who has received all the literary prizes his country has to offer, a widow who receives a condolence letter from her late husband's club, a grandmother who makes a kantha for her grandchild, a newspaper employee who falls in love with her co-worker, a sculptor who makes a statue of a political leader, a forensic doctor whose late husband saved a four-anna coin, a young woman who combs all her hair over one ear, three friends who knew each other as adolescents - what do they have in common?
এই বই কথার, কথাকারদের, এই বই এ-সময়ের কৃতী কয়েকজন কথক ও বুদ্ধিবিদ্যাজাগতিক কর্মক-চিন্তকের সঙ্গে অনাড়াল-অন্তর্গম্য পরিচয়ের। এখানে এমন কয়েকজন কর্মব্রতী কীর্তিসিদ্ধ স্রষ্টা ব্যক্তির সাক্ষাৎ পাওয়া যাচ্ছে যারা বাংলাদেশ পেরিয়ে যাওয়া ন্যূনাধিক চার থেকে তিন দশক ধরে একনিষ্ঠ যুগিয়ে চলেছেন স্বচ্ছস্পষ্ট দৃষ্টি, আমাদেরকে, দিচ্ছেন ভিন্নতর সবিশ্লেষণ ভাষ্য গল্পে-কাব্যে-উপন্যাসে-এষণায়; এদের মধ্যে যেমন রয়েছেন বিদ্যায়তনিক পণ্ডিত, স্বদেশে ও বর্হিদেশে বৌদ্ধিক পরিসরে সমাদৃত ব্যক্তিত্ব, রয়েছেন তেমনি সৃজনপ্রসূ কথাশিল্পী/আখ্যানকার, রয়েছেন সমাজ-রূপান্তরকৃত্যে
Bengal Raag is a wonderful book about twin sisters and their childhood in Bangladesh, formerly known as East Pakistan. A blend of fiction and real life, it chronicles an important moment in the history of that region. Although seen through the eyes of children, it deals with adult and complex issues of family dynamics, belonging and separation amidst a gradual building up of social, cultural and political tensions.
Hopeful/y the Pomegranate contains a small selection of Syed Najmuddin Hashim’s poems, ranging over four decades. From the deeply felt emotion of personal poems to the controlled anger of “political” ones, the poems reveal a man who at all times thought and felt intensely. Written in English, the poems are nevertheless rooted in Bangladesh even as they suggest a man who believed that he shared a common heritage with the rest of the world.
Syed Waliuliah’s Chander Amabasya (1964), rendered by Afia Dii as Night of No Moon, narrates the story of a young man whose world of innocent dreams collapses when he is forced to enter the world of experience. Arif Ali, a young man of twenty-four, has come from a village to work in a primary school in a small mofussil town. One dark night he stumbles upon the dead body of a murdered woman. His romantic idealism and his love of life keep him from acknowledging stark reality and he even thinks of forgiving the murderer whom he knows.
The poems in Time of my Life are about desh, motherhood and personal emotions. Imagination and poetic images turn the writer’s private spaces into interpretive verses. Her poems are subjective and discuss the challenges of a South Asian woman, a mother and a politically conscious citizen. Written in free verse with flexible punctuations, the poems reflect Rubana’s own space, which often crosses borders, puts clocks to shame, and tempts reality
Bangladesh was founded as the state for Bangalis. After 38 years of freedom it is now known as a ‘Moderate Muslim State’. Bangladesh was known or people hoped from its constitution that it would grow, as a modern secular state. Why did it so happen? Or are the various epithets that are ascribed by many people about Bangladesh justified? Renown historian Dr.
Tree Without Roots is the English translation/transcreation of Syed Waliullah’s classic novel Lal Shalu. With no land or skills to support himself otherwise, Majeed preys upon the simple rural folk by exploiting religion, becoming the self-appointed guardian of a mazar, which he claims is that of a saint. Not satisfied with his first wife, he marries again, this time a woman who is not as amenable as his loving first wife.