FLASH FICTION / Chand raat at Mohakhali

The version of Bangladesh we received in Babu Bangladesh (2019) was astonishing.

Storytelling is a space in which, as writers and readers, we experience the ways of how we know the world and interact with it.

Tanveer Anoy’s second novel, Duradhay (Anandam, 2021), felt like a punch to my stomach; a wake up call, to be more precise.

You walk into a room and come across stacks and stacks of books neatly arranged on shelves lining the walls, a couple of pristine white bedsheets, an intricate marble backdrop, and the smell of half a dozen candles blending together as your eyes are drawn to the centre of attention: glimmering, gold-foiled book covers. This is the commonly seen, romanticised setup for a book blogger’s photoshoot. Unfortunately, the real, behind-the-scenes process of blogging in Bangladesh can be quite different. 

Like a reptile emerging from the dust of centuries, Kolkata’s Ballygunge Down tram is snaking its way towards Rashbihari Avenue. Ghon! ghon! chimes its bell, ringing out in the last of the fading afternoon sun. Sitting at the counter of Jolkhabar stand,

Participants reviewed Bangla translations of two significant works of Korean literature—Korear Kobita (Korean Poetry) translated by Chhanda Mahbub, and Korear Golpo (Short Stories of Korea), edited by Soroishwarja Muhommod. Both translations were published by Ujan Prakashan and assisted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, who also helped organise the contest. 

Suhail Aziz’s book, Breakthrough (Book Guild, 2020), is a memoir of a British Bengali and his intertwined personal story of love and prejudice. Aziz is best known within the UK Bengali community for his involvement with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).

Zahid sat in a tiny room cramped with men. A ventilator was the only source for its occupants to get air from the outer world. The last time he had talked to his father had been at the Istanbul Airport. He still had his cellphone from Bangladesh. It was the only physical connection he had with his country.

Nobody tells me to search for you as if there’s a timeframe for undertaking such quests! My voice sounds like yours, and often, looking at my arms, I get puzzled,

It is so cheap like it is everywhere- on the highways, under the bridges, disappeared

Abdulrazak Gurnah, this year’s Nobel laureate in literature, seems to come as an admirable choice compared to the Nobel Prize’s controversial recent history.

The epic antedates even the depiction of the famous Trojan war; it is, in effect, the oldest epic found till date.

Bhashan Char has lately become a topic of critical debate in the refugee relocation discourse. It is a reality that comes with a harsh reminder of demographic changes within the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and the limits of a highly populated state in supporting an incredibly high number of foreign nationals living in its territory.

The Unpublished PhD lecture series, organised by Gyantaposh Abdur Razzaq Foundation, resumed on October 12, 2021 at 7 pm over Zoom after a two year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In its eighth episode, researcher and professor of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University, Manosh Chowdhury, gave an illuminating talk on his doctoral thesis: “Popularizing Project: Some Aspects of Production of Culture and Discourses in Bangladesh”.

Sangat Bangladesh, a South Asian feminist network founded by Kamla Bhasin, held an event in Dhanmondi’s Rabindra Sarobar on Saturday to commemorate the feminist author, poet, development worker, and educator who passed away last month. 

Young-adult books have recently been doing an exceptionally valuable job of incorporating mental health issues into their stories. Following is a list of books that represent various aspects of mental health issues and how people deal with them. 

In celebration of Independent Bookshop Day, Bookworm Bangladesh, located on the Old Airport Road, are offering a 25 percent discount on all imported books for customers personally visiting their shop and 20 percent off on online orders. The offer ends on October 9. 

She lies on the bed, a broken canvas. Fragments and splinters of an old frame, Faded colors of painted priceless picture, Greys and white, crooked dark veins, wrinkled paper skin.  Frames abound on the wall’s fortress,

We stopped talking earlier. Yet there was a chance that I’d run into you. There was a chance of seeing you on the Gollamari bridge buying vegetables.

Countless people cross our path as we walk through this temporal life; but only one or two strike us as people with no darkness within. Mohiuddin Ahmed was one of those unique humans. He radiated pure light, and for those within this light, time always moved peacefully because life seemed to have met all his wants and needs, and as a man so at ease with the ways of life, he effortlessly smoothed out the many negative thoughts of his visitors and friends, just by being who he was.