Literary Notes
Rediscovering Tagore through creative writing
"Tagore is all encompassing by himself", commented Julia Bell, the instructor of the creative writing workshop organised by British Council Bangladesh. This workshop was held from February 9-10 as a part of the four-month long Tagore festival "Noborupe Rabindranatha 2011" or "Rediscovering Tagore". The festival was organised by the British Council to celebrate Tagore's 150th birth anniversary aiming at drawing the young generation closer to the works of the Nobel laureate. This two-day workshop revolves around the theme of "Crossing Boundaries", a notion close to Tagore's heart. Tagore always tried to find universalism in nations around the world. He dreamt of a world without borders where every country would know about one another's culture and be inspired. Julia Bell, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University, London, was invited by the organisers to conduct the workshop in Dhaka. The workshop comprised fifteen Bangladeshi emerging writers in English, who had been selected on the basis of their sample short stories . Bell shared poems of Tagore from "I Won't Let You Go", a collection of poems translated by Ketaki Kushari Dyson, for the workshop. She showed how different points of view can have different effects on readers. A writer should choose the point of view of his writing carefully. She added that her first novel Massive and second novel Dirty Work were written in first person narrative, which is really challenging to sustain throughout the writing. Her third novel Wise Up was written from a third person point of view. The bestselling Creative Writing Coursebook, written and co-edited by this facilitator, is used in many universities of the UK as the main course book. The second day of the workshop mainly focused on how ideas of one language and culture can be interpreted and translated through a second language. Bell pointed to the fact that Tagore's thoughts were interpreted and translated through rightly chosen words in his works. An avid reader of Tagore would definitely notice his growth as a writer from a young to a mature artist through a perusal of his earlier works in juxtaposition with his later creations. The workshop participants explored the techniques of translating cultural nuances of Bangla into English and found that if a translator tries to translate the words directly or add long explanations after it, the whole piece of translation would be stiff and prosaic. English is a very flexible language that accommodates words from other languages easily. So writers can incorporate words related to Bangla culture easily into the English translation. Nowadays, the trend of using footnotes in translated texts is not encouraged so that readers are inspired to find out the meaning themselves. The issue of getting published as English writers in Bangladesh was the main topic of discussion at the final session of the workshop. Only translation of Bangladeshi literature into English and more of English creative writing from here can promote this country's literature before the world. Bell mentioned that in the UK any writer needs to get an agent in order to be published. Otherwise, the writer can self -publish his book. She told the participants how she began to write regularly by being a member of a small literary group named "Tindal Street" in the earlier stages of her career. The group consisted of a few friends who wrote and critiqued each other's works. Later on, they brought out the first compilation of the short stories, Hard Shoulders, by themselves under the banner of Tindal Street Press. Bell encouraged all to be in any literary group that gives genuine feedback to the writers and try to publish a collection of literary pieces to let everyone know about their existence. Members of Writers Block and Brine Pickles, the two literary groups of Bangladeshi writers in English participating in the workshop, agreed that they had been benefiting from discussions of their own groups. In the end, Bell gave some tips to the writers. She advised all to grow a habit of writing every day. The moments just after waking up in the morning are the best time to write because a person's mind remains fresh and free from all troubles of routine life. She also suggested that the dialogues in a short story or novel should not describe the plot but the emotions of the characters. The other segments of the British Council's Tagore festival include a fashion show which is based on eight different themes of Tagore, such as how the characters of his novels used to dress and how this style has influenced modern Bangladeshi clothing. A hair stylist from the UK will work with the Bangladeshi designers on the final fashion show. The British Council has collaborated with Channel I to hold a competition of Tagore songs among young people. The finale will have British musician Soumik Datta collaborating with local artists. The last segment of the festival comprises an adaptation of Tagore's famous dance drama Tasher Desh, which was inspired by Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It is indeed a remarkable festival organised by the British Council to relive the moments of Tagore's era through contemporary literature, fashion, drama and music that represents Tagore's universalism to the world.
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