<i>Kali O Kolom </i> (Jaishtha 1415 - May 2008)
On this centenary birth year of Manik Bandhapadhya (born 19 May, 1908 died 3 December, 1956) the issue of Kali O Kolom under review has three lead articles on him, with Kamruzzaman Jahangir detailing the novelist's development by following the path of his novels, and noting the salient features about them, including Manik's innovative use of language. Here it might be interesting to point out that one of the noticeable features about this article is Kamruzzaman's own linguistic style, with its widespread and no doubt deliberate use of English words within his Bengali text ('internal,' 'lifestyle,' 'serious,' 'style,' 'total,' 'develop,' 'specific,' etc. spelt in Bengali), and which may be signifying the renewing of English as a source of loan words for our mother tongue. Among other interesting pieces are two poems by long-dormant Shahid Quadri ('Apnara Janen' and 'Biplob'), and Kali O Kolom is to be congratulated if it succeeds in nudging this New York-based poet towards greater productivity. The other thing of specific interest is the translation of a Sajjad Zahir short story from his Sajjad Zahir Ki Muntakhib Tahririr, a collection of his writings. Readers today may not know much of him, but Sajjad Zahir was one of the founding members of the Progressive Writers Association during the '30s, which left its mark on all Indian vernacular literature. He was also one of the contributing writers of the famous Angaray collection of Urdu short stories published from Lucknow in 1932, which provoked the blood-wrath of conservative Indian Muslim society then. Among the other short stories 'Krirakhetra' by Balram Basak is intriguing, while a laudable attempt has been made to translate Li Tzu Peng's poems into Bengali by Titas Chowdhury. A fascinating article on the flowering of bamboo groves and the subsequent rat infestation and famine conditions ('Basher Phul') has been written by Mohammed Zafar Iqbal, who usually contributes the science pieces for the journal. It is all the more extraordinary given how little attention our mainstream media has paid to this event, and no doubt Zafar Iqbal's piece will go some way in redressing this oversight. There are articles on art and drama, and yet again, a lovely travel piece by Moinul Sultan in Laos. The journal's readers forum has encouraged debate on the Bengali language, with this issue's notable opinion--on the pros and cons of 'standard' Bengali--being voiced by Sajjad Kabir. Two book reviews should also be mentioned, one on Zakir Talukdar's collection of short stories Matrihonta O Onnannya Galpa by Humayun Malik, and on Khandakar Ashraf Hossain's collection of poems entitled Tomar Naam ai Brishti by Kamrul Hasan. At the end, it should be pointed out that readers wanting to know more about the contributors to the journal are thwarted in their desire since Kali O Kolom does not publish contributor bios. Perhaps it is high time the journal's guiding lights rectified this deficit. The cover art is by Tayeba Begum Lipi. Khokon Imam is a poet and illustrator.
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