<i>Kali O Kolom Falgun</i> 1415 - February 2009
When the latest issue of Kali O Kolom arrived for my review (an occasion I now look forward to, at least partly due to the fact that my friends have informed me that this reading exercise has had a markedly positive effect on my evening adda) I was mystified to find it unexpectedly voluminous. Publisher Abul Khair's Note however cleared up the mystery: Kali O Kolom has completed five years of its existence. Let us at The Daily Star be among those to congratulate the journal for stepping vigorously into its sixth year, and wish it a long and illustrious life. In this regard Mr Khair writes that while his literary publication has had its many well-wishers, yet that sentiment has not translated into concrete and material support for the journal. This news was surprising, to say the least, since one had expected the very opposite. However, it is heartening to see that Mr Khair has pledged, like the present government faced with an array of challenges, to carry on come what may. A hearty Amen to that! There are four articles on the special section on Dhaka, on the occasion of the city's 400th birthday: Nazrul Islam's Dhaka: Pran Kendro O Pran er Ombesha, Bishnu Basu's Smrity Niye Dhaka, Muntassir Mamoon's Dhaka'r Jon Elaka Niye Itishash, and Robiul Hussain's Priyo Dhaka Shohor O Taar Charsho Bochor. Among the four the most enjoyable read is Bishnu Basu's, a lively account in the first person about a bygone Dhaka's puja festivities, while Mamoon's as usual is a thoroughly informative piece. Among the essays there is one on Sir William Jones, the linguistic prodigy who established the Asiatic Society and is considered the father of Indian Orientalists. Though the title of the article promised much (William Jones O Bharat Abishkar), the content is disappointingly a straightforward account which fails to engage in any significant way with Jones's contentious Orientalist legacy, one outcome of which was an imperial historiography that continues to this day to bitterly divide the subcontinent along communal and religious lines. Another piece of note is a long account by Prothom Alo's New York-based columnist Hasan Ferdous of Rumer Godden's novel 'River', which is set in Narayanganj at the turn of the last century and was made into a film by the famed French director Jean Renoir. Rumer Godden was a British author who stayed there as a child and in her novel can be found details of a time and place which are unlikely to be found anywhere else. It is therefore of special significance to us - as Hasan Ferdous writes in his thoroughly researched article: "… though the novel was written in Kolkata, yet the story is not about Kolkata but of East Bengal's Narayanganj." The article is accompanied by Hasan's numerous illustrative and careful translations, which add to the pleasure of reading it. Also thought provoking is Abul Mansur's Bonger Charushilpi Jogoth, written with knowledge. There are a substantial number of short stories in this volume, eighteen to be exact, by Abubakr Siddiqui, Hasnat A Hye, Dibendu Palit, Anowara Syed Huq, Purabi Basu, Syed Manzoorul Islam, Kanai Kundu, Wasi Ahmed, Nasrine Jahan, Nalini Bera, Hamid Kaiser, Papree Rahman, Najib Wadud, Badrun Nahar, Harishankar Jaldash, Dipambita G Mukhopadhaya, Sajid Hosain and Hasan Arindam. Among them notable are Baali'r Chora by Najib Wadud, Papree Rahman's Mongakronto Akalur Maach Somachar, Anowara Syed Haq's Gondi and Kanai Kundu's Ekta Khun Hobay. Special mention should be made of Papree Rahman's story, featuring a man named Akalu and of various hungers that lurk in human bellies. It is cast in a mode quite unlike any other writer in Bangladesh, written in a fluent colloquial flow and exhibits deep familiarity with our rural way of life. In the nonfiction area both Hasan Azizul Haq and Jyotiprakash Dutta have given us delicately-hued reminiscences - the latter's one on friendship and the writing life in a bygone age in Dhaka's Islampur - something that warrants the reflection that he would have been an ideal writer to ask about something on Dhaka section of the magazine too. There is a welcome change in the present issue with the inclusion of a feature on ducks in Bangladesh by Sharif Khan, a delightful Nature piece. Anybody even remotely interested in Bangladesh's wildlife, and particularly its birds, in conservation and environmentalism, will welcome such pieces in the future. Abdus Shakoor has contributed a light piece 'Intermediate Term,' while Shahid Quadri has given us two poems - his gradual emergence in Kali O Kolom's poetry pages is a welcome one. While in this volume the book reviews at the end are absent (no doubt due to an annual volume's design requirements), yet readers can round up the reading with a spirited review of a film festival at the Dhaka Goethe Institute by Fouzia Khan. And as an aside, here one wonders if Kali O Kolom would consider including writer bios in its future issues. The artwork accompanying the text on the inside is as luminous as ever, surely a cause for envy of all other publishers of magazines and literary journals (whether little or mainstream). However, it may not be out of place to note that the choice of lead artist for this annual issue could have been less reflective of Kali O Kolom's generational bias. It might have been interesting to see what a younger, more zestful artist would have done with such an opportunity. The graceful cover painting is by Kazi Abdul Baset (1935 - 2002), a 'first-generation' Bangladeshi artist of repute. As can be seen on the journal's cover, despite being exposed to a tumultuous period of experimentation by Western artists when he was in Chicago from 1963-65, Baset stayed true to his native artistic heritage and traditions.
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