THE pages document history, the history that contains visions, dreams, passion, and lives of some people who excelled in art. The pages are not leafs of a book. They are patterns of a multimedia CD, perhaps the best available gift of technology these days, offering and celebrating a glorious part of the cultural history of Bangladesh. The soft launching of this great work marveled the invited speakers (artists like Shishir Bhatt-acharjee, Aminul Islam, art lover Carl Reuter, and theatre-man Nasir Uddin Yousuff) and an audience comprising of journalists, artists, and people in love with art at the British Council in the eve of April 29, 2002.

Art and Artsts of Bangladesh, a complete multimedia compilation on fine arts of Bangladesh contains profiles of 159 artists,

catalogue of 1500 paintings, exclusive close-ups on four Maestros (Zainul Abedin, Qumrul Hassan, S.M. Sultan, and Shafiuddin Ahmed), indepth articles on artists (by gifted art critics), rare photographs that might help to have a glimpse of the artist who gave birth to fabulous art works, historical sketch of Fine Arts in Bangladesh (that straddles over thousand years), exclusive video footage, information about art institutes (off-course a moveable feast to the novices and the masters), comprehensive listing of art galleries, and last but not the list background music ( music that smells of the grass and clay of Bangladesh, folk music). It has got four sections, namely artists, plates, close up, and timeline systematically dividing the aforesaid resources of Bangladeshi Fine Arts. The layouts are done in eye-soothing colours and are quite easy to browse through.

So, doesn't it sound incredible? Shishir Bhattacharjee in his speech referred to the same

kind of wonderment by the Director of the British Council, and every member of the audience found it the same. The very precision of the work, the huge details and infos that are woven into the patterns of the CD made it a comprehensive piece where the piecing together of the history of the Fine arts of Bangladesh is done with utmost sincerity. The CD journeys over the massive pile of the events of Bangladeshi art and presents it in an easy and user-friendly medium.

It is true that Bangladesh is bursting with people having enormous potential. Few days ago in a prize giving ceremony a veteran artist claimed that almost every child in Bangladesh sketches. Carl in his speech alluded to his very first experience in Bangladesh, 'a truck carrying building materials decorated with fascinating art-

works,' is something quintessentially Bangladeshi, because 'art is embedded in the psyche' of the people of this part of the world. Contemporary Bangladeshi art is now keeping pace with the west in its own way, and this CD could be an excellent medium by which we can inform the art lovers of the world about the achievements of Bangladeshi Fine Arts.

Aminul Islam informs that this CD will be updated from time to time, and the profiles of 159 artists include artists dating back from the past to the present. Since independence the need to record events of fine arts was a necessity, and 'this is first ever in Bangladesh that a significant work like this has happened piecing together the remarkable assets of Bangladesh' says Shishir Bhattacharjee.