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Pahela Baishakh and our we-ness

Faheem Hasan Shahed
I had a sweetly amusing experience recently while listening to an FM radio station on my way back home. A caller, probably a boy in his late teenage, was narrating how excitedly he was awaiting the coming of 14 April, i.e. the Pahela Baishakh. The reason was, this would be the first ever Pahela Baishakh celebration in Bangladesh as he had been born and brought up in a foreign land. I was touched by the passionate fervour of his voice that was more like the ecstatic impatience of a lover waiting for his beloved.
Stuck in the who-knows-when-it-ends traffic jam at Bijoy Sarani, I continued with my thoughts on this issue. This boy definitely had heard about Pahela Baishakh from his parents, even might have read news and seen pictures on the web, and had nourished a kind of overwhelming sensitivity deep inside his heart to observe this day in his motherland. He probably has made several online friends through Facebook or so who may have added further momentum to his spirit by sending him photographs and information on this occasion. And now that he is in Bangladesh, he is desperate to fulfill his Io ng-nurtured curiosity and dream.
Here is where I started to feel good. This boy, despite his grooming in an alien society, eventually didn't shake off the culture he inherited in his blood. He feels proud to embrace his belongingness to the Bangali culture, and thereby activate his “I”-ness within. His presence in the coming daylong program would at least help him discover the answer to this quintessential query: Who am I?
Today’s Pahela Baishakh and youngsters
One of my intimate associates and a prolific sociologist Dr. Buddha Dev Biswas said, 'To put it simple. Pahelp Baishakh, along with its entire festivity, has rejuvenated itself as the one and only secular identity of our nationhood. It has become the de facto icon of our emotion-clad nationality which has so far prohibited major socio-political evils. Pahela Baishakh is a manifestation of what we want to be in our genuine selves: humans devoid of hypocrisy and duplicity (which in reality isstill adream).'
Looking back to the Baishkahi celebrations during my school days, I discover the qualitative changes that have occurred over the decades. Lots of innovative items and features have been added with wider flexibilities. Though it became our national festival after 1972, people hardly had any options other than Ramna Botomul and Bangla Academy. Now, almost all corners of the city are full of razzmatazz from fabric stores to restaurants, parks to lakes.
The biggest development, as I would call it, has been the overriding presence and participation of younger generation whom seniors occasionally deem as unpatriotic rogues'. Having no dearth of energy to immerse themselves in the Baishakhi fete, these boys and girls make Pahela Baishakh the day of our most dominant secular identity. Fundamentalists may overpower the seniors, but never these youngsters.
Remember Pakistani colonizers' oppressions and attempts to destroy Bangali culture in the 50's and 60's, and subsequently the resistance by the youngsters of that time?
Today's Pahela Baishakh therefore reminds us time and again: Bangladesh is not destined to perish.
However, one must also take into account the odds that sometimes happen on this day in the name of Bangali culture. Why are these
urban posh young people so crazy about panta bhaat? When and where has panta bhaatbeen our national food? What about the metal concerts accompanied by opium parties? What about girls falling prey to eve-teasing in Baishakhi melas? 1 dislike mentioning these, but Pahela Baishakh would become thousand time glorious without unruliness of these sorts.
Bangali-ism and our we-ness
Admittedly, the reason behind Pahela Baishakh's becoming a nationalistic secular occasion lies in its deep foundation inside the traditional Bangali social psyche. This has automatically propagated the ideology of Bangali nationhood (though we haven't attained nationstatehood). As far as history' goes, Pahela Baishakh celebrations started from Akbar's reign. It was customary to clear up all dues on the last day of Chaitra. On the next day, or the first day of the Bangla New Year, landlords would entertain their tenants with sweets accompanied by organising fairs and other festivities. Soon, the occasion became part of Bangali domestic and social life, and transformed itself into a day of merriment.
The major event of the day was to open a Halkhata (new book of accounts). This was wholly a financial affair. In villages, towns and cities, traders and businessmen
closed their old account books and opened new ones. They used to invite their customers to share sweets and renew their business relationship with them. This tradition is still practiced in cities particularly by jew elers.
Interesting is the fact that in rural areas everything on this day is scrubbed and cleaned. People take bath early in the morning and dress in fine clothes to visit relatives, friends and neighbours. Special foods are prepared to entertain guests. This has direct link to our conventional rural hospitality’ that has later extended to the urban societies. In other words, urbanisation of the middle class has resulted many of our rural etiquettes and programs to manifest in a newer shape, and Pahela Baishakh has positively played a vital part in it.
So, when we watch various agricultural products, traditional handicraft, toys, cosmetics as well as various kinds of food and sweets being sold as principal items in city fairs, puppet show’s and merry-go-rounds entertaining the posh kids, and singers-dancers staging jatra, pala gan, kobigan, jarigan, gambhira, baul, marfati, murshidi, bhatiali songs mesmerizing the audience, we understand the uncompromising bonding of Bangali-ism and our we-ness flourishing day by day in full swing.
Smothered by self-defined nationalism, Pakistani
colonizers tried to impose their domination on us without realizing that culture, not religion or anything else, works as the permanent core force for unification and selfactualization of a nation. It was the other-ness on their part through which they wanted to wipe out our we-ness, our unified identity’ of Bangali nationalism. Imperialists in all ages had so little brain power!' remarked a smiling Dr. Buddha Dev.
Trust me, Pahela Baishakh every’ year makes me feel pity for the colonizers.
Finale
However, the most unfortunate reality’ as I feel is: w’e haven't educated ourselves enough to energise our minds with the spirit of our nationhood. 1 often hum Renaissance band's hit number Hey Bangladesh! Tomar boyosh holo koto...' which reminds me, we have still miles to go.
When we walk on the crowded streets of Dhaka breathing the moisture-laden air, watching the dusty pavements, nagging beggars at the traffic stops, officepeople hastily boarding the buses to return home after day's work, do we at all remember our we-ness that Pahela Baishakh gives us every year? 1 wish the answer could always be a big YES....
Dr. Faheem Hasan Shahed is a faculty of the English Department at AIUB, Dhaka.