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Kali O Kolom Bhadro 1416 - August 2009

Khokon Imam
This issue of Kali O Kolom opens with two articles on Rabindranath. The first one, a discussion by Ali Ahmed on rereading Rabindranath's novel Gora makes for stimulating reading. The analysis is leavened by a warm account of the experience of first reading it decades back, intermingled with his schoolboy encounters with Saratchandra -boyhood memories of books and authors that will find strong echoes among readers of a certain age. The other piece on him, Rabindranath, Onno Aloyay, by Morshed S Hasan does attempt to give an 'alternative' (I believe that is the current term for such exercises!) reading of Gurudev, but not with any particular success, as witness his effort to tackle the old, but difficult, question of the absence of Muslim characters in Rabindranath's fiction. Morshed grasps at straws since Rabindranath himself never addressed the question in his voluminous writings, and attempts by others to answer this question therefore are second-hand conjectures. I am inclined to think that Muslims, either as individuals or as a community, simply did not spark the poet's imagination. I also for one would be glad to leave it at that, rather than pick at this subject incessantly in order to 'clear' up the Tagore name. If there was a gap' in Rabindranath's imagination, so be it. It in no way lessens his immortal legacy of wisdom, beauty and language to us by a jot.
There is a somewhat similar attempt by Tanvir Haidar to dissect the recently-deceased writer Mahmudul Haque's controversial novel Kalo Borofty using the conceptual scalpel of alienation, but here too one cannot say the result is a success. Sadly, the same too can be said of the in-memoriam on poet/playwright/essayist Alauddin Al Azad by Gausur Rahman. The other one by Ahmed Mowla (with its striking photos) is better fare,
beginning as it does with Azad's days staying at the Chittagong University guesthouse when he started to teach there. The photo of Azad and the above opening passage suddenly brought to my mind the essayist and critic Ahmed Sofa, who too used to stay at the International Hostel of Dhaka University in the early 1970s, and with whom sitting on tin chairs and smoking cigarettes 1 shared some intellectually vibrant evenings. As Azad's passing reminds us all, that generation is now slowly, but certainly, leaving the motherland they loved so unconditionally. There is a good essay on the remarkable poet and personality Sikandar Abu Jafar - he wrote a fine Ekushey poem - by Shahjahan Hafiz. Here it may be added that perhaps Kali O Kolom's sustained coverage on Bengali poets and poetry will one day lead to their publication within the covers of a single volume - it'll not only extend the
reputable Bengal brand, but also provide to interested readers a continuous reading experience. The same goes for their short stories, since some remarkable ones have been first published in this magazine's pages (a good illustration of the point that it is the experienced literary editor who is the crucial difference between a conventional product and an inspired volume). Among the short stories Mowga'by Sachin Das is commendable - it starts with a train (the 'Up Canning Local' to Shealda), at the railway station's ghostly hour when the passenger compartments are occupied only by drunks and vagabonds...
Abdus Shakoor on Hemanta Mukhapadhayay is a precise and vivid piece of writing on the circumstances of the Master's life and work. An interview of Alokeranjan Dasgupta, poet, critic and academic at Jadavpur and Heidelberg universities, by Najmunnessa Peari, homes in on the question of language in the two Bengals. Aloke gives an interesting reply, as befits a scholar who has done outstanding work on the lyric roots of Bengali poetry. Alokenanda Patel's comments on the in-memoriams of Rabindrakumar Dasgupta and Naresh Guha published in a previous issue of the journal again talks of language: on the difference between bari and basha when used by probashis.
All the above, of course, is complemented by the usual plethora of reviews of books and art shows.
The cover art is by Kazi Abdul Baset (1935 -2002) whose stay in Chicago during the early 1960s left an enduring imprint on his work. The war of liberation in 1971 inspired some of his best work, especially in the series 'Ma aar Shishu'and Opekkha'. The cover is a painting of the latter series, portraying a mother waiting for her son's return from the battlefield.
Khokon Imam is currently in pleasurable retirement.