The Last Romantic
In 1961, the Arts Faculty of the University of Dhaka was still located at the southern end of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. It was there, under the high-ceilinged rooms with their antique benches that Dr Khan Sarwar Murshid taught the MA English Preliminary students.
1w ago
A tribute to Jowshan Ara Rahman
I got to know Jowshan Ara better when I visited her home to interview her husband, Mahbub ul Alam Chowdhury, the poet who wrote the first poem on Ekushey.
1w ago
Rest in peace, warrior, your battle won
Masroor ul Haq Siddiqi Bir Uttam (Komol Siddiqi) passed away in the early hours of October 7.
4w ago
Rabindranath Tagore and the creation of national identity
Rabindranath Tagore is perhaps the only poet whose songs were chosen as the national anthems of two countries: India and Bangladesh.
6m ago
The Portrayal and Relevance of Women in Kazi Nazrul Islam’s Novels
Kazi Nazrul Islam is our National Poet, but, in addition to writing poetry and composing songs, he also wrote fiction. In fact, Nazrul’s first publication was not poetry, but the short story “Baundeler Atmakahini” (The Autobiography of a Vagabond), published in Saogat in May 1919.
1y ago
Roquiah Sakhawat Hossein and Kazi Nazrul Islam
Roquiah Sakhawat Hossein was born in 1880, Kazi Nazrul Islam in 1899. Apart from their difference in gender, there could not have been more differences in the circumstances of their class and upbringing.
1y ago
May 23, 2022
The Islamic strain in Kazi Nazrul Islam
Nazrul’s iconic poem uses both Islamic lore as well as Hindu myths to rebel against all that dehumanises and discriminates against human beings.
February 21, 2022
I have not come to weep
In her memoir, translated into English as An Unknown Woman (2016), Jowshan Ara Rahman describes how the first poem on February 21, 1952
July 3, 2021
Farewell, My Friend
My first meeting with Mohiuddin Ahmed was in 1956, at a dinner in his brother's house. His brother, Kabir Ahmed, was what in Bangla we call the "bhaira bhai" of SAM Khan, my father's colleague in the civil service, and the friendship of the two families extended to include him.
May 29, 2021
From a Prayer to a Call to Arms and Action
In December 1921, almost a hundred years ago, Kazi Nazrul Islam wrote what would be his most iconic poem: “Bidrohi.” The poem would transform him from the Soldier Poet to the Rebel Poet.
February 21, 2021
Navigating Bangla literary: Translations
A lot of translations are being done in Bangladesh, from English into Bangla and Bangla into English; much of the latter by native Bangla speakers.
March 9, 2019
Delight in Disorder: South Asian Festival of Sufism and Buddhism
The last email that I got from the organizers of the South Asian Festival of Sufism and Buddhism (the word Buddhism continued to be
September 16, 2017
A Feminist Foremother: Critical Essays on Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Mohammad A. Quayum and Md. Mahmudul Hasan, the editors of A Feminist Foremother: Critical Essays on Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain,
May 27, 2017
Kazi Nazrul Islam and the October Revolution
On 25 October 1917 in Russia – 7 November in India – the Bolsheviks led an armed insurrection against Petrograd. News of the
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