A flowing conversation at Dhaka Flow Festival 2024

On the midday of a warm spring, Dhaka Flow Fest 2024 organised a delightful reading session at Baridhara Lakeside Rajuk Park. Authors and readers gathered in the conversation corner for a discussion graced with the presence of Farah Ghuznavi, Neeman Sobhan, Salahdin Imam, and Nahiyan Ameen, as they read excerpts from their anthology Golden Bangladesh at 50: Contemporary Poems and Stories (UPL, 2021). The hour-long session was moderated by Tasnim Naz, and the discussion delved into the authors' journeys toward Bangladeshi writing in English and its future promises. After the reading, a small Q&A session took place inquiring about the current challenges authors faced at home and abroad.

After a small introduction, the reading session started with Neeman Sobhan's energetic reading of her short story, "Bengali Lessons". Quite vividly, she describes the life of a Bangladeshi teacher, conducting online classes in Rome, Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic. It reflected on the pandemic and the struggles within classrooms abroad with a hint of humour.

Next, Salahdin Imam read from a piece that he had been working on lately— revealing a sneak peek from My 5 year Hyperlife 1966-71, his unpublished memoirs, where he narrates the tale of how he had left Harvard to join the Liberation War of 1971. As he read, we saw a young Muktijoddha travelling all the way from the States just for the love of his motherland. The memoir offered a peek into the training ground for war veterans near the Indian border. Imam described his unfamiliarity with the Bangladeshi landscape and his experiences with guerrilla ambushes.

Farah Ghuznavi, with a hint of seriousness, read two of her short stories next. She dedicated her work "Fairytale for Modern Girls" to the occasion of Women's Day. The story introduced us to the long and silky hair of Mohona, which quite subtly wrapped around the superstitions of female life. Ghuznavi offered a second reading, this time of her story, "Losing Bindu", which illustrated a relationship between the twins, Bindu and Bishal.

The final reading session was Nahiyan Ameen's; his story, set in a diasporic society, dealt with the concept of Islamic faith and the experience of being attracted to a new student in class. Through Ameen's tuned reading of his piece, the reading session came to an end.

During the Q&A, as the question of inspiration was being discussed, Sobhan stated that we must all write and create in order to "retain memories for the younger generation". Ghuznavi opted for a more personal turn as she reminisced about her school days at a missionary school in Dhaka. She recounted the beautiful time she had, but also noted eccentricities she faced as a student. In her school days, Ghuznavi was never allowed to tie her hair "in a single ponytail', which surprisingly became the inspiration for her story.

Ameen mentioned that, as a literature student, he had to go through a huge bulk of Eurocentric creative writing abroad; however, when he came back, he wanted to test his creativity in the context of Bangladesh. He always enjoyed the ambiguity of short stories and intended to try that in his writing.

On the question of readership, Imam plainly noted that Bangladesh had already made tremendous strides in this arena. He recalled past scenarios in 2008-09, when he was part of a writing group, and it was almost impossible to find a reader, especially for English stories. He also reminded us that there was still room for improvement, and that new writers must take on challenges with positive energy. Sobhan pointed out that readership was not just central to Bangladesh, but that our stories must also venture beyond the border.

Next, Naz asked the writers whether any of their writing was concerned with issues such as mental health, be it consciously or unconsciously. Ameen stated that he "tries to break down stigma" through his writing, adding that stories should be written from an empathetic perspective. Taking a little time before answering, Imam said, "Once you write about your trauma, it becomes less traumatic."

At the end of the session, the authors received a few questions from the audience. Sobhan, on account of her diasporic identity, was humorously asked if she dreamt in Bengali or Italian, to which she responded that she is first a poet, and then a fiction writer—although she dreams quite a lot, it is neither in Bengali nor Italian as she sees only images. Following many such moments of humour and sparks of wisdom, the conversation corner concluded its sessions for the day.

K.M. Arefin is a faculty member at Bangladesh University of Professionals and a researcher of postcolonial Bengali literature. Reach him at khanmohammadarefin@gmail.com.