Feature

Prof. Kabir Choudhury at the
Star Campus - ETC adda

Mahdin Mahboob

HAVING National Professor Kabir Choudhury in the midst of a small congregation of university students was already an attractive bargain, and when he decided to narrate a beautiful story, it came as a bonus to the eager young people. Prof. Kabir Choudhury joined a monthly book reading and discussion adda that Star Campus organises in collaboration with ETC located on Road 27, Dhanmondi. The adda takes place in the library section of ETC and participants are selected from various public and private universities of the country.

Prof. Kabir Choudhury has translated South African writer John Maxwell Coetzee's novel 'Waiting for the Barbarians' in Bangla. The novel fetched Coetzee the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 2003. The Nobel Prize committee had termed the book a “political thriller.” Prof. Choudhury decided to narrate the story briefly and then read out some paragraphs from the original novel to give some idea about the superb story-telling skill of Coetzee.

Prof. Choudhury himself displayed his outstanding ability to keep his audience spellbound when he narrated the captivating story. He continued for nearly an hour and then stopped with a smile to survey the reaction of his audience. They surely were looking forward to hear him more. But he had come to the end of the story. Prof. Choudhury invited them to ask questions if they had any. In fact there were plenty and he answered them one by one. Later he explained why he had decided to translate this particular book. He said that the story and the characters seem to correspond to the real life situation and real life people in our country under any government at any given time. This universal appeal motivated him to select the novel for translation. We could not thank him enough for finding time to be with us that afternoon. We want to thank Prof. Shahin Kabir and Prof. Asrar Chowdhury and all the students for joining the adda.