<i>Bhaswar Banerjee receives Naren Biswas Padak '07</i>

(From left) Golam Kuddus, M Hamid, Qayyum Chowdhury and Ashraful Alam place a wreath at Naren Biswas' portrait(Top), Elora Ahmed Shukla sings at the programme(Bottom)

Cultural organisation Kanthoshilon honoured Bhaswar Banerjee with the Naren Biswas Padak this year. The programme was held at the Liberation War Museum on November 27, marking the ninth death anniversary of Naren Biswas. Biswas was an expert on standard Bangla pronunciation and modulation and also one of the founding members of Kanthoshilon.
Qayyum Chowdhury, Abul Momen, M Hamid, Dr. Shoumitra Shekhar, Golam Sarwar and Golam Kuddus were present at the occasion and paid tributes to Naren Biswas. Other recitation organisations -- Katha Abritti Charcha Kendra, Shwonon and Abritti Shomonnoy Parishad -- also attended the programme. Qayyum Chowdhury presided over the event.
Dr. Shaumitra Shekar, assistant professor at the Department of Bangla, Dhaka University presented the keynote paper titled Bhashaye Bhoot Bhashar Bhabishyat. The paper addressed different issues related to the standardisation of Bangla and the challenges posed to the language by the current economic globalisation. Dr. Shekhar also recalled Naren Biswas's towering efforts to compile a dictionary of practical Bangla pronunciation of over 30000 words. Biswas also supervised the 13 volumes of the audio production Oitijjher Ongikar, a collection of recitation, from Charjapad to works of poet Shamsur Rahman.
The programme also included a song and recitations. Elora Ahmed Shukla rendered the song Shudhu tomar bani noy go bondhu. Monowar Mahmud Jewel, Shanta Sraboni, Rabishankar Moitri, Iqbal Khurshed Zafar, Rafiqul Islam, Mahidul Islam and Zahirul Haque Khan recited at the programme.
Kanthoshilon has been honouring personalities who have contributed to the field of standard pronunciation of Bangla for the last eight years. Previous recipients of the Naren Biswas Padak are Nazim Mahmud (posthumous), Golam Mustafa, Nikhil Sen, Ashraful Alam, Sanjida Khatun and Niranjan Adhikari, Prodip Ghosh and Shamsur Rahman (posthumous).