Letter From Boston
“Abar Ashibo Phirey”: Bengal's soul
I am not a poet but I love to hang out with poets. Some of Boston's Bengali literary stars with whom I regularly share the first drafts of my literary endeavours also happen to be poets, and I often attend their gatherings. Lekhoni and Bhin Golardho are two well-known domains in the Bangla writers' community, and they celebrate the National Poetry Month, which falls in April, in an artistic manner every year. April being the first full month of spring in the USA, as well as the month of Bengali New Year, we unleash our creative energy and feelings of love, with expressions of joy and fellowship via various activities during this month.
Ernest Hemingway once said, "But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it had frozen." No sooner that spring arrives in late March than I look forward to three major events: Apriler Poddo Paathh, Pahela Baisakh celebrations, and Baisakhi Mela. Apriler Poddo Paathh (APP) is the annual poetry reading festival jointly organized by Lekhoni and Bhin Golardho. The Daily Star readers might remember my account of this event from three years ago where I gave a brief description of this gathering (Literature Section, April 27, 2008). At this event, poetry lovers and poets get together on a Sunday afternoon and read, enjoy and talk about poetry. Most bring their own poetry to read and share, but others like myself, come to breathe and renew our ties with poetry.
I would be remiss if I don't mention the efforts of Lekhoni and Bhin Golardho in celebrating APP on a regular basis and bringing together poetry lovers of various national origins (including the USA, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the UK) who come together from neighbouring states, but also from as far away as North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Lekhoni has been blessed with the active participation of Gouri Dutta, Manisha Roy, Swapna Roy and Rahul Roy, while Bhin Golardho is the brainchild of Badiuzzaman Khan Nasim. Each of these organizations has been active in other capacities in their own community, and Lekhoni and its members have always extended a helping hand to struggling writers, including myself.
This year APP was held on April 17 at the elegant meeting room of Jayanti Bandopadhay's apartment building in Danvers, a city north of Boston. On a bright sunny afternoon, we started at 2 o'clock and for the next five hours we read and listened to poems, written by the participants as well as more recognized poets of the world, and then finally after a short dinner break we transitioned to music. In his opening comments, the master of ceremonies, Sumit Nag, set the tone for the afternoon by providing a brief background to modern Bengali poetry. Sumit very aptly expressed our feelings on this occasion when he said, "We come here to not only show our appreciation and love for the poets who gave voice to our many sentiments, but also to discover them in new ways."
After the introduction, Satyapriyo Sarkar read three poems, one of them by H.M Ershad. Next, it was my turn, and I read from Tagore's moving love song, "Jodi Nai Jeeban Puron Nai Holo" and a modern English poem by Dean Young, "The Rhythms Pronounced Themselves Then Vanish". Young is the William Livingston Chair of Poetry at the University of Texas, Austin.
Next Sajal Banerjee read one of his own compositions, a modern poetry entitled "Ekti Chakurir Shondhaney" followed by Utpal Sengupta who read two poems, including one by Taslima Nasreen in which she expresses her yearnings for her homeland. Sitting by the Mediterranean Sea, the poet beckons the sea gulls and asks them to carry her on its wings to the shores of the Bay of Bengal!
Khan Farabi was a young poet who died when I was at Dhaka University. I went back thirty years when Jayanta Nag read from Farabi's verses. Next, there were a couple of poems alluding to the foibles of our politicians, both in West Bengal and Bangladesh. It was interesting to note that we heard verses both mocking and saluting the late Jyoti Basu, the latter by Jayanta Nag who read his own composition in which he paid homage to Jyoti Basu after his death. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Nasreen read Kazi Nazrul Islam's "Samyobadi"a selection that was influenced by her shared belief in the message that Kazi Nazrul expounded many years ago.
The next poet, Prithviraj Choudhury, who among other things is a professor, musician, and actor, read two pieces, including "Itee Apu", a fictional letter written by Bibhuti Bhushan`s Apu in search of his roots, from his own recently published book entitled "Shikhor Ekhon Wireless". Prithviraj travelled from Philadelphia for this occasion and we were told that his recent book ceremony was attended by poet Joy Goswami in Kolkata. A few others also read their own poems, including Gouri Dutta, Manisha Roy, Kunal Joardar, Paroma Paul, Samrat Chakraborty, Dipankar Mukherjee, Jayanti Bandopadhay, and Satabhisha Mukherjee. We also heard "Porajito Postman" by Badiuzaman Nasim,"Jeerno Jama" by Sudipto Biswas, "Nishwobder Shobdo" by Gulshan Ara Kazi, and "Manush Eney Dibey" by Hosne Ara Begum. Papiya Banerjee read with emotion her own "Ekanto Oboshorey". Piyal and Neera, a couple from Connecticut, played the roles of two ex-lovers who meet after a long absence on a moving train, and recited Tagore's "Hothath Dekha" with heart. Neruda's love poem "Tonight I can write the saddest lines" was read with passion by Nilay Mukherjee. Other participants worth noting are Aloke Dey, Shanta Nag, Krishna Dasgupta, and Kazi Tamjidul Huda.
As each of these talented Bangalees came to the microphone, we travelled the globe with them and peeked into the realms of new and old poets who wrote on themes as varying as the current economic plight, forlorn love, dirty politics, and beautiful nature. The popularity of this event was evident from the geographical scatter of the attendees, some of whom drove hundreds of miles from their homes, to celebrate this day. Apriler Poddo Paatth was truly a magnet which brought us all together for a few hours.
Postscript: I must add that from a personal angle, the most attractive part of the afternoon was the food and the musical soiree that followed. This year, the food masters (Saema Khan, Manisha Roy and Gouri Dutta) decided to take a break from home cooking and ordered the main course, biryani, from "Darul Kabab" a famous eatery in Cambridge. The dessert, freshly made, lal mohan, and the pies were just the icing on the cake, as they say. At the impromptu musical soiree following dinner, we all joined in with the gifted ones, Nasreen Shibli, Shanta Nag, Kazi Belal, Sujata Bhattacharya, Bulbul Chakroborty, Sumit Nag and Jayanti Bandopadhay.