Of boat, culture

Yves Marre, managing director of TaraTari Shipyard Ltd, addresses a press conference on “Boat Technology in Chittagong and in Bengal” festival at Alliance Franchise De Chittagong in the port city yesterday. The festival is a joint initiative of The Daily Star and Alliance Française de Chittagong.Photo: STAR

With the title of a popular folk song of Chittagong "Tora Kon Kon Zabi Aar Sampanat (Who of you will board my boat?)", a week-long festival featuring boat technology and culture of Chittagong and Bengal begins today.
The gala jointly organised by The Daily Star and Alliance Française de Chittagong is a sequel to last year's The Daily Star-Odommo Chattagram Festival. It aims at promoting rich history, culture, heritage and prospects of Chittagong.
The programmes will be held at different venues of the city -- District Shilpakala Academy at Dampara, Alliance Française de Chittagong (AFC) at Chawk Bazar, Bishod Bangla at Mehedibagh, the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and Taratari Shipyard at Kalurghat. Only the concluding event on February 9 will be held at Sonadia Paschim Para School in Cox's Bazar.
The gala will include film show, folk song, recitation, "slow-food" festival, conference and photo exhibition.
At a press conference at AFC yesterday, Raisul Huq Bahar, Chittagong bureau chief of the English daily, and Samuel Berthet, director of AFC, gave details of the festival.
The newspaper made the effort with AFC this year to fulfil its pledge to continue promoting history, culture, heritage and economic potentials of Chittagong, Raisul said.
Although Chittagong is one of 10 fast growing cities in the world, many people outside the city do not know much about it -- its rich past and potentials -- and that is why the newspaper decided to organise such programmes regularly, he added.
AFC joined The Daily Star to promote the rich heritage of boat making technology of Chittagong, Samuel said. Having a lot of water bodies, including rivers and the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh enjoys the richest heritage of boat making in the South Asian region, he added.
Yves Mare, a renowned personality who worked on boat technology, thanked The Daily Star and AFC for initiating this festival.
Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam is scheduled to inaugurate the festival at District Shilpakala Academy, Chittagong at 4:30pm today.
The title chosen for the first day is "Karnaphuli or Nodi". A renowned Bangla film "Titas Ekti Nadir Nam" directed by Ritwik Ghatak will be screened at the academy at 7:00pm.
Tomorrow, a number of films will be screened at AFC. In the conference session, Samuel, director of Alliance Française, will present a paper on Bengal maritime history in perspective; Jean-Françoise Salles, professor of archaeology of Lyon University, France, on the Bay of Bengal and the ancient maritime routes; Momin Chowdhury, supernumerary professor of history department, Dhaka University, on "History of Bengal: a maritime perspective" and Yves Marre on "Boats of Bengal yesterday and today" at the venue. Bangopasagar is the title of the second day.
On the third day titled "Kon Kon Zabi", Manzoorul Kibria, a teacher of Chittagong University, will present a paper on the Halda river and Shahnaj HJ Leena, a researcher of University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh, on "Sea and sky wisdom of Chittagong mariners" at AFC.
A book exhibition will be organised at Bishod Bangla. A concert by Abdul Gafur Hali and Babul Jal Das and a recitation programme by Proma Abritti Sangathan will also be held at Shilpakala Academy.
The fourth day's events are a conference at CCCI at 11.00am and a film show at AFC. It is titled “Egiye Cholo”.
On Thursday, a photography exhibition and a food festival will be held at AFC in the evening. The day is titled "Shutki Khao".
The sixth day is titled "Sampanat". Minister for Textiles and Jute Abdul Latif Siddiqui will inaugurate the first ever fibre boat in Bangladesh at Taratari Shipyard in Kalurghat. France Embassador to Bangladesh Michel Trinquier will be present there as chief guest.
On Saturday, the festival will be concluded through a visit to Sonadia Paschim Para School at Sonadia in Cox's Bazar.