Ekushey Boi Mela-2008

By Firoza Begum Poly

Boi, Kitab, Postak, Book, any word we use, is comprised of some individual sounds or letters. These sorts of word make a sentence. So do some sentence with a language. Disciplined and well furnished sentences are represented as poem, story, novel, drama, essays, lyric etc in a book. We embrace new development, match our experience, deepen our thought, and enlightened our cherished dream by reading a book. If this book is written in Bangla, we feel much comfort while reading it than the book of any other language.

As a part of nursing and promoting Bangla, Bangla language and literature Bangla Academy arranges a month long book fair having slogan of “Read book and collect them for future use” this year in the month of February 2008 at the academy premises . The first Ekushey book fair was held in 1974. This year the 23rd Ekushey book fair is on going with necessary formalities including inauguration by Chief Advisor Dr. Fakuruddin Ahmed. Centering Bangla Academy as many as 374 stalls are offering different sorts of publications to the book lovers and visitors. People from all walks of life are rushing to the fair and standing in a long queue enters in the mela not even showing a bit of disturbance. Everyday thousand of visitors thorn the mela from 3 pm to 9 pm.

This year the environment of the mela is more neat and clean. More space is occupied with number of stalls. Rate of sale is also satisfactory. A leading essay writer Dr. Anisuzzaman calls for by saying that a pioneer publisher Chittaranjan Babu took the initiative to arrange Boi Mela at the academy primises and in response to his call almost every writer of Bangladesh took part in the mela and sold their own books by sitting on old newspapers. Dr. Zaman grieves that every year we are losing some good writers for ever.

Shamim Ahmed, a migrated writer, estimates that the woman writer is also coming forward with their creative writings. She herself has come to the fair from England to get her poetry “Giol Gakham” sold. She insists on the matter that we should not undermine the woman writer by indicating them as woman writer rather we should evaluate them as a writer not by gender. Without discriminating the writer we must think of the standard of the respective writes -up.

Chayanat, a publishing house, joins the book fair this year for the first time. Wahidul Haq, the owner of Chayanat, has published some creative books for the mela. Pathachari, Anushilan, Kanthashilan, Rabindra Sangith Sammellan etc. are mentionable of them.

Rehana Ashiqur Rahman, a radio & television artist, has written & published her own book Rajkumarir Ganmadin, Rajputra, Sindabad Er Galpa and Jolakannaya.

Bangladesh Computer Association has also joined the fair. Riki, a sales woman of BCA stall, who is also a student of Philosophy at Jagannath University, marks the changing learning trends of the child. BCA has come up with audio-visual learning materials for the children. Riki says that the main focus of the BCA is to free the children fear of traditional learning system and to replace audio-visual and animated learning materials.

Bangla is our mother tounge. We feel eternal peace in speaking Bangla. Though it was supposed to be spoken Bangla as our birth right, we had to acquire it by exchange of blood, which is not a floral achievement. We had to sacrifice a lot. So we are expected to do something more to develop the Bangla Language and Literature. Salam, Barakat, Rafiq, Jabber contributed to Bangla by embracing death in 1952. It is our great achievement that their supreme sacrifice on the 21st February 1952 receives international acknowledgement International Mother Language Day. I am sharing some photos of Ekushe Boimela, 2008.

Ekushe and my thought

By Kazi Rafiqul Islam

Thousands of books, articles and poems were written on Ekushe (21st February-International mother language day). And also we see many seminar, symposium on it. People can see/read what happened that day in the year 1952, how many people sacrificed their lives to establish their mother tongue through these books, articles, TV news, news papers, seminar, symposium etc.

I would like to say probably we have forgotten why they have sacrificed their lives. What we see everywhere? People have started to talk in English or Hindi or other languages where they could easily talk in Bengali. Talking in English has become a fashion of our young generation. If they practice talking in English that’s fine but sometimes it seems they are showing others that they can talk in English and also feeling proud and ignoring Bengali language (their attitude prove that). I think people should talk in English or other languages where necessary but not everywhere. I would never discourage people to learn English as it is international language. We must learn English to develop ourselves and it is also needed for our country’s development and at the same time we should not forget to learn our own language Bengali (Bangla). To develop our Bengali literature and establish Bengali language we need to translate many books, articles and journals in Bengali that are written in other languages.

To acquire more knowledge people can/should learn different language specially English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic etc who have money and other opportunities. People also can learn culture, music, religion, politics etc of other countries. In these way people can compare with their own things, can add more what is good or omit what is not good.

Few months ago I went to visit one of my relatives house. They are very rich and also educated. Some of their family members live in England. One of their daughters came from England and for her honor they arranged a party where I was invited. Mother of that girl told me that her daughter can not speak in Bangla (Bengali) and she was talking like it is her pride. I just told, “Is that so?” I could not show how much I was surprised and shocked. Learning other languages is good but not forgetting own language. People can feel proud of learning many languages but what is it when people forget or stop learning his/her own language, forget own culture? I never heard about a boy or girl who has come from England or America and is living in Bangladesh or other countries but forgot his/her own language (English).

Finally I would like to say people should learn their own language first and maintain their own culture.

The Falgun Fair of Housewives

By Mohtarimun Nahar [Bipa]

Hello readers. I hope you are having a nice spring season. In our Bangladesh the spring season stays for two months [Falgun and Chaitra].

Yesterday when I was coming to The Nari Jibon Project then I found, a fair is held on Falgun. It is held near the Nari Jibon Project. I was very much attracted for one reason. I know that Bangladeshi people are fond of celebrating all the occasions. But the best part of this fair is --- it is arranged By ‘Dhaka Shatadal’ the organization of housewives. The word ‘Housewives’ attracted me a lot that I didn’t hear any organization like this.

In Bengali the name of this fair is ‘Griho Bodhu-der Falgun-er Mela’ [The Falgun Fair of Housewives].

All the sellers are housewives here. That’s why I went to visit the fair. The fair is arranged in a room. But there are many items to sell; those are: three-pieces, shawls, bed covers, skirt-tops, ornaments, Bengalese, sharees etc. Some dry foods and drinks are also sold in this fare.

I feel very happy that in this busy city Bangladeshi people try to celebrate some occasions. It can be arranged by locally or by the help of any organization or by personally. It may small but how many people try to celebrate and manage time to celebrate beside their official or other works. I feel very proud to be a Bangladeshi. Our people are very friendly and jolly minded.

I took permission of the Fair people to take some pictures. They were very happy. I would like to share some photos of this fair. Those are given below:

I went to Singapore with my family

By Farjana Hoque

In 1997, I went to Singapore with my family. That was not for the first time that I went to Singapore. In that year I spent the most beautiful time by visiting in Singapore. At that time I was in 14 years old. I remember every moment still now. I enjoyed very much in that year.

I am in Singapore

I enjoyed a lot by viewing many beautiful sceneries of Singapore. The most memorable sight seen was “Santosa, Jorong Bird Park and The Zoo”.

At First I would like to write something about Santosa. We went to Santosa by three ways. The ways were-- train, Cable Car and Ship. We used train and ship. The Cable Car was the most exciting way to go to Santosa. In Santosa there were many things that I saw and enjoyed. The most beautiful part was Water dancing. I watched water dancing in the evening in Santosa. There was a sea beach. I ate some food there.

On the next day we went to the Jorong Bird Park. It is the largest bird park of Asia. There were 8,000 birds of 600 Species from all over the world. The world largest collections are there in the park, like-- Toucans, Penguin etc. The Daily Shows are shown with these birds.

The Zoo was also exciting place for me. There were so many animals. I enjoyed the animals’ shows, like--- Elephant’s show, Bird’s show, Snake’s show etc. I enjoyed every show. I think Singapore is a very good place for traveling.

Out Against Abuse-New Blogsite Against Domestic Violence

From Kathryn B. Ward, USA and cross-posted from Bideshi Blue

As readers of this blog and Bideshi Blue know, I have been very interested in issues of violence against women, in particular, domestic violence in Bangladesh and where ever Bangladeshi women migrate as students, wives, and family members as well as in the USA. I have encouraged readers to learn more and reach out to one another and give support to organizations within their own communities. I'm very excited by a new website, Out Against Abuse, started in January 2008 to educate and organize the South Asian community in USA against gender abuse-domestic violence through information, interviews with activists, and comments-participation by readers. Please go to this blogsite, bookmark it, and read through the posts to date. The most recent post is a very informative interview with Dr. Nusrat Ameen, law professor, activist, and author of Wife Abuse in Bangladesh: An Unrecognized Offence, UPL, 2005.

The co-founders, Sabrin Chowdhury, executive director and Raj Gupta, technology director, provide their mission statement. They looking for more interviews with activists, commentary on gender abuse, information about events and resources. You can contact Out Against Abuse: info@outagainstabuse.org. Please contact them!

In the following from this blogsite, Sabrin Chowdhury writes about the purpose of Out Against Abuse:

Educating Our Community: Taking the First Step Against Gender Abuse

“Two out of five South Asian women have experienced partner violence, a rate disproportionately higher than that of other minority groups,” – www.dayahouston.org.

Domestic violence is defined as “a pattern of abusive behavior which keeps one partner in a position of power over the other partner through the use of fear, intimidation, and control*,” and is an ongoing problem that continues to plague women from all around the world. South Asian women tend to suffer from problems of gender abuse at a much more severe rate than other races; however, the topic of domestic violence is one that is rarely discussed in the South Asian community.

The problem stems from the fact that many of us do not realize how vast the effects of abuse can be and how instances of domestic violence have a grave impact on many other problems in our community. Unfortunately domestic violence is not an issue of the past and is not limited to just rural and economically disadvantaged women in South Asian countries. More and more we hear about incidents of violence committed against highly educated and independent women. In many instances these women feel forced to stay in abusive relationships due to the societal stigma that comes from failed marriages or relationships and the lack of awareness of how to deal with domestic violence in general. Many people also wrongly believe abuse to only refer to physical violence. However, domestic abuse includes physical, sexual, economic and emotional abuse, creating an atmosphere of fear and despair for the victim.

I believe that the first step in putting an end to gender abuse is educating ourselves and our community. Out Against Abuse is a blog based website devoted to discussing the issues surrounding domestic violence and gender based abuse in the South Asian community. The blog will be updated with articles discussing key women’s issues and also with interviews conducted with various activists working to combat domestic abuse. This forum was created to increase awareness and discussion in the South Asian community about gender based abuse. The more we become conscious and educated about the issue, the harder we can work at ending violence against women. But for that we need your thoughts, comments, and collaboration to spread the word in our community.

With that, I leave you with the question: What actions can we exactly take to educate our community and put a stop to violence against women? Whether the impact is great or small, how can we all do our part to end violence?

* http://www.apiahf.org/apidvinstitute/ResearchAndPolicy/factsheet.htm