Korokdi is a village
Friday, 6 January 2012
Masum Billah reviewing the book
The book Krokdi is the name of a village which bears testimony to the deep love of one's motherland and to learn its glorious history. Subrata Kumar Das has arrested all the glorious history and the famous personalities his village produced but with the passage of time who now live in Kolaka. Mr. Das photographed the remains of the houses of those famous personalities and posted them on the facebook which titillated their interest to see their village they left in their childhood. A big reunion was arranged by Subrata and the book contains a vivid description of the gathering, the reminiscence of the expatriates, Bangladeshi renowned litterateurs and local leaders. A few kilometres from Baagat, off the highway and some two kilometers through the open field this culturally rich village Korokdi stands. The thing that prompted Subrata to arrange such kind of gathering and collected everything in this book is interesting enough to learn. His father had picked up a book called Madhbahrata Manjari published in 1928 from a footpath in Kolkata and Subrata discovered that the book was written by Bankim Chandra Lahiri of Korokdi while leafing through it one day and got astonished . His interest in Koroki awakened, he began to research the place and its people . What he found amazed him. This small and very remote village had produced many people who had excelled in their sphere of activity. Many of these he had heard of from his father and he was intrigued at the diverse talents that had emerged from Korokdi.
The comments of the guests who participated in the Krokdi Samabesh will make us enter into the events. These have been pictured in the book. "We landed in Dhaka on the 29th January 2010 not really knowing what to expect. All of us, my sister, my cousin, my children and I had grown up on stories of Korokdi, of the Padma, of the Goalundo Ghat and of Bagat, and so much more. Here we were actually going to see it all. But what came before that took us by surprise. Subrata had told us that he had arranged a press conference that morning but to our amazement, when we reached the National Press Club in Dhaka, we found it was packed, not only with journalists but also with many renowned intellectuals, civil right and political activists."
Subrata Kumar invited me also to participate in the programme but some of my preoccupations did not make it happen to join it. But my learning these exciting events from reading of the book make me repentant for being unable to enjoy the whole affair of Krokdi Samabesh. Clearly like me, many friends at the Press Club these ordinary men and women also felt an urge a curiosity to know and connect with the past and spontaneously came to Krokdi to make the whole function a success.
Prof. Mozaffar Hossain, Dr. Sanjay Adhikari, Prof. Mesbah Kamal, senior journalist Mozammel Hosain Manju, Abu Syed Khan of Dainik Samakal and many others also brought success to the Samadesh. They were people who sought to reclaim the past that had been theirs but was now fading into oblivion. It was a wonderful experience. The warmth and friendliness of the people, their consideration, their hospitality and their simplicity left us deeply touched. But gradually I learnt that the two persons who gave huge efforts for making the 'Samabesh' successful were Principal Kazi Firoz and Madhukhali upazilla Vice-Chairman Abu Sayeed Mian.
Another participant from Kolkata says, " Korokdi was a small village really surrounded by mustard and jute fields, even in my father's time. By the time my father was born it was a pretty prosperous and relatively modern village. My grandfather had installed the first tube-well in the village and someone actually had a fridge that ran on kerosene! There was library named after a Bhattacharya which had rare collection of ancient texts, besides other books. "
Roman Rolland ( 1866-1944), the French Nobel Laureate for literature in 1915, was one of the pioneering western philosophers who played a role in disseminating Indian spiritual philosophy in the West. He developed links with many Bengali figures, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Jagadish Chandra Bose . His biographies called Vie de Ramakrishna and Vie de Vivekandan (1930) promoted Indian spiritual ideologies across the world. All such facts have meticulously been researched by the Bengali writer Abanikumar Sanyal who was born in tradition rich village Korokdi in Faridpur district and who has two books on Rolland and two translations of Rolland's books to his credit.
Sulekah lived for a short while from 1928 to 1962 only. Excluding her major work Nabankur, she wrote a second novel titled Dewal-Padma along with some short stories. A third novel was published posthumously. Though her output is relatively small, any sensitive reader of Banla fiction will recognize and accord to Sulekha a special place. The plots of her stories were very much exiting. Most of these short stories are set around the time of the Second World War, the 1905 Partition of Bengal and the infamous Bengal famine. Almost all the stories are capable of drawing tears from the eyes of sensitive readers. When Sulekah was merely aged 26 she was very much courageous and outspoken. She had been nurtured in the remote village of Krokdi of Faridpur, who later became a communist and refused to bow down to the conventions and rules of the day and took part in some many social and political activities in the 1940s.
Sulekah was born in a zamindar family of declining fortunes in Korokdi on 5 June 1928. The whole family was known for her involvement in the anti-British movement. She passed her childhood days and early adolescent at the Mashima's Chatogram. In 1942, when the city was bombed by the Japanese, she returned to her village and sat for her matriculation examination as a private candidate in 1944. Sulekah later was admitted to Rajendra College, Faripur and after passing her intermediate examination in 1946, went to Kolkata and enrolled herself in Victoria Institute there. In the year 1948 she got married it seems not to have been happy match and ended in a divorce in 1956.
The reading of the book will make one familiar with the enriched cultural and historical heritage of the village Korokdi which is tinged with the patriotic feeling of the writer Subrata Kumar Das.
The reviewer is Program Manager: BRAC Education Program and Vice-President: Bangladesh English Language Teachers' Association( BELTA). He can be reached at Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com
The book Krokdi is the name of a village which bears testimony to the deep love of one's motherland and to learn its glorious history. Subrata Kumar Das has arrested all the glorious history and the famous personalities his village produced but with the passage of time who now live in Kolaka. Mr. Das photographed the remains of the houses of those famous personalities and posted them on the facebook which titillated their interest to see their village they left in their childhood. A big reunion was arranged by Subrata and the book contains a vivid description of the gathering, the reminiscence of the expatriates, Bangladeshi renowned litterateurs and local leaders. A few kilometres from Baagat, off the highway and some two kilometers through the open field this culturally rich village Korokdi stands. The thing that prompted Subrata to arrange such kind of gathering and collected everything in this book is interesting enough to learn. His father had picked up a book called Madhbahrata Manjari published in 1928 from a footpath in Kolkata and Subrata discovered that the book was written by Bankim Chandra Lahiri of Korokdi while leafing through it one day and got astonished . His interest in Koroki awakened, he began to research the place and its people . What he found amazed him. This small and very remote village had produced many people who had excelled in their sphere of activity. Many of these he had heard of from his father and he was intrigued at the diverse talents that had emerged from Korokdi.
The comments of the guests who participated in the Krokdi Samabesh will make us enter into the events. These have been pictured in the book. "We landed in Dhaka on the 29th January 2010 not really knowing what to expect. All of us, my sister, my cousin, my children and I had grown up on stories of Korokdi, of the Padma, of the Goalundo Ghat and of Bagat, and so much more. Here we were actually going to see it all. But what came before that took us by surprise. Subrata had told us that he had arranged a press conference that morning but to our amazement, when we reached the National Press Club in Dhaka, we found it was packed, not only with journalists but also with many renowned intellectuals, civil right and political activists."
Subrata Kumar invited me also to participate in the programme but some of my preoccupations did not make it happen to join it. But my learning these exciting events from reading of the book make me repentant for being unable to enjoy the whole affair of Krokdi Samabesh. Clearly like me, many friends at the Press Club these ordinary men and women also felt an urge a curiosity to know and connect with the past and spontaneously came to Krokdi to make the whole function a success.
Prof. Mozaffar Hossain, Dr. Sanjay Adhikari, Prof. Mesbah Kamal, senior journalist Mozammel Hosain Manju, Abu Syed Khan of Dainik Samakal and many others also brought success to the Samadesh. They were people who sought to reclaim the past that had been theirs but was now fading into oblivion. It was a wonderful experience. The warmth and friendliness of the people, their consideration, their hospitality and their simplicity left us deeply touched. But gradually I learnt that the two persons who gave huge efforts for making the 'Samabesh' successful were Principal Kazi Firoz and Madhukhali upazilla Vice-Chairman Abu Sayeed Mian.
Another participant from Kolkata says, " Korokdi was a small village really surrounded by mustard and jute fields, even in my father's time. By the time my father was born it was a pretty prosperous and relatively modern village. My grandfather had installed the first tube-well in the village and someone actually had a fridge that ran on kerosene! There was library named after a Bhattacharya which had rare collection of ancient texts, besides other books. "
Roman Rolland ( 1866-1944), the French Nobel Laureate for literature in 1915, was one of the pioneering western philosophers who played a role in disseminating Indian spiritual philosophy in the West. He developed links with many Bengali figures, such as Rabindranath Tagore and Jagadish Chandra Bose . His biographies called Vie de Ramakrishna and Vie de Vivekandan (1930) promoted Indian spiritual ideologies across the world. All such facts have meticulously been researched by the Bengali writer Abanikumar Sanyal who was born in tradition rich village Korokdi in Faridpur district and who has two books on Rolland and two translations of Rolland's books to his credit.
Sulekah lived for a short while from 1928 to 1962 only. Excluding her major work Nabankur, she wrote a second novel titled Dewal-Padma along with some short stories. A third novel was published posthumously. Though her output is relatively small, any sensitive reader of Banla fiction will recognize and accord to Sulekha a special place. The plots of her stories were very much exiting. Most of these short stories are set around the time of the Second World War, the 1905 Partition of Bengal and the infamous Bengal famine. Almost all the stories are capable of drawing tears from the eyes of sensitive readers. When Sulekah was merely aged 26 she was very much courageous and outspoken. She had been nurtured in the remote village of Krokdi of Faridpur, who later became a communist and refused to bow down to the conventions and rules of the day and took part in some many social and political activities in the 1940s.
Sulekah was born in a zamindar family of declining fortunes in Korokdi on 5 June 1928. The whole family was known for her involvement in the anti-British movement. She passed her childhood days and early adolescent at the Mashima's Chatogram. In 1942, when the city was bombed by the Japanese, she returned to her village and sat for her matriculation examination as a private candidate in 1944. Sulekah later was admitted to Rajendra College, Faripur and after passing her intermediate examination in 1946, went to Kolkata and enrolled herself in Victoria Institute there. In the year 1948 she got married it seems not to have been happy match and ended in a divorce in 1956.
The reading of the book will make one familiar with the enriched cultural and historical heritage of the village Korokdi which is tinged with the patriotic feeling of the writer Subrata Kumar Das.
The reviewer is Program Manager: BRAC Education Program and Vice-President: Bangladesh English Language Teachers' Association( BELTA). He can be reached at Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com