Poet Bande Ali Mia's ancestral house in Pabna lies unattended

PABNA, Aug 21: Children's writer and poet Bande Ali Mia's ancestral house at Radhanagar-Narayanpur in Pabna district town has been lying uncared for due to lack of proper maintenance.
The 118-year-old house of the gentle, modest, soft-spoken, slow-witted and quiet poet is built on about six bighas of land and covered with grass and forests.
Windows and doors of the collapsed building have been fully and partially damaged. Plants have grown at many places of the building, including on the rooftops. In short, the entire house has become uninhabitable.
Bande Ali Mia enriched Bengali literature by writing numerous poems, essays, rhymes and novels for children.
A highly gifted poet, Bande Ali Mia was born on January 17, 1906 in a lower-middle class family in Radhanagar-Nara-yanpur Mohalla of Pabna district town.
His father Munshi Umed Ali used to work in Pabna Judge's Court. Poet Bande Ali Mia struggled with poverty throughout his life. He used to work in Rajshahi Betar Kendra. He was relentlessly engrossed in his pursuits.
Poet Bande Ali Mia depicted the behaviour and character traits of the common people of rural Bengal and rural sceneries in interesting ways in rhymes.
During a visit to the poet's house on Tuesday, this correspondent talked to his sons and daughters and grandchildren.
Among poet's three daughters and six sons, younger son Ramizul Islam,62, and two daughters Dilruba Begum,67, and Afroza Begum,68, are alive.
All the three siblings including Ramizul Islam who is speech-impaired are leading a financially precarious life. Failing to endure the pangs of poverty, they advertised online to sell their father's ancestral house.
On seeing the announ-cement, officials of the Archeology Department came to the house and spoke to the members of the poet's family.
Poet's daughter Afroza Begum said the archeology department offered to preserve the house as an archeological site and the family gave their consent.
A long time ago, a committee called "Kabi Bande Ali Mia Saran Parishad" was formed by some cultural-minded local people.
The convener of this committee, Dr Moha-mmad Habibullah, who is a professor of the History Department of Pabna Science and Technology University, told The Financial Express, "We have formed this committee to make the memories of the late poet everlasting. At least the poet's birth and death anniversaries are observed with their own collected money.I'm drawing the attention of the departments concerned to preserve the heritage of the poet's house."
A search in school information reveals that he passed his matriculation from Majumdar Academy in Pabna town in 1923. After that he got admission in Calcutta Art Academy and passed in first division. He was the only Muslim student at that time.
From 1930 to 1946 he taught in Calcutta Corporation School.After partition in 1947, he became close to rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and poet Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta life.
Various gramophone companies recorded his songs and plays and released them in the market.He has about 200 books. Notable among them are Mainamati Char, Anurag, Padmanadi Char, Madhumati Char, Dhar-itri, Aranya, Twilight and Storm Signal.
Children's books inc-lude Chor Jaai, Megh-kumari, Mrigpari, Stupid Jaai (Boka Jai), Kamal Atatürk, Nazrul of Chhotad.
In 1927, his first poetry book 'Chor-Jamai' was published from Ashutosh Library in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). In 1931, his famous poetry book 'Mainamati Char' was published from DM Library in Kolkata.
His first poem titled 'Chhinnapatra' was published in Natore's Bengal Presidency Gazette in 1922. After the partition of the country in 1947, poet Bande Ali Mia migrated from Kolkata to the then East Pakistan. He joined Dhaka Betar in 1964 and later Rajashahi Betar and remained there until death.

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