A generation owes Sheba Prokashoni

Remember growing up with ‘Teen Goyenda’? Or being scolded by your mother when she found out you were reading ‘Masud Rana’? Remember hiding the ‘Kishore Classics’ inside your text book and reading while the class is on? Kazi Anwar Hossain, Rakib Hasan, Neaz Morshed, Khasru Chowdhury, Rawshan Jamil, Asaduzzaman- these names we knew by heart. These names became our secret best friends. In fact these names created a whole generation. A generation of liberal, outgoing, adventurous, unorthodox, progressive, passionate, knowledgeable, educated population base.       

Have you ever wondered what happened to those legendary writers of Sheba Prokashoni? Here, I shall try to bring back our childhood heroes to life once again.

The creator of ‘Teen Goyenda’, the first ever Bangladeshi young detective series, Rakib Hasan still lives in Dhaka, still writing books like before but not for Sheba. Now he writes for various publishers as well as magazines. “I literally broke up with ‘Teen Goyenda’ in 2002. And after that, I have been writing for Banglabazaar, Prothoma and Tamrolipi. My only identity was ‘writer of Sheba’ for a very long time but now I am myself. And I am quite content about it”- says Rakib. Publishing house Prothoma has published four books of Rakib’s rendition of ‘Teen Goyenda’ series in two years. The series is called ‘Goyenda Kishore, Musa, Robin’. Side by side he is writing a whole new series called ‘Kishore Goyenda (young detective)’ for Banglabazaar. Unlike ‘Teen Goyenda’, the story of this series is set in Bangladeshi context. Other than detective stories, he is writing horror novels as well, which is being published by Tamrolipi. Minimum twelve horror books were published and from the very first year, the series has been a success. “After creating ‘Teen Goyenda’, I started believing in myself. My confidence was boosted up and I had faith that I could create anything. And because of the confidence in myself, I actually could create different characters and plots. And my new creations became as successful as the first”. When asked why he left Sheba, his straight forward answer was “We had disagreements, we were no longer serving each other’s purpose, and so Sheba and I chose to walk different ways. And I believe my decision was right”.

However, he feels obligated toward his readers; this is exactly why he writes ‘Goyenda Kishore, Musa, Robin’. After leaving Sheba, he has also worked for television drama. He wrote the screenplay for the science fiction series, ‘Biraler Oporadh (cat’s sin)’, which was aired on Ekushey Television. His first screenplay was for a horror Television drama, ‘Shayla’. Very soon Maasranga Television will start airing ‘Teen Goyenda’. For this, Maasranga, Sheba and Rakib have a peaceful agreement. 

“Even though I still write like before, I can feel my capacity is reducing every moment. I have become old and am not physically fit anymore”- with a deep breath came out these words from Rakib. He is truly grateful to the readers for making his books live for decades. He gave all the credit to the readers for his success.

Neaz Morshed, who has opened a new door to world literature for young readers also lives in Dhaka, currently working at ‘Shomoy Television’.  Holding his hands, Bangladeshi children, young adults and even adults walked a strange and exciting path of world literature. He translated over 30 books in Bangla including ‘Three Musketeers’ by Alexandre Dumas (French), ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens (English), ‘A Farewell to Arms’, by Earnest Hemingway (American), ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte (English) and ‘Don Quixote’ by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Spnish). He also wrote about 15 books based on foreign literary works, among which one was written for ‘Kuwasha’ series and another for ‘Masud Rana’ series.

Does he still translate novels? The answer is ‘no’. “I don’t have time, energy or the will to translate. Translating or writing is a very difficult and tiresome work. Thirty years back, I needed money and did not have a job so I started translating books for Sheba”- said Neaz indifferently. Neaz Morshed Worked for Sheba from 1982 to 1989. As soon as he got a job at The Daily Ittefaq, he quit Sheba but kept writing occasionally as a contributor. The last book he translated was ‘Morning Star’ by Henry Rider Haggard in 2002, when Ekushey Television was shut down. For about a year he was jobless and had time to write again. His first full length translated novel was, ‘Robinson Crusoe’ by Daniel Defoe.

Would he start translating again for his readers? “No, if the readers ask me to start translating again, I would not be able to keep their request”- said Neaz. Contrary to Rakib’s views, Neaz does not feel obligated to his readers at all. He explained, “I never felt any obligation towards my readers. My obligation was and is always towards my family. And I started writing to fulfill that obligation”.

No matter how indifferent he might portray himself to be, he could not help mentioning that sometimes he feels nostalgic about his writing days. And after retirement he might just start writing again. And he would start with short stories this time- “It has been really long that I have written something. I lost the habit of writing. Therefore, I will start translating the short stories first. It will take less effort, time and patience”.        

To his readers- “I have only one request to you. Please be honest and patriotic to make Bangladesh a beautiful livable place. Our time is up. Only you can make a change now. Only you can heal Bangladesh”.  

More than 45 remarkable Sheba books including ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Hemmingway and many from the ‘Western series’ are translated by Rowshan Jamil. A big community of Bangladeshi youth got introduced to old West frontier of America by Jamil. The person, who successfully took all those young hearts to the era of cowboys and gun fights, is now in New York. And currently working at the New York City Department of Education as a translator. “Old habits die hard”- said Jamil sarcastically. 

Jamil worked for Sheba for about 10 years. “I didn't leave Sheba. In fact, a couple of years ago, I spoke to Qazida about writing again, it did not work out. I guess, because our worldview has changed. He wanted me to start where I left off, but you know you cannot wade in the same stream twice”- explained Jamil. Kazi Anwar Hossain wanted him to write thrillers again. But Jamil wanted to work on more serious type of literature and publish in hard cover. He had stopped writing for a long time. However, after the break of twenty long years, he came back recently. A translation work, "Juddher Meyera ebong onyanyo golpo" came out in last Ekushey Book Fare from Prothoma. It is translated from Chinua Achebe's short stories. His another translation is in the pipeline, ‘Short Story Collection of Haruki Murakami’. He is also working on essays of Camus. Just like Rakib, Jamil also could not write for Sheba because of disagreements. But if the opportunity presents itself, he sure will contribute to Sheba again- “I am still alive and kicking. If ever Sheba’s worldview coincides with mine, I shall definitely work with them”.

Jamil is truly thankful to his readers. They are the sole reason for him to be back at writing again. He feels, at Sheba, him and Neaz were a little out of the circle. “Neaz translated classics and I, in my complex Bangla, translated westerns. Never realized, someday I would have so many readers and admirers who would find me on Facebook and force me to start writing all over again”. Jamil feels indebted to his readers and could not stop saying “thank you” to them.  

“I am fine, still staying at Shegunbagicha. Because of old age, I cannot hear well these days”- said the father of ‘Kuwasha’ and ‘Masud Rana’. Kazi Anwar Hossain, who founded ‘Sheba Prokashoni’ and gave opportunities to so many writers and translators, is still writing ‘Thrillers’ and ‘Masud Rana’.

He shed some light on where some of the other Sheba writers are. Urmi Rahman went away to London. From there she continued writing for a short while but then slowly she became busy and stopped writing. Asaduzzaman (the translator of ‘The Invisible Man’ by H. G. Wells) is now a secretary of the Government. He has big responsibilities now, therefore, does not have any time to write for Sheba. But he is with ‘Bishwa Shahitya Kendra’. Asad still visits Kazi Anwar Hossain on his birthdays. Roksana Naznin, one of the writers of ‘Sheba Romantic Series’, is now in Canada.

When asked about the Masud Rana controversy, Kazi explains- “I still write ‘Masud Rana’. There is a misconception that ‘Masud Rana’ is being published in my name but the books are actually written by various other writers. This is not true. Because of my old age and increasing demand of ‘Masud Rana’, I often seek help from others in exchange of money. Many people have assisted me in writing ‘Masud Rana’, many have written fractions of a whole book”. The next question arises here, whether ‘Masud Rana’ will die with Kazi Anwar Hossain or not. His spontaneous answer was, “I have no plan of killing ‘Masud Rana’. After my death, my sons will carry on writing the series. If they want to kill ‘Masud Rana’, they will. It is up to them. I can guarantee that ‘Masud Rana’ will not be killed before my death.”

Another famous series was ‘Kuwasha, which is out of print for decades. According to Kazi, ‘Kuwasha’ was unsuccessful. The sale was so low that it was not possible for us to keep on publishing the series. However, there are still some crazy fans of ‘Kuwasha’. Considering the readers’ emotion, Sheba published three more of ‘Kuwasha’ books 7-8 years back. But it was again unsuccessful. Therefore, Sheba is not considering reprinting ‘Kuwasha series’.

Kazi Anwar Hossain does not have public appearances. He does not attend interviews. But why? His confessional statement was- “I am camera shy. Even when I used to sing, I never liked doing it in front of camera. I avoid self-proclamation. I have got everything I wanted. I am completely satisfied and content.”

When asked about the poor quality of paper and binding of Sheba books, he explained- “I want to give out books at very cheap price. The quality of a book does not depend on the quality of the paper. Sheba is an organization from where you will get good books for cheap price. Anybody can afford Sheba books. If Rabindranath Tagore wrote on news print papers, the quality and depth of his writing would not have reduces”.

Even though Sheba is going through a difficult time and the business is not flying anymore, Kazi thinks that Sheba will not be shut down. After his time, his sons will continue writing and they will look after the business. Kazi does not think the other publishers are competitors of Sheba. According to him; technology, social media, entertainment media and various other forms of media are the competitors of Sheba. “When I will not be around, my sons will take the decisions. They are wise enough to do the right thing. If they feel that Sheba needs to be shut down, they will shut it down”.          

To the readers- “I am who I am because of the readers. Readers gave me unconditional love and admiration. They gave me the opportunity to give them something. I am honored and grateful to them’.

Will Sheba survive? Only time will tell. But Sheba will live in the hearts of millions of readers. Sheba will be passed down from generation to generation.

            

     

           

                      

Infolady- a change agent of the society

Batgirl patrols Gotham City; Manhattan depends on spider-girl; Themyscira has Wonder Woman and our Bangladesh has its own ‘Infolady’. An Infolady’s super power is information. Every moment she is serving her village using this power.  

I came across the term ‘Infolady’ (Bangla: ‘Tathyakalyani’) in 2013. The name instantly caught my attention. I came to know that there is a group of women who roam around on bicycles with a laptop, internet modem, a camera, a mobile phone etc. they go door to door in their villages and sell information. And this is how they are empowering themselves as well as their villages.     

 A social enterprise, Dnet coined the term ‘Infolady’ and invented a social entrepreneurship model envisaging women as change agents of the society. This model of info-preneurship for women has the multi-layered impacts on the lives of community people. Infoladies help marginalized citizens to overcome structural constraints and create opportunities for informed choice through access to information at the door step.

Shathi Akhtar, from Gaibandha, was one of the first Infoladies of the village, Dharabosha. She shared the experience of her journey as an Infolady. When Infolady was campaigning in Gaibandh, Shathi heard the miking one day and became interested. She went through the selection procedure and got selected. But her parents were against this new concept of Infolady model. Shathi was supposed to invest 45,000 Taka for the equipment. But she couldn’t arrange the money. Later, she convince her mother and borrowed 15,000 Taka from her and started working as an Infolady. She was kicked out of her house for going against her father and was forced to stay at her paternal aunt’s place for a week.

‘Initial 6 months were the toughest’- said Shathi. During that period, there was almost no income. The society did not accept this new concept of income generation. Moreover, the Infoladies had to go through hostility and verbal abuse every single day for the first 6 months. The elderly people of the village directly labeled Infoladies as ‘rotten women’. They were resistant to women riding bicycles. Men on the road used to taunt them. Shathi, along with 9 other Infoladies became frustrated. But they were determined to carry out the work.

At first the Infoladies used to earn 200 to 300 Taka per month. But now they earn about 12,000 to 16,000 a month. Slowly the view of the society changed. Villagers started contacting Infoladies for measuring blood pressure, testing blood sugar, determining blood group, testing pregnancy, clicking passport size photograph etc. Old women and men started taking the services of Infolady to contact their migrated sons through Skype. Students and young individuals sought help from Infoladies to browse internet. ‘The satisfaction level is so high that the villagers often pay double or triple the amount of the actual charge of the service’- Shathi explained.

Mobile lady is the predecessor to Infolady and it started its journey in 2004. In 2006, the piloting phase of Infolady programme had started. From 2011 to 2013, Infolady was scaled up through franchise model and in 2014, several new scaling up approaches have been initiated. “Currently 50 Infoladies are working in the field and they have served more than three hundred thousand citizens. Four hundred communities are getting the services of Infoladies and each community’s Benefit of Investment (BOI) is fifteen times the amount of the investment”- explained Mr. Forhad Uddin, Head of Impact and Research of Dnet.

“Through National Bank Limited, Bangladesh Bank has disbursed 100 million Taka to scale up the Infolady programme”- said Ms. Laura Mohiuddin, Head of Infolady Social Entrepreneurship Programme – ISEP. Her plan is to scale out fifteen hundred Infoladies by the end of 2016. She also mentioned, soon Infolady programme will be launched in all the districts.

Source:

Dnet

ISEP

Forhad Uddin, Head of Impact and Research of Dnet, Laura Mohiuddin

Head of Infolady Social Entrepreneurship Programme – ISEP

Shathi Akhtar, Infolady      

              

Arthur’s Odyssey

‘.. history and fiction have become inexplicably intertwined..’ –Arthur C. Clarke

‘2001: A space odyssey’ is a well-known title in the movie and book lover community. It is undoubtedly one of the world’s greatest science fictions of all time. The title keeps recurring at the top of almost all the science fiction rating lists. But why? What is so special about the movie?
Incredibly slow but very realistic; at the same time it has the ability to induce trance – this is what I was thinking while watching the movie. I did not realize the weight of it until I read the book. I was spellbound after reading it. The effect of the movie or the book is so powerful that it makes a man wonder about his very existence. There are very few novel inspired movies which are as good as the original novels. ‘2001: A space odyssey’ is one of them.
The facts revolving around the 2001: A space odyssey is an example of the perfect surreal mix of fact and fantasy. In August 24, 1989; Arthur C. Clarke wrote, ‘2001 was written in an age which now lies beyond one of the great divides in human history’. Historically the movie is very significant. It was the last space travel movie shot before men actually landed on the moon. Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins had already seen the movie when they left for the moon.
The first men ever to set eyes upon the dark side of the moon were the crew of Apollo 8. And they were tempted to radio back the discovery of a large black monolith (as shown in the movie). But of course they were refrained from this childish act.
Later, almost uncanny instances of nature imitating art were revealed. In 1970, the command module of Apollo 13 was named Odyssey. Just before the explosion of the oxygen tank which caused the mission to be aborted, the crew had been playing Richard Strauss’s ‘Zarathustra’ theme which is the opening sound track of the movie. Immediately after the power loss, Jack Swigert (NASA astronaut and crew of Apollo 13) contacted mission control and said, ‘..We’ve had a problem’. These exact words were pronounced by the protagonist, Hal of 2001: A space odyssey on a similar occasion. ‘I still get a very strange feeling when I contemplate this whole series of events- almost, indeed, as if I share a certain responsibility’- said Arthur regarding the Apollo 13 incident.
In the movie, the third confrontation between man and monolith was among the moons of Jupiter. When 2001 was written (in the mid-sixties), Jupiter’s moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto were mere points of light in the sky detected by the most powerful telescope. But within fifteen years, they were worlds. One of them, Io was found out to be the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. The similarity between the actual movies from the camera of Voyager 1 (the farthest human-made object from Earth, launched to study the outer Solar System) and Jupiter sequence from the 2001 movie fascinated Arthur.
In Chapter 35 of the book, Arthur described the discovery of the Saturnian moon (also known as Iapetus or Japetus) as a brilliant white oval with a tiny black dot at the center, which turns out to be the monolith. And when Voyager 1 transmitted the first photographs of Saturnian moon, they disclosed a large clear-cut white oval with a tiny black dot at the center. As soon as Carl Sagan (American Astrophysicist) saw these photographs, he sent a copy to Arthur with a short note saying, ‘Thinking of you’.         
However, at the premier of the movie, there were 241 walkouts and it was heavily criticized. According to the New York Times, the movie was 'Somewhere between hypnotic and immensely boring'. Newsday's view was, 'Superb photography major asset to confusing, long-unfolding plot'. But, confusing people was precisely what Arthur C. Clarke was intending to do- 'If you understand 2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered'- said Arthur.

         
Published:
http://bdnews24.com/entertainment/2014/05/21/arthurs-odyssey
 
Reference:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/21/space-odyssey-kubrick-science-fiction
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/16/top-10-sci-fi-movies
2001: A Space Odyssey the movie
2001: A Space Odyssey the book (Author’s note)