Rummana Chowdhury
When I was very small and was trying to learn the alphabets, my respected tutor made a statement many times, which came back to me again and again at a later time, “If any person helps a literary person even with a broken pen or a paper, then he will gain the blessing to Allah.” In my adolescence when I was attracted to the excitement and murmur of everything around me, I started to become a little careless with my studies. At that time, my respected maternal uncle also said, “The all night prayer of an illiterate person is of comparatively low value than a literate person’s one hour sleep.”
When I had completed my Honours and was studying my Masters, I was relishing my newly arrived independence and spread my wings to spend time and gossip with my friends late into the night. My mother was saying in her strong cold voice, “A person who goes outside his-her home to attain education, until he/she returns home he/she remains in the path of Allah.” My two daughters who are studying at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo often hear the same statement from me and they smirk at me sometimes. Their sarcastic smile seems very familiar to me.
My two daughters are at that stage of their life, when they think they know everything, as if there is no educated person like them! But they are the representatives of a new generation, representatives of a new youth society, very dear children born of parents who have been born and brought up in a foreign country. I don’t know what the future holds for them, but they are not Bangladeshi Canadian like us. They are also not Canadian Bangladeshi by birth; they are Canadian — Canadian with Bangladeshi roots or Canadians of Bangladeshi origin. If you ask them, they will say that they do not want to go to Bangladesh or they will only go to visit, but never to reside permanently.
Bengali book fair, Bangladeshi Convention, Bongo Sammilon, Bengali Language school, dance, song, music, recitation school, Bengali Tele-journal, Bengali Radio and Television channel, Bengali picnics, gatherings, organizations-the younger generation increasingly do not want to go there or participate. In spite of their hesitations, doubts, and reluctance, the parents/guardians force them to attend.
I am compelled to admit that this new generation is growing up in contrasting environments in the social, mental, spiritual, cultural, religious and environmental worlds that they live in. There is a constant clash between the East and West in principles and values, and every step of the way, the new generation is confronted with this clash and is being forced to pick paths. Is there any solution to this? Are the Bangladeshis and Bengalis living abroad failing to make the decisions for youth any easier?
It is only when we can identify where our lacking is and how we are being unsuccessful, that we can find the way to resolve the situation. Our younger generation has the simplicity, patience, sympathy, general knowledge, ambition, humanism, piousness, self-reliance and love for life that are required to make the right choices for them and live a fulfilling life. They have high doses of all these. But are we able to succeed in a proper manner at the proper time to use their dedication, knowledge and commitment, and convert it into positive and productive action? The Bengali Language, Culture, and Arts are very important to the representatives of this youth world.
The English Language, French, Hindi, Urdu, Sylheti, Noakhali and various other regional languages, and the values that lie behind them, cannot be denied. But above everything, our roots, one’s own identity and background is fundamental. How do we merge it all?
It has been observed in reality that language, whatever the language may it be, has dual characteristics. On one side, languages create proper communication, and on the other side, it enhances cultural understanding. African writer Wa Thiango Nagugi said, “Language is inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world.”
The South Asian Heritage Festival was completed in June 20-22, 2008. In this multicultural country that we call a mosaic-this is a festival reflecting and staging special artists from all over the world in the field of art, literature and culture. These types of events reflect the diversity of Canada. In this festival, actually called Mosaic, there were a few media partners; one was Toronto’s Bangla Kagoz, of which the programme coordinators were Ananta Ahmad and Khaled Shumon from Bangladesh. There is an organisation called Dim trick formed and directed by Khaled Shumon represented by dances, songs, and comedy acts. But the most attractive and charming presentation was M on Wheels, meaning Truck Art of South Asia at MOSAIC 2008. This Truck Art is extremely popular in Karachi, Mumbai, Colombo and in Dhaka. The Mississauga Transit System had donated a bus for the Mosaic Arts Festival, and the bus became the canvas for four famous artists, Fattad Ahmad (Pakistan), Mike Hassen (Canada), Anjum Siddiqui (India) and our very well known Sayed Iqbal (Bangladesh), who painted beautiful reminiscent artwork from their home countries.
Iqbal made a huge contribution to mainstream Canadian Art and all Bangladeshi Canadians are extremely proud of him. He had published three novels. He has drawn and painted for hundreds of children and youth story books and poetry books. He has designed over 200 posters and book covers, each with a beautifully artistic message. His presentation and artistic expressions are excellent and praiseworthy. In the middle of Gay Centre Drive in Mississauga downtown, a busy core street in one of the largest Suburbs of North America, I saw a huge coloured bus with Bengali writing on it, accompanied with pictures and scenery from Bangladesh. I became overjoyed and overwhelmed. My heart was full of respect and admiration for this artist Sayed Iqbal. In my opinion, any Bangladeshi living outside their country is a cultural and social ambassador of Bangladesh. Whatever nationality we belong to, whatever our ages, wherever we live, however we grow up we should understand and apply the German philosopher Carl Marx’s saying “the language of real life …” We should understand and feel it in every fiber of our blood.
My respected tutor has passed away; my maternal uncle has gone to heaven, my parents have also taken leave from this world, but all of them have left behind in the innermost core of my heart their quotes and sayings, which will live forever.
My question is, will this language and culture be reflected and echoed amidst our children, for will it forever get lost through the chronological advancement of time in foreign countries?
When I was very small and was trying to learn the alphabets, my respected tutor made a statement many times, which came back to me again and again at a later time, “If any person helps a literary person even with a broken pen or a paper, then he will gain the blessing to Allah.” In my adolescence when I was attracted to the excitement and murmur of everything around me, I started to become a little careless with my studies. At that time, my respected maternal uncle also said, “The all night prayer of an illiterate person is of comparatively low value than a literate person’s one hour sleep.”
When I had completed my Honours and was studying my Masters, I was relishing my newly arrived independence and spread my wings to spend time and gossip with my friends late into the night. My mother was saying in her strong cold voice, “A person who goes outside his-her home to attain education, until he/she returns home he/she remains in the path of Allah.” My two daughters who are studying at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo often hear the same statement from me and they smirk at me sometimes. Their sarcastic smile seems very familiar to me.
My two daughters are at that stage of their life, when they think they know everything, as if there is no educated person like them! But they are the representatives of a new generation, representatives of a new youth society, very dear children born of parents who have been born and brought up in a foreign country. I don’t know what the future holds for them, but they are not Bangladeshi Canadian like us. They are also not Canadian Bangladeshi by birth; they are Canadian — Canadian with Bangladeshi roots or Canadians of Bangladeshi origin. If you ask them, they will say that they do not want to go to Bangladesh or they will only go to visit, but never to reside permanently.
Bengali book fair, Bangladeshi Convention, Bongo Sammilon, Bengali Language school, dance, song, music, recitation school, Bengali Tele-journal, Bengali Radio and Television channel, Bengali picnics, gatherings, organizations-the younger generation increasingly do not want to go there or participate. In spite of their hesitations, doubts, and reluctance, the parents/guardians force them to attend.
I am compelled to admit that this new generation is growing up in contrasting environments in the social, mental, spiritual, cultural, religious and environmental worlds that they live in. There is a constant clash between the East and West in principles and values, and every step of the way, the new generation is confronted with this clash and is being forced to pick paths. Is there any solution to this? Are the Bangladeshis and Bengalis living abroad failing to make the decisions for youth any easier?
It is only when we can identify where our lacking is and how we are being unsuccessful, that we can find the way to resolve the situation. Our younger generation has the simplicity, patience, sympathy, general knowledge, ambition, humanism, piousness, self-reliance and love for life that are required to make the right choices for them and live a fulfilling life. They have high doses of all these. But are we able to succeed in a proper manner at the proper time to use their dedication, knowledge and commitment, and convert it into positive and productive action? The Bengali Language, Culture, and Arts are very important to the representatives of this youth world.
The English Language, French, Hindi, Urdu, Sylheti, Noakhali and various other regional languages, and the values that lie behind them, cannot be denied. But above everything, our roots, one’s own identity and background is fundamental. How do we merge it all?
It has been observed in reality that language, whatever the language may it be, has dual characteristics. On one side, languages create proper communication, and on the other side, it enhances cultural understanding. African writer Wa Thiango Nagugi said, “Language is inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world.”
The South Asian Heritage Festival was completed in June 20-22, 2008. In this multicultural country that we call a mosaic-this is a festival reflecting and staging special artists from all over the world in the field of art, literature and culture. These types of events reflect the diversity of Canada. In this festival, actually called Mosaic, there were a few media partners; one was Toronto’s Bangla Kagoz, of which the programme coordinators were Ananta Ahmad and Khaled Shumon from Bangladesh. There is an organisation called Dim trick formed and directed by Khaled Shumon represented by dances, songs, and comedy acts. But the most attractive and charming presentation was M on Wheels, meaning Truck Art of South Asia at MOSAIC 2008. This Truck Art is extremely popular in Karachi, Mumbai, Colombo and in Dhaka. The Mississauga Transit System had donated a bus for the Mosaic Arts Festival, and the bus became the canvas for four famous artists, Fattad Ahmad (Pakistan), Mike Hassen (Canada), Anjum Siddiqui (India) and our very well known Sayed Iqbal (Bangladesh), who painted beautiful reminiscent artwork from their home countries.
Iqbal made a huge contribution to mainstream Canadian Art and all Bangladeshi Canadians are extremely proud of him. He had published three novels. He has drawn and painted for hundreds of children and youth story books and poetry books. He has designed over 200 posters and book covers, each with a beautifully artistic message. His presentation and artistic expressions are excellent and praiseworthy. In the middle of Gay Centre Drive in Mississauga downtown, a busy core street in one of the largest Suburbs of North America, I saw a huge coloured bus with Bengali writing on it, accompanied with pictures and scenery from Bangladesh. I became overjoyed and overwhelmed. My heart was full of respect and admiration for this artist Sayed Iqbal. In my opinion, any Bangladeshi living outside their country is a cultural and social ambassador of Bangladesh. Whatever nationality we belong to, whatever our ages, wherever we live, however we grow up we should understand and apply the German philosopher Carl Marx’s saying “the language of real life …” We should understand and feel it in every fiber of our blood.
My respected tutor has passed away; my maternal uncle has gone to heaven, my parents have also taken leave from this world, but all of them have left behind in the innermost core of my heart their quotes and sayings, which will live forever.
My question is, will this language and culture be reflected and echoed amidst our children, for will it forever get lost through the chronological advancement of time in foreign countries?
