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| Barisal | 2006 | Photo: Sharif Khiam |
The rain-soaked new look of childhood's favorite alleys-roads and corners, the wise surge of old trees,
padma-pukur (pond of lotus), Sunil or Apuda's tea with the silence of the Jail Khal (canal) and Bagan (garden), the curious gaze of hundreds of familiar and unfamiliar eyes, Lechu Shah, dead friends, Tapa Pagla, Town Hall, from the cows and goats of the grasslands on the banks of the
Kirtankhola to the
ilish (hilsa) floating in the clouds, gallinule's call in the old bush, rows of swan running through clear water or the noise of the egret's returning , row upon row of known- unknown lights, shops, magazines, organizations, the fading Tagore or Nawab Estate, Brahmamandir, market built on the land of 'Shaheber gorshthan' (crischtan Graveyard) adjacent to Brown Compound, Modified Jail gate and unchanged Doi Ghor (yogurt house), thirty-five year old
Shobdaboli, a new offspring of the Shalik-sparrow living on the ventilator of Kaliprasanna Hall and the disappeared
Jalali Kabutar (pigeon), changed Fakirbari, Police Club, Kalibari, Chanmari Basti (slum), T&T Colony or beloved Udayan, Oxford Mission, electric rickshaw, city Bus, broken Sonali or Kakoli and Almost Closed Beauty Cinema Hall, Helen's meat Business Strategy in Kashaipotti (slaughterhouse), domes lost pigs and crematorium dogs, green Shaluk Dighi or
Bibir Pukur (Bibi's pond); by measuring all these distant connections, this offseason pulls from the present and leads me to the past.
Mahatma Ashwini, Pragyanananda, Debendra, Nalini,
Mukunda, Durgamohan,
Jibanananda, or
Aroj can be seen in secret
Swadeshi movement events, child widows' wedding celebrations, the morgue, or a saint's arbitration session, among many other places. Sometimes
Gandhi,
Subhas, or
Tagore also come. Ah, how close. So today I am thinking: when will I be able to live in the present of Berry and Shelley's city again? Will there ever be such a birth? Will I return as a child here, in this
Barisal?
Trying to translate from Vabnangsho, a collection of Bengali poems.  |
| minar & mandir | Barisal | 2006 | Photo: Sharif Khiam |