Rediscovering the richness of heritage
Subrata Kumar Das is all praise for a little magazine
Ushaloke, Mohammad Shakerullah
Bangladesh's little magazines have a long and rich history behind them. Many literary magazines, though not always considered little and not truly little in the real sense, are the inheritors of a precious heritage. Magazines and journals such as Saugat, Samakal, Konthaswar, Purbamegh of the pre-liberation era were followed by similar worthy ones called Sundaram, Odhuna, Dipangkar, Sahityapotro, Samprotik, Mizanur Rahmaner Troimashik Potrika, Mati, Ekobingsho, Boier Desh and others in the post-liberation period. Some of them have continued publication till date and among these worthy few Ushaloke could be sighted as a good example. Mohammad Shakerullah, the editor of Ushaloke, launched his effort in 1982 when he was a youth of only twenty two. Till today he has been working with full enthusiasm for his magazine, an endeavour that has bagged two awards as well. In 1990 Uttarpath of Gothenburg, Sweden acknowledged Ushaloke as the best little magazine of Bangladesh. Kolkata Little Magazine Library and Research Centre hailed Shakerullah's initiative as the best journal for the year 2005. There can be little doubt that Ushaloke awaits more prizes and awards in the days to come. How pleasantly strange that a little magazine has been alive and kicking for about three decades! After the first seven years Ushaloke went through a pause of some thirteen years and with the new century it reappeared in a newer spirit. In the first phase Ushaloke produced twelve issues and in the new phase five issues have appeared till 2009. Special issues on the poets Farrukh Ahmed and Ahsan Habib made certainly the most enlightening reading in the beginning. And all the issues in the new phase deserve special appraisal for both selection and contents. The five issues of the new phase took as many seminal works in Bangla literature into consideration. Nodi O Nari, Banglar Kabyo, Kashboner Konya, Hansuli Banker Upakotha and Padmar Polidwip are the great literary works that have defined their own eras. No doubt the editor has an affinity for classic literature written in Bangla, and we are hopeful his future initiatives will also include more such classics that will be illuminated more vividly in Ushaloke. Nodi O Nari and Banglar Kabyo are two books by the internationally reputed intellectual of undivided Bengal, Humayun Kabir (1906-1969). Born in Faridpur, the writer sadly passed into oblivion where a study of Bangladeshi literature is concerned. And out of that oblivion it was Ushaloke that brought the author back to present-day readers. It must be mentioned here that Kabir's books are out of print in Kolkata also and Shakerullah's initiatives have encouraged many from there to bring forth Kabir's works in black and white again. Such a big role played by a seemingly small magazine is an amazing event in the history of Bangla literature, surely. The issues devoted to Humayun Kabir included the full texts of his works that actually helped create a readership too. Shakerullah collected write-ups, written by Kabir's contemporaries and writers of the present day, on these two notable books and thus made the volumes more precious. The mammoth task he has done was surely a tough job for the editor of a magazine which does not make any monetary benefit for itself. As Shakerullah has always enjoyed shouldering tough responsibilities, he takes long periods to produce a single issue of Ushaloke. It is a well known fact that Humayun Kabir, educationist, philosopher, writer and minister, wrote the English version of the novel Rivers and Women in 1945 which took a Bangla version with the title Nodi O Nari after seven years. It was one of the pioneering novels that played a critical role in laying the foundation for fiction as a genre by Muslim writers of East Bengal. Some critics opine that after Kazi Abdul Wadud's (1894-1970) Nodibakshe (1919), Nodi O Nari was the most noteworthy fiction written by any Muslim writer. Kashboner Konya by Shamsuddin Abul Kalam (1926-1997), Hansuli Banker Upakotha by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay (1898-1971) and Padmar Polidwip by Abu Ishaque (1926-2003) are the contents of the third, fourtth and fifthth issues of Ushaloke in the new phase. In respect of all those three issues the editor is no less creative, no less industrious. Starting off with the volume of stories Shaher Banu (1945), Shamsuddin Abul Kalam's debut novel Kashboner Konya (The Girl in the Reeds, written in 1947 and published in 1954) was a book that made waves in literary history. Appreciated hugely by both East and West Bengal literati, Kashboner Konya emerged as an important literary piece. Set in the southern part of Bangladesh, it was a tremendous beginning in respect of an incorporation of lower professional people and their dialect in Bangla fiction. Hansuli Banker Upakotha (1947) by Tarashankar Bandopadhyay was a magnum opus for Bangla literature. Padmar Polidwip (1986) by Abu Ishaque was the second novel by the writer. It was written 31 years after the publication of Ishaque's first novel Surja Dighal Bari. A meticulous study of the three novels makes it obvious that all of these three novels speak of the agrarian life that is at the core of society in Bangladesh. If we look at the list of contributors to Ushaloke, we find some established as well as promising names there. Shakerullah has dived into the vast ocean of Bangla literature to come up with some precious gems. He has successfully accumulated articles by Buddhadev Basu, Sanjoy Bhattacharya, Subodhchandra Sengupta and Amalendu Basu. When we see the names of Prof Anisuzzaman, Bashir Al Helal, Abu Rushd, Ahmed Sofa, Abdul Mannan Syed, Pathapratim Bandopadhyay, Shantanu Kaiser, Sumita Chakravarti, Bhishmadev Chowdhury and Bishwajit Ghosh on the list, we feel elated. On the other hand, when we get names like Ahmed Mazhar, Sarkar Abdul Mannan, Tapan Baghchi, Zafar Ahmed Rashed or Obayed Akash, we expect to go through some very readable pages. Each issue contains discourses in multifarious categories. Shakerullah first presents the readers with views that are written by critics of the present era. Then he places contemporary critiques on the works of the writers. Last of all come the appendices where we find the list of the writers' books, chronology of their lives and so on and so forth. And thus all the Ushaloke issues turn out to be precious enough to be gathered as collectors' items. The next issue of Ushaloke, carrying the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) 2075-4132 is on Mahmudul Haque's (1940-2008) novel Jibon Aamar Bone. It goes without saying that a good number of readers are eagerly waiting to discover an undiscovered Mahmudul Haque through Ushaloke.
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