The world of expatriate Bangladeshis
Md. Jahirul Islam glimpses a society through fiction
Snake Dance in Berlin, Ronny Noor, Orient Black Swan, India/Parama Publishers Bangladesh
The novel Snake Dance in Berlin, written by Ronny Noor, was co-published by Orient Black Swan of India and Parama Publishers and Distributors of Bangladesh in 2009 with an attractive cover page. It is a kaleidoscopic view of Bangladeshis who lived in Berlin during the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. The author was a student in Berlin during that period and so gathered practical experience on the activities of the Bangladeshis there. This is a story written with wit and humor. The main theme of the book centres on Rayhan, a young Bangladeshi engineer who comes to Berlin in 1978 to study computer science. He is taken to the birthday party of a man called Uncle Kabir. There he gets to know many of his countrymen, students and asylum seekers, who are organized in a cultural group called Golden Boys Association. A few days later, an election is held to elect the executive body of the association. Two students, Jafar Khan and Malekshah, are elected president and general secretary. Other posts also go to students. When Rayhan becomes a student at the university, passing the language exam in German, he gets a room in the Siegmunds Hof students' hall. He visits other students --- Chapa Kaiser, who was a student leader in Dhaka, and Porno Matin, who studied in East Germany and is now doing his doctorate in the West. He gets to know Saad, an eclectic philosopher whose late father was a poet in Bangladesh. He also goes to Uncle Kabir's house to socialize because a lot of people gather there on the weekends. The Bangladeshis live their daily lives, students studying and asylum seekers working. One day they have a picnic. But the association does not have an office yet and is not able to help the Bengali expatriates financially or otherwise. So when the association meets again for the election, Uncle Kabir delivers a fiery speech. He will develop the association if he is elected president. However, he lacks knowledge of German. So he is not elected president, but he does get the post of treasurer. Jafar Khan and Ashok are elected president and general secretary. Uncle Kabir urges Rayhan to teach him German. Thus, Rayhan ends up going to his house almost every week. However, Uncle Kabir's progress is very slow. He is more interested in socializing with Chapa Kaiser, Porno Matin and others. In the meantime, Uncle Kabir's wife comes to Berlin with her little son, leaving two older children back home. So he enjoys his family life and does overtime at the factory where he works. Thus, he cannot learn much German. But he is elected president of the association at the next election because Jafar Khan could not accomplish what he had promised. Chapa Kaiser becomes general secretary; Jafar and Ashok stay away from the election because someone has threatened them over the phone. They do not know who are behind the threats. But it falls on Rayhan, who is election commissioner and wants to bring his people together, to investigate the matter. Uncle Kabir has a nephew named Habib, who has been living in his house. He is a handsome young man who regularly goes out to clubs and brings in girls. Thus, he often gets into trouble. At one point he gets into trouble with a dominatrix. Then he fights with a friend over a girl from Poland. So Uncle Kabir, thinking that a good Bangladeshi girl can keep him housebound, goes to Dhaka and finds a bride for him. The woman is a school teacher with a bachelor's degree although Habib has not even finished his madrasah education. He brings the woman to Berlin and she applies for asylum. While Rayhan is investigating what is known as ÒTelephone TerrorÓ to find the culprits, Jafar, Ashok and Malekshah decide to form a different association because Uncle Kabir's nephew Habib and another young man named Nasir beat up the scholars. Now they do not want to have anything to do with asylum seekers, they want an association only for students. So when the two associations try to celebrate Bangladesh's Independence Day or Victory Day, very few people show up. People have turned their backs on these organizations. However, Uncle Kabir is determined to have the cultural evening on Independence Day as he has promised. So when Rayhan goes to England for a visit, the president asks him to hire singers. He does as he is told. Meanwhile, Rayhan has fallen in love with Renata, a girl he first tutors. They go out together to music and dance shows from around the world and ultimately fall in love. Renata wants to get married. So Rayhan writes two letters to his parents. But his parents do not agree because Renata, according to Rayhan's father, is not a believer. His father wants to disown him and stop the financing of his siblings' education. So Rayhan, without informing his parents, gets engaged to Renata and begins living with her. In order to prepare for the cultural function, Uncle Kabir, along with Chapa Kaiser, becomes member of the political party of General Ershad. He had, of course, contributed some money to that party when he visited Dkaka. Jafar, Ashok and Malekshah, who have in the meantime decided to work together with Uncle Kabir due to Rayhan efforts, think that the president of the association is politicizing the non-political cultural organization. They go to court in order to stop the cultural function, which they see as a political propaganda. So on the day of the function, a German court stops the celebration of the Independence Day of Bangladesh. In the end, Uncle Kabir, whose application for political asylum has been rejected, leaves Berlin. He of course has bought a house in the meantime and invested money in some industries in Bangladesh. Now he is there, contesting the election to be a Member of Parliament. The novel works on different levels. First: The story appears to be a microcosm of Bangladesh, shown through the association. It shows the failure of scholars and politicians alike. As a result, society suffers. People run away from the country to seek political asylum in foreign countries, living in deplorable conditions as social outcasts in many cases. This is not what human life should be. Second: The story shows how many Bengali expatriates live in Germany and England, at the edge of society, scraping a living. They live between worlds, without any place to call home, to belong to. They do not think they belong to Bangladesh, because the country cannot provide them with a living and they certainly do not belong to the host country, where they are considered foreigners. Third: The story deals with universal issues, such as why people become poor. Because they are irresponsible. Having many children without food and education is irresponsibility. This brings down society. Similarly, a people that cannot work together is irresponsible. The diaspora which cannot solve their own problems like responsible people shows their irresponsibility. Thus people, when they are irresponsible, invite others to lord over them, similar to the way the fate of the Golden Boys Association is in the hands of the German court. Lastly, in order to bring peace to the world, people must work together, going beyond religious and national boundaries, the way Rayhan and Renata do. The book shows the philosophical ideas of the author and has been written in lucid English. But like many books, it has its own drawbacks. There are some historical facts which are rather confusing in the book. At one place the author has termed the liberation war as a civil war. It appears that it has been written inadvertently, because in other places he has mentioned it correctly. There are many words which, linked together, slow down the reader. It would have been better if the author could make some comments on why people from Bangladesh seek asylum in foreign countries and why Germans provide asylum to Bangladeshis. Overall, this is an interesting book, available in Bangladesh and so needing to be read.
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