An evening of seduction
Few Bangladeshi writers writing in English focus on women-centric characters. So when Dr. Razia Sultana Khan steps up to fill the breach with her wonderful new book, Palki and Other Tales of Seduction, one can't help being excited. The launch of this collection of short stories was held on Friday, 27April, 2012, at Bengal Café on Dhanmondi 27. It was organized by the colleagues of the writer.
In the book Dr. Khan shows that "seduction" can come in different forms in the traditional meaning, be it a woman with her tresses flowing free or, more subtly, where the woman herself is being seduced. Sometimes it comes in the form of free tea, offered by the English to seduce a whole nation into addiction.
In the preface to the collection, Dr. Khan writes, "Whether from the rural areas of Bangladesh or the urban, women's fates are intertwined in their experience of marriage, desertion and aging." The stories range from those on gender issues to stories of a supernatural nature. Some are sad, some ironic and some humorous. A number of the stories are set in Old Dhaka in the early 1900s.
Mithila Mahfuz, Dr. Khan's colleague in the Department of English at Independent University, Bangladesh, emceed the ceremony. Dr. Khan's work was discussed and critiqued by a panel of intellectuals in English Literature and Gender Studies.
The programme included a selection of readings from Palki and Other Tales of Seduction. The readers were all IUB students. Warda Ashraf started the ball rolling with her reading of an excerpt from the title story "Seduction", followed by Nabeela Maswood, who read an excerpt from "Sunset". Nawrin Sabah read "The Good Wife". The readings ended with the supernatural story, "Night Shift" read by Aysha Myesha and Nowrin Sabah.
The members of the panel raised some thought-provoking points. Prof. Khademul Islam said, "Extremely heartening to see (such) a collection of English writing" and went on to add that, "One should read not only with the brain but with the heart". Dr. Firdous Azim called the collection woman-centric and noted that it had a "sympathetic voice" that helped relate to the characters. Dr. Kaiser Huq spoke of the "cultural schizophrenia" that usually created a fissure when writing about Bengali characters in English, but went on to say that the characters were vivid and so were the sights, tastes and sounds of the Old Dhaka of the past. He read out an epigraph to the title story, "Palki" a verse from an English poem by the Indian poet Sarojini Naidu. Dr. Niaz Zaman spoke of the characters and how one could fall under their spell and lose perspective as a critique and become a captivated reader.
Dr. Razia Sultana Khan finished off with a vote of thanks to her family, her colleagues and her publisher. This was followed by a Q and A session. The celebration ended with the author signing her book for interested members of the audience followed by refreshments.
Palki and Other Tales of Seduction is a fine example of South Asian English literature and one which yours truly now has in her collection. Shouldn't you, too?
Palki and Other Tales of Seduction is available at New Market book shops, particularly at Aligarh and Book Web. It will soon be available at Aranya and Arong.
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