Shaping fantasies to depict reality
Shaheedul Zahir, writes Junaidul Haque, brought magic realism and surrealism together
Dolu Nodir Hawa O Annanya Golpo
Shaheedul Zahir
Mowla Brothers
Shaheedul Zahir suddenly died of a heart attack on March 23, 2008. He was only fifty four. His death left us speechless in grief. A writer of rare quality, he was perhaps the most gifted storyteller of his generation. In fact he was one of the all-time best Bangladeshi writers of fiction. Like James Joyce, Manik Banerjee, Kamalkumar Majumder, Syed Waliullah and Syed Shamsul Huq, he was a writer's writer. Writing his fiction in the trend of magic realism, he emerged as the pioneer of this Latin American genre in Bangladesh. He was a bachelor. Poet Golam Faruq Khan, who was quite close to him, compares him with a tree of flowers which has fragrance but has no fruit. Let me assure Khan that Zahir the writer bore fruits which will live for a hundred years or more and fascinate writers and readers for many, many years in the future.
Shaheedul Zahir the writer is firmly committed to the ideals of our liberation war. The war for our freedom is his favourite subject. He is secular to the core of his heart. He is progressive and loves our poor people. In fact, no one has perhaps written about the terribly poor, landless people of our society with more compassion. Read his Amader Bokul and realize that you haven't read a finer story in your entire life. You can never forget Akalu, his wife Fatema and their daughter Bokul. Read his Jibon O Rajnaitik Bastobota and feel that you haven't read a finer novel about our liberation war. You will be speechless in wonder and you will murmur, 'What a writer!'
What about Shaheedul Zahir the craftsman? At the beginning he was influenced by Syed Waliullah, Syed Shamsul Huq and perhaps Akhteruzzaman Elias. The writer he adored and wanted to follow was certainly Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This was no fault because Marquez himself admired William Faulkner a lot. Very soon Zahir discovered his new and brilliant style of narration and emerged as our foremost existentialist, our best exponent of magic realism and surrealism. He has added a lot to the stream of consciousness method. The common reader doesn't know him well but all serious readers do. They know that he was a mighty writer of fiction not belonging to the general trend. His imagination and experimentation fascinated them. His fiction had many unconventional components. He had an unusual narrative style and he used very powerful symbols. He mixed human actions, memories and dreams with effortless ease. He shifted time sequences whenever he felt it necessary. Thus he wrote in his web-like, complex technique of magic realism. Often he created a dreamy, apparently unreal environment of fantasies to depict reality. His language flows very smoothly, he has a remarkable wit and the reader never loses interest. At times he is like Charlie Chaplin, making us laugh a lot only to make us weep at the end. He is a master in creating agrarian villagers and the commoners of old Dhaka. His use of the old Dhaka dialect and that of Sirajganj, his place of birth, and Chittagong and Mymensingh, places where he stayed as a boy, is flawless. What is most important is that his magical world is totally Bangladeshi and his knowledge of eternal Bangla life and culture is very deep. That makes him the outstanding writer that he truly is.
Dolu Nodir Hawa O Annanya Golpo, the book under discussion, is Shaheedul Zahir's third collection of stories. Parapar (1985), his first collection, had conventional stories but even it had a story like Gheyo Roder Prarthona Niye, which was simply brilliant for a twenty-three-year-old. The central character was created with great insight and compassion. His first two novels were published in 1989 and 1995 respectively. Then came his second book of stories, Dumur Kheko Manush O Annanya Golpo (2000). It established him as our chief exponent of magic realism. The stories attracted the attention of all serious readers. The 131-page book of seven stories, with cover design by Qaiyum Chowdhury, is perhaps his finest, both structurally and content-wise. He has worked hard, chosen his subjects very carefully and dealt with them in a structure and a language completely his own.
The subjects are as varied as they are interesting. They are set in the old part of Dhaka city as well as our villages. The writer knows both the city and the villages very well. Kothay Pabo Tarey, the first story, deals with love and its exploration. The exploration is important, not love itself. It deals with what Zahir himself elsewhere calls 'dreams and destruction of dreams' and the beauty of 'having nothing'. Many of his characters live in their dreams and he explores this life. He explores man's suffering and his fall, he explores our poor people's 'dim happiness'. Amader Bokul is his masterpiece. The landless day labourer Akalu, his wife Fatema, their daughter Bokul and her kid brother will haunt us for a very long time. Villagers working with Akalu in the paddy fields are real and amazingly perfect and so touching is their conversation. Zahir loves to deal with our very poor and does it brilliantly. He penetrates deep into their lives and depicts their deep and beautiful mystery in his magical language. He suffers on behalf of mankind and describes their sorrow for us. He can create powerful characters in a few lines. Even a not-so-major character like Mohsin Ali Moulavi is delineated with affection. The people of Suhasini in this story win our hearts and make us weep silently for them. The memories of 1971 haunt Zahir and he cannot forget the suffering of our people during the war and after it. He is sad at the degeneration of our society. He is sad at the revival of the communal forces. He explores these issues in stories like Indur-Bilai Khela, Amader Kutir Shilper Itihash, Prothom Bayan and Mahallay Bandar, Abdul Halimer Ma Ebong Amra. At the same time he tries to catch the unfathomable and unreachable beauty of love. His use of symbols is superb. The title story is also fascinating. It is about passion, love and revenge. Taimur Ali Chowdhury and Samarta Banu will be difficult to forget for the reader. He examines an issue from different angles and gives us a prismatic view of society. We can say that he creates a beautiful world whose flesh and blood are his dreams but whose skeleton is hard reality. He can perfectly feel the eternal Bangla emotions. His rich imagination helps him to create the reality of his art very efficiently from the reality of our day-to-day life.
One wonders what would have happened if Zahir had lived for, say, twenty more years. As Syed Manzoorul Islam puts it, he abruptly left us when he was achieving a lot of success in his exploration 'of the unfathomable'. Perhaps a family would give him a longer life. A wife and children would make our finest exponent of magic realism, existentialism and surrealism live a fuller and more significant life.
Many friends knew him as an efficient and honest civil servant but not as a writer. He believed in writing quietly and shunned publicity, politics and prizes. No wonder even the Bangla Academy prize eluded him!
Junaidul Haque has written fiction and is a literary critic
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