Interview
A Litterateur with Wit and Fancy
In an interview with the Star, writer, teacher and publisher Dr Niaz Zaman talks about her life and works
Speaking to Dr Niaz Zaman means unmitigated pleasure. She does not hold back anything unpleasant and does not mince words. It is indeed interesting to know what got her so enmeshed in literature rather than any other subject: "I wanted to study history but my brother Reza Ali was in Dhaka University doing his honours. I love reading, so I joined this department.
“My teachers were excellent, including Professor Khan Sarwar Morshed. He taught us GD Rosetti and John Donne. He was ever so handsome. There were two people in the class and we fell in love with him. Professor Munim was good in a different way. He would never explicate a line, but he would come out with something associated with it. He taught me various things such as Romantic poet Shelley, and I really enjoyed the way he treated the subject. Though others may not have done so. "
Students were not allowed to borrow books from the Dhaka University Library and had to do all their reading sitting in the library recalls Dr. Zaman. One day, Professor Munim offered her his card, saying, 'You are a good student; but you do need to read.'
Dr Zaman remembers Hussain reading Chaucer, saying he would read the poet in the original Middle English. She says that nowadays students don't read Chaucer in Middle English. "I think half the beauty of Chaucer's poetry is gone in the translation," she comments.
She came from a conservative family but completed a Pass course from Holy Cross ending up getting a First Class which was quite a rare feat in those days.
She couldn't get a job at Dhaka University as there were many Honours students. So she taught at Holy Cross. When her husband was transferred to Chittagong, she got a well-deserved change. She strongly believes that one cannot work alone and needs the guidance or help of others. Others directed her or inspired her.
Dr Niaz Zaman
She learnt Bangla at Holy Cross in an informal way. She asked one of her friends to write the Bangla alphabets, and was grateful that it was a phonetic language. At Chittagong, another friend helped her read Rabindranath Tagore's short stories. And this is how she developed the knowledge of Bangla. Meanwhile, her husband, Kazi Siddiquzaman, was very nationalistic. He insisted that she should talk to her new born in Bangla. She would laugh at how her accent and diction were wrong, but since she talked to all her three boys in Bangla—Zarre, Zain and Zaki, and could carry on an everyday conversation, when she stands up to give a talk, she likes to mix Bangla with English—as she feels that speaking in just English to a Bangla-speaking crowd is artificial.
Speaking about the writers she is fond of – like the Bronte sisters, the writer says that she is very fond of Emily Dickinson. The other writer that she likes is Louis M Alcott. Another writer that Dr Zaman particularly likes is American writer Kate Chopin.
Kazi Nazrul Islam and Rabindranath Tagore are good writers to teach. So are the Bronte Sisters; she prefers the writing of Emily Bronte, as she thinks “Wuthering Heights is a fantastic book. “It is undoubtedly a feminist book.” She likes Jane Austen but she is not among her favourite writers. She likes Dickens—through his stories he tell us of his times, Dr Zaman says, “One of his novels is about education. The system of education is what the education system used to be like in our country and still is in many ways—children learn by rote learning; they come and vomit it out. His other popular book 'Great Expectations' has influenced William Faulkner in his book “A Rose for Emily.”
Talking of the books that she has edited, Dr Zaman says that Under the Krishnachura Tree came about in a strange way: "We were celebrating the 21st February, and were having a meeting at the Bangla Academy. Professor Rafiqul Islam, the then DG of Bangla Academy said that he was worried about bringing out a book at that late date. As a consequence, I said that if he helped me, I'd bring out a book. It has short stories, plays and some poems. The title came from the writing of Mahbubul Alam Chowdhury, who heard about the police firing on 21st February, while in Chittagong. He wrote a poem about what happened under the Krishnachura trees at that time."
Dr Niaz has also translated many short stories and there's an interesting reason behind this. “I had gone to a hospital abroad and was getting a cup of tea for my husband and me. I was wearing a sari and this man asked me, How is Tasleema Nasreen?' The way he asked the question angered me as he must not have read her but only heard about the controversy. The poets in Bangladesh did not cross the border and many people knew them.” So she began “Short stories from Bangladesh”, which included exclusively women's writing. Then she happened to meet Professor Syed Ali Ahsan. He persuaded her to include male authors in her prestigious UPL publication. She realised that if she included male authors, the book would be more representative.
She felt that young writers had something new to offer to readers. A short story shouldn't just educate—one should enjoy it too. It should first be entertaining. Dr Zaman also writes stories for children, and they all have a moral. Year before last she was writing two novels. One is called "The Baro Mashi Tales” and the other is called “A Different Sita".
Though it is called “Baro Mashi”; all baro mashis don't have the 12 months, says the litterateur. Dr Zaman says that it is about the nature of the different months of Bengal—and what happens in the different months. In chaitra it is very hot; in jaishta you have mangoes—these are the stereotypical images of the months. The writer took a woman from the village whose husband had gone to Malaysia. Before the cell-phone came, people often communicated with their families back home through cassette recorders. The woman would say something or the father would hear the child's voice. She talks about how she misses him and all the things that are happening in the village. Now in the village there is TV and electricity cell-phone, women's education, etc.
Being an avid reader, a passionate writer and meticulous editor, it was only natural for her to set up a publishing house called 'writers.ink' which publishes writing in English and English translations.
Her published work includes The Art of Kantha Embroidery, the first book on the nakshi kantha, and her study of the Partition, A Divided Legacy: The Partition in Selected Novels of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, which received the National Archives Award as well as the Atwar Hussain Award of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
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