Fragments that make up an emerging mosaic
Farah Ghuznavi is a writer and newspaper columnist, with a background in development work. Her first collection of short stories Fragments of Riversong will be launched on the second day of Dhaka Hay 2013. She talks with The Daily Star about this collection.
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Prito Reza/ ICE TodayThe Daily Star: How do you feel about your first collection of short stories being launched at Hay?
Farah Ghuznavi: It's very exciting to have "Fragments of Riversong" being launched at the Hay Festival Dhaka! And it feels particularly appropriate to have the initial launch of my first story collection on home turf, because in many ways, this book is all about Bangladesh. In fact, we were so determined to have the book launched at this Festival that I worked with the Daily Star publishing team, racing against the clock, to get the collection ready in less than three months. That may sound like sufficient lead-in time, but in publishing terms, it's little short of a miracle!
TDS: We usually see that one of the story titles is selected as the book title, but your title is not chosen that way. Why did you pick this title for the book?
FG: I wanted to find a title that would do justice to all the stories in the book, rather than singling out one story. This collection is an attempt to piece together the fragments that make up an emerging mosaic - namely, contemporary Bangladesh in all its chaos, contradictions and beauty. I also liked the metaphor of the river-currents that make and break up this delta of ours, occasionally conjuring up new fragments of land in the form of the 'chars'. And I wanted to merge older romantic traditions with the reality of Bangladesh today, to transition from the way that stories were told through the boatmen's songs in the history of this riverine country to today's 21st-century story-telling media. Hence the title "Fragments of Riversong".
TDS: How long did it take you to finish all the stories compiled in this book?
FG: The stories in this collection were not written in a straightforward chronological sequence. I have written other stories in between writing these, which don't appear here for a variety of reasons. I selected these 12 stories carefully, because I wanted them to fit together and complement each other. The stories were written over a period of about six years - the oldest being "The Guava Tree Rebellion", and a very recent one being "Big Mother".
TDS: Tell us something about your stories. Are they spread over continents? Or rooted in Bangladesh?
FG: The answer is both. My stories can be set anywhere - some take place in Europe or America or India, while others play out in rural Bangladesh or in urban locales such as Dhaka, Chittagong. But whatever the setting, the stories still remain firmly rooted in Bangladesh, in that the situations they describe will be recognisable to most Bangladeshi readers and they will invariably feature Bangladeshi characters in some form.
TDS: Some of your female characters are struggling to find an identity of their own in a society dominated by patriarchal norms. Say, for example, Laila in 'Getting There'. Would you please expand upon this aspect of your characters?
FG: That is true, but I would rather say that many of my characters - both women and men - are seeking to come to terms with their identities and options in a patriarchal society. So we see that Hashem, the street child in "Waiting", bears a disproportionate burden in trying to make life easier for his mother and sister, while the young man in "The Homecoming" has had to be strong and hold his family together in dire circumstances, simply because he is the only son and it is expected of him.
Conversely, a woman like Laila, in "Getting There", is trying to find a way to stretch her wings in a situation where too many people seem intent on clipping those wings before she ever gets to fly with them, because girls should not have too much independence. At the other extreme, Shilpa in "Old Delhi, New Tricks" doesn't seem to face any of those constraints in her day-to-day life. Yet on holiday with her friend in India, she unexpectedly finds herself in an uncomfortable position by virtue of being female, and writes to her fiance in England about the experience. So I like to look at characters as individuals, rather than simply as men or women, and to see where that takes me in terms of a story.
Prito Reza/ ICE TodayThe Daily Star: How do you feel about your first collection of short stories being launched at Hay?
Farah Ghuznavi: It's very exciting to have "Fragments of Riversong" being launched at the Hay Festival Dhaka! And it feels particularly appropriate to have the initial launch of my first story collection on home turf, because in many ways, this book is all about Bangladesh. In fact, we were so determined to have the book launched at this Festival that I worked with the Daily Star publishing team, racing against the clock, to get the collection ready in less than three months. That may sound like sufficient lead-in time, but in publishing terms, it's little short of a miracle!
TDS: We usually see that one of the story titles is selected as the book title, but your title is not chosen that way. Why did you pick this title for the book?
FG: I wanted to find a title that would do justice to all the stories in the book, rather than singling out one story. This collection is an attempt to piece together the fragments that make up an emerging mosaic - namely, contemporary Bangladesh in all its chaos, contradictions and beauty. I also liked the metaphor of the river-currents that make and break up this delta of ours, occasionally conjuring up new fragments of land in the form of the 'chars'. And I wanted to merge older romantic traditions with the reality of Bangladesh today, to transition from the way that stories were told through the boatmen's songs in the history of this riverine country to today's 21st-century story-telling media. Hence the title "Fragments of Riversong".
TDS: How long did it take you to finish all the stories compiled in this book?
FG: The stories in this collection were not written in a straightforward chronological sequence. I have written other stories in between writing these, which don't appear here for a variety of reasons. I selected these 12 stories carefully, because I wanted them to fit together and complement each other. The stories were written over a period of about six years - the oldest being "The Guava Tree Rebellion", and a very recent one being "Big Mother".
TDS: Tell us something about your stories. Are they spread over continents? Or rooted in Bangladesh?
FG: The answer is both. My stories can be set anywhere - some take place in Europe or America or India, while others play out in rural Bangladesh or in urban locales such as Dhaka, Chittagong. But whatever the setting, the stories still remain firmly rooted in Bangladesh, in that the situations they describe will be recognisable to most Bangladeshi readers and they will invariably feature Bangladeshi characters in some form.
TDS: Some of your female characters are struggling to find an identity of their own in a society dominated by patriarchal norms. Say, for example, Laila in 'Getting There'. Would you please expand upon this aspect of your characters?
FG: That is true, but I would rather say that many of my characters - both women and men - are seeking to come to terms with their identities and options in a patriarchal society. So we see that Hashem, the street child in "Waiting", bears a disproportionate burden in trying to make life easier for his mother and sister, while the young man in "The Homecoming" has had to be strong and hold his family together in dire circumstances, simply because he is the only son and it is expected of him.
Conversely, a woman like Laila, in "Getting There", is trying to find a way to stretch her wings in a situation where too many people seem intent on clipping those wings before she ever gets to fly with them, because girls should not have too much independence. At the other extreme, Shilpa in "Old Delhi, New Tricks" doesn't seem to face any of those constraints in her day-to-day life. Yet on holiday with her friend in India, she unexpectedly finds herself in an uncomfortable position by virtue of being female, and writes to her fiance in England about the experience. So I like to look at characters as individuals, rather than simply as men or women, and to see where that takes me in terms of a story.
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