Eminent Indian poet Joy Goswami will attend an open discussion programme at Batighar bookstore in the Chittagong press club today. The discussion programme "Amar Jibon, Amar Rochona" has been jointly organised by Batighar, Rotari Club of Chittagong Khulshi and Regent Airways. In the programme literature lovers of the country will be allowed to take part freely. Joy will share his poetic and personal experiences with the booklovers of the country in the discussion. He will also recite a number of his famous poems. In the bookstore a special corner has been set displaying books by Joy Goswami to mark Joy's first visit to Bangladesh.
Joy Goswami one of most influential modern poets of Bengali literature was born on November 10, 1954 in Kolkata. But his childhood was spent in countryside in the village of Ranaghat of Nadia, West Bengal. Joy's first patron was his father and ardent political supporter of poetry. But Joy lost his father at the age of six. His mother the principal of the Ranaghat Lalgopal School too passed away in 1984. Joy said adieu to formal education when he was in the eleventh grade. His first poetry "Ceiling Fan" was published by three little magazines. After continuing a poetic career in little magazines and periodicals his poetry was finally published in the influential "Desh Patrika." This facilitated the publication of his firs poetry collection "Christmas o Sheeter Sonnetguchchho" (Sonets of Christmas and Winter). Later he would go on to become the editor of Desh. Joy has been awarded the Anita-Basu prize of Bangla Akademi of West Bengal, Ananda Puroshkar prize in 1997 and Shahitya Akademi prize in 2000. Joy is also known as a rebellious and politically concerned poet. He protested against the Gujrat communal riots and the massacre and land grabbing conducted in Singur and Nandigram through his poetry. For the Singur-Nandigram movement he was forced to quit his job. He once transferred his daughter from a reputed school to a different school to protest against the former school's demands of writing applications in English. Noted works by Joy include poetry collections: Ghumiyechho Jhaupata?, Jara Brishtite Bhijechhilo, Bajrabidyu_t-bharti kh?t?, P?gal?, tom?ra sange and novels Manoramera upany?sa, Seisaba sey?lara, Suranga o pratiraksh? etc.
Batighar is considered to be the only bookstore of Bangladesh with international standards. Founded in 2005 by Dipankar Das the bookstore organises at least one poetry reading session or book publishing event every month participated by eminent litterateurs of both sides of the Bengal. It organises the annual solo discussion programme "Amar Jibon, Amar Rochona" to orient established literary figures with general bookworms. It has invited Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Samresh Majumdar, Imdadul Haque Milon, Selina Hossain and many more.