Tomar Bas Kotha Je

It is said we are what we eat. It is also said we are what we think. Another perspective is we are our remembered selves.

Tomar Bas Kotha Je, a recent book by Niaz Ahmed Apu, published by Bangla Dharitree in February 2024, enables the readers to fit into the perspective of the "remembered selves "in their journey from childhood. The author, one among 6 sisters and brothers, represents his generation of boomers who were born in the period from post-World War II to 1964 of the past century.
 His parents were from Nabinagar in Brahmanbaria. His father started his career in the police service before partition of India. Due to transfer and new posting of his father, Niaz had to move from place to place accompanying his parents and had to get admitted in new schools time and again. So, he had to constantly lose friends and make new ones during his academic life.

Niaz was supposed to get admitted into Foujdarhat Cadet College while his parents were in Chittagong, but he could not due to his illness. Perhaps, it was the bend of his life journey. Had he been in that college, he would have had to undergo more disciplined life in addition to the strict discipline enforced by his mother, elder sisters and home tutors. More liberty and freedom in his subsequent academic institutions shaped his psyche to take the side of the excluded in society. That was the time when egalitarian ideology attracted the young minds. They wanted to tear off the shackles of suppression, oppression, exploitation and so on in a colonized and immediate post-colonized society. He spontaneously aligned his self to the ideological contents for human freedom.

Aligning himself to the spirit of seeking human freedom, which is in essence his remembered self, led him into progressive student politics and later into the liberation war of Bangladesh. The whole book mirrors his sharp political and social awareness which originated in his childhood. The influence of his father and especially his mother and the overall social milieu he lived in brought him up as someone who learned to respect people for their honest duty, not for wealth, religious belonging or other identities. The most heartening part of this book is that socio-cultural environment which celebrates liberal humanism without constant unnecessary fear of losing ones confined identity. The difference between pani and Jol did not turn into an intolerant conflict between two brotherly communities who lived side by side for centuries like the waters in two big rivers without turning it red.

Niaz Ahmed Apu made a map of his journey in his childhood from place to place. There have come Chittagong, Patuakhali, Barishal and Manikganj with the entire social environment existing in his boyhood time and all the people, especially those from the middle- and lower middle-class families. Thoughno single character, except himself and his mother, has got the chance of a full development putting a lasting effect on the minds of readers; they have come in his depiction as a true portrayal of the society and human relations in it. In this sense, in Apus Tomar Bas Kotha Je, pre-independence society of Bangladesh is the protagonist with current society as the antagonist in the drama of unfolding time and change of social environment.

Political columnist Shekhar Dutta rightly pointed out the worth of Apus writing in his Forewords, "Readers will easily identify the depth of humour in these writings.… Later part of sixties and also seventies saw Apu in the tumultuous student movement of the time. Our motherland has found an unafraid freedom fighter, an honest and competent citizen. Readers are going to find here a writer who is socially conscious with a sense of subtle humour."

With Nokul Dhopa, Modhu Goala and Shanti Mashi-laundryman, milkman and sweetmeat supplier respectively-there have come Sher-e-Bangla A K Fazlul Huq, language movement, left politics, liberation war of Bangladesh, all with their core essences, though not in many words. His sentences are short, words are simple, many of which are used in rural areas and now going into oblivion not only to the townspeople but also to the increasing urbanized rural population.

The books cover design is done by Rashedunnabi Shobuj. The publisher should have put more attention into spelling errors and could have made the overall design of the book more attractive.

A nostalgic sigh for the past and boyhood days has emanated from almost every chapter of the book. And this is in fact the core message of Niaz Ahmed Apus Tomar Bas Kotha Je-in the words of Shah Abdul Karims song: age ki sundor din kataitam/ graamer naojoan hindu musalman/ milia baulaganar murshidi gaitam (What a beautiful days we passed before/ We Muslim and Hindu youths in the village/ together sang baul and murshidi songs).

Shajahan Bhuiya is a development professional and columnist and Alamgir Khan is Executive Editor of Shikkhalok
Reviewed by Shajahan Bhuiya and Alamgir Khan