Tribute to poet Abdul Mannan Syed

Veteran poet, essayist and literary critic Abdul Mannan Syed passed away on September 5 at his residence on Green Road, Dhaka. He was 67. He died of heart ailments.

Syed started writing poems in 1960. His first book of poetry was published in 1967. Throughout a career spanning over five decades, he had written numerous poems and published over 60 books.

His poems are conceptual and some deal with death, romance and at times the absurd. As an experimental poet, he frequently changed his style and content. He often used the imageries of the moon, sun, sky, clouds and water in his poetry.

He was recognised for his noteworthy research works on Jibanananda Das and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Syed had also done researches on Rabin-dranath Tagore, Manik Bandopadhyay, Syed Waliullah, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Ishwar Gupta and other iconic litterateurs.

Full report here Daily Star

Old book markets in grip of bad days

The capital Dhaka's second-hand book markets are losing their decades-old attraction and 'prestige' as the usual rush of book lovers has fallen drastically over the years thanks to rapid technological advancement that emerged as an alternative source of the knowledge seekers, traders said.

Traders, especially at Nilkhet and Banglabazar old book markets, are counting sharp decline in sales due to what they said lack of reading habit and growing reluctance to buy second-hand original books, the place of which have largely been taken by pirated and cheap photo-copied books.

The book sellers have also identified frequent changes of academic syllabuses and the education policy as hindrances to the growth of old books' sales - when it comes to academic books.

"We have seen crowds of buyers even five to six years ago which has now dropped alarmingly," Shimul, an old-book trader at Nilkhet's Islamia Market, told the FE.

Full report here Financial Express

Lack of preservation puts rare books, manuscripts at decay at DU library

Due to lack of proper preservation, century old 'puthis' and manuscripts, rare books, newspapers and periodicals printed in Bangladesh during the last century, have been decaying at the Dhaka University Central Library.

About 300 rare manuscripts and at least 600-microfilmed newspapers have already been damaged, although there is a supervisory committee to look into this.

Another 500 hundred 'puthis' and newspapers are going to face the same fate if preventive steps are not taken, said sources at the library.

The university library has a collection of more than 30,000 such books and manuscripts, dating back to the medieval period, written on palm and banana leaves, barks, stone slabs and handmade papers in Sanskrit, Bangla, Arabic, Pali, Urdu, Persian, Maithili, Uriya, Hindi and a few other dialects.

About 20,000 among the manuscripts have been identified and 6,500 almost decayed manuscripts have been microfilmed and laminated, the sources said. Work on identifying other manuscripts is on but they are in such decrepit condition that it is difficult to work with those, sources said.

"Sharada Tilok", a Sanskrit puthi more than 550-year old and rare Bangla works from the middle ages like "Padma Puran", "Yusuf Zulekha" and "Padmabati" by Alaol are some of the notables among the most decrepit volumes.

Full report here New Nation

Bangla minister calls for promoting literature

Bangaldesh Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad on Wednesday expressed the hope that cultural personalities would play a more effective role in promoting Bangla culture and literature both at home and abroad.

Inaugurating a 10-day book fair titled "Boier Arong' on Bangla Academy premises in Dhaka, the minister said the traditional Pahela Baishakh festivity assumed a new height today as the occasion is being celebrated at the state level for the first time.

The minister also inaugurated a musical soiree at the same venue.

Noted writer Prof Anisur Rahman gave the welcome speech with National Professor Kabir Chowdhury in the chair. Director general of Bangladesh Academy Shamsuzzaman Khan gave the commemorative lecture.

Full report here New Nation

Samarendra Sen Gupta: A touch of surrealism

Samarendra Sen Gupta is one of the leading contemporary poets in India. He is a prolific poet and his poems are intellectually of outstanding quality. Most of his poems have a great touch of modernity. Recently he visited Dhaka on the occasion of the National Poetry Festival where he shared his views with this correspondent.

Gupta was born in Dhaka in 1935 and spent the first 16 years of his life in Dhaka before moving to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1951. He was a student of Pirenonath High School (now Nawabpur High School). He passed his matriculation in 1951 from the same institute and migrated to Calcutta the same year. After settling in Calcutta, he became involved with the left leaning party.

Gupta remembers Dacca's (now Dhaka) life. “During the time, Dhaka 's life was very vivid and colourful. The city was expanded focusing on Old Dhaka. The population of Dacca was not large. We lived in a big house in Purana Paltan. The house had a touch of aristocracy. The rose garden in our house was famous in the city at that time. Lots of scholarly persons used to come to our house, especially for the garden. My father was the registrar of Dhaka University. We had quite a few eminent neighbours like Jasimuddin, Mohitlal Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra Mazumdar and more. Most of the people who lived in our area were Hindus. Most of them occupied with Dhaka University.

Full report here  Daily Star