Rummana Chowdhury – författare

Rummanas writing is thoughtful, heartfelt and encompassing of ever-widening experiences and a deepening knowledge of the human condition. This volume, Where Do I Belong, takes the reader on a journey that involves a thematic stream stretching from the shores of the Padma to Lake Ontario. There is nostalgia and longing in such a journey, brought out in such pieces as Hot Apple Fritters and Hot Roshogollas, a prose meditation on the manner in which Canadian apple fritters evoke the earlier experienced pleasures of roshogollas from a sweet shop in Noakhali, Bangladesh, and the shores of Lake Ontario conjure up early layers of the Padma, Megna and Jamuna, while listening to jazz resonates with the earlier folk music of Bengal. The imagery in Radhachura Kathalchapa and Bogainvillea contrasts the snow and frost of an adopted northern country (admittedly along with the compensating cherry blossoms of spring and autumn colours) with the warmth and breathtaking beauty of the radhachuras at dawn in a long forgotten ethereal unbelievable bliss of my birthplacethe only base where it is possible to have total relaxation.Themes of displacement, discrimination, oppression and the violence of war are worked out in cultural specificity in such poems as Blood Road Solitary confinement and The darkness of the night pulled her. Others such as The rat race, From captivity to captivity and Wrong address concern the universal human condition and struggles that transcends race, colour and linguistic differences.

This is the touching love story of Moyna, born and brought up in Toronto, who goes to discover her roots in Bangladesh, and Shafiq, who is a Bangladeshi war baby, (War of Independence of 1971) but has been adopted and raised in Canada. The readers are immersed with the cross cultures of Bangladesh and Canada. Many a time her inherent lessons from Shakespeare, Maugham, Ondaatje, Atwood, Darvesh, and Akhmatova are pinned against her personal inground teachings of Zainul Abedin, Jasimuddin, Lalon Fakir, Hason Raja, Tagore, and Nazrul. Her inward-eye ponders over the literary crosscurrents of Buddhism and Sufi poetry and the world of Humayun Ahmed and Shamsur Rahman. Moynas confusion has no boundaries. The fruits, blossoms, and seasons of Bangladesh are compared with the changes of nature in Canada. The Murshedi, Bhatiali, and devotional songs of the East are contrasted with the country, jazz, blues, and folk songs of Canada.The universal language of poverty and suppression, of forceful acceptance- these are lines that Moyna must learn to blur as a diasporic South Asian female. Moynas brother has been eternally unhappy and sleepless for years and years trying to make sense of these very lines. It is cruel to even ask Aakash to try harder. A person who has never slept peacefully in such a long time cannot do justice to blurring lines without sacrificing something more.Moyna was pensively walking down Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. The cosmopolitan mixture of faces in front of the Eaton Centre amazed her. Black, brown, white, beige, yellow all shades, shapes and sizes. African-Canadians, Italian-Canadians, Chinese-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians, Indian-Canadians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Koreans and so on and so forth. Were they all Canadians or were they still clinging to their past roots of culture and tradition?Seemingly like any other tree with dark and light green hued leaves, the henna tree did not appear to be particularly special or powerful, yet the unimaginable burst of flaming red colour when made into a paste and applied to hands, feet or hair was a miracle. The henna tree was as mysterious as life itself, with all its intricate mysteries. Often shadows darken lifes images with their tales of sadness and frustration but the silver lining of the clouds rotate and bring about unending stories of joy and merriment. The shadow which had covered the henna tree could gradually move away.

Rummana Chowdhury is the author of forty three books, both in Bengali and English, comprising of poetry, short stories, columns, novels and analytical essays. She did her Master's in Public Administration from the University of Dhaka in 1981 and was Bangladesh's national badminton champion from 1975 to 1978. She excelled academically and was also nationally acclaimed as a leading debate commentator, radio and TV talk show host and recitation leader. Today she has become a leading global commentator on issues of migration that pertain to the South Asian Diaspora, violence against women, diaspora literature, translation, cultural and historical remembrance strategies and feminist politics and culture. Rummana has received several notable awards including Meritorious Service 1977, by the RCMP of Canada, the Ontario Volunteers Award 2000, Woman Of The Year 2010 Canada and Writer and Translater: Diaspora Literature, Ontario Bengali Cultural Society 2016. She has also received several awards for her contributions to Bengali, English and Diaspora literature and translation work from Bangladesh, India, Europe and North America. Noteworthy, The International Michael Modhu Sudan Datta Literary Award 2014,Shunil Gangopadhyay Literary Award 2017, Kobi Jasim Uddin Award 2019, Bangladesh Lekhika Shongho Award for Literature and Translation 2017 amongst others. Rummana immigrated to Canada in 1982 and works as an accredited interpreter/ translator with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada and the Ministry of the Attorney General for the last 30 years. She has been designated as an Expert Witness in the field of social and cultural conditions of Bangladesh

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