Reading on Canada in Bengali
How is to about the history of Canada? How are its systems and practices? How are the dos and don’ts? Certainly it would be excellent if the writer presents all those information in a language befitting for a fiction? And no doubt that would more exciting if the writer uses Bengali as his medium. Yes, Tazul Muhammed has done that with a title ‘Canadar Chithi’ (Letters from Canada).
What a novelty that the introduction of the book is a letter. A letter written to Babul, the writer’s friend who lives in Bangladesh. The introduction tells that after Tazul’s departure from Bangladesh, Babul would write letters to him. The author always tried to answer the many questions that Babul would ask. Tazul writes: ‘On the basis of your questions, I rushed to the Niagara Falls. I climbed up the CN Tower. From there I looked at the other side of the Ontario Lake. From the skyscrapers I have observed cities like Hamilton, Mississauga and Scarborough….’
From the book it is known that Tazul left the beloved motherland Bangladesh, for which he himself endangered his life in 1971, on 30 April 1995. Before that he confesses, he did his best at the risk of his life for nine months to live and work in his birthplace, but he failed. At last he left for the North America when phone calls were unbelievably expensive, when internet was yet to be accessible for the commoners. That was a time when writings letters was the only means to communicate with family and friends. And Tazul did have no other alternative than letters which he has comprised into the present volume.
The book has forty eight chapters on different aspects of Canada. The initiating one gives the writer’s entrance in the North Pole. Here he narrates his entrance from the USA to Canada. And very aptly he inserts some basic information that a reader on Canada should know – viz. the geographic features like area, main regions etc, population, language, aboriginals, main cities and so on. The small chapter ends with his arrival in Montreal where his friend Alok Chowdhury welcomes him at the Dorval International Airport.
The issues of Canada that Tazul addresses in the books include: Niagara Falls, Canadian Election, Thirty First Night, Social Insurance Number, Unemployment Insurance Benefit, Healthcare in Canada, Lower Birth Rate etc. There are many chapters that intermingle personal touch with less known information. Tazul is successful in appropriately using historical connections to all his plots in the book. Thus, he has made the book of personal essays as intellectual one also. In the essays he very often makes comparison between Canadian things and those of Bangladesh for which the book takes a different flavour for Bengali readers. For many, this 205-page book can be a good handbook for knowing different Canadian issues that are essential for people to live here. The book is undoubtedly helpful for the new immigrants who have to take an exam on Citizenship after their initial years. In the form of fictional narrative, Tazul enriches the readers with many basic facts and figures that might have caused boredom otherwise.
Many stories that the readers may find interesting are associated with the Maple Leaf to be on the flag, changing of ‘British Subjects residing in Canada’ to ‘Canadian citizenship’, the single day of 23 hours of the year, etc. To add a new look to a prose book, the writer has added some pictures along with a few charts also to his pieces.
It can be noticed that many of titles of the chapters don’t give very clear idea on the topics they are going to focus on. And the fact is Tazul has thus saved the book to be a solely essayistic informative book. Rather he has successfully made the book a compilation of a writer’s personal experiences in Canada in a very readable lucid language.
Tazul Muhammed is a veteran name not only in the Bengali community of Montreal where he lives in, but in Toronto community as well. He is one of the few writers of the community living in Canada who has invested most of their time in writing in Bengali. His devotion to work on liberation war of Bangladesh is worth mentioning. His exploratory researches on the 45 year-old issue may draw attention of many who even work on the same issue staying in Bangladesh. Whenever, I meet Tazul Muhammed, or browse his books on our liberation war, I feel the only urge to salute him from the core of my heart for his pensive mood and perseverance.
Salute to the freedom fighter Tazul bhai for your dedication. From your decade-long contribution we can assume how much love you did have for our motherland, how much enthusiasm you did have in freeing her from the heinous claws of Pakistan.
We also congratulate you on your patience and time that you have given for ‘Canadar Chithi’ for which the Bengali communities living in different cities of Canada have got the opportunity to learn all-about their new land in their own language. I believe thousands of readers of Bangladesh and West Bengal will also find that as a good read in the context of Canada. Through this small review, we will also ask the government of Bangladesh not to let turn it a den of devils for whom a true patriot Tazul had to go through severe pangs and pains in his own land.
Canadar Chithi (Letters from Canada)
Tazul Muhammed
Anyaprokash
2007
Subrata Kumar Das, a Bangladeshi writer now living in Toronto, can be reached at en.bdnovels.org or subratakdas@yahoo.com