Feature

Brine Pickles's “Crossing Cultures”

Shayera Moula

On the 1st of November, the lights zeroed in at the British Council auditorium as they opened up all doors to the entertainment of Arts and Literature. The stage echoed poems, songs, short skits as Brine Pickles organized its 16th event so far. Titled “Crossing Cultures”, the event included translations by renowned writers of the sub-continent side by side with pieces from New Writing 14 and 15, which is the British Council's annual anthology of the finest contemporary writing in fiction, non-fiction and poetry thus bridging the two cultural fields of the world together and so Crossing Cultures indeed.

A warm welcome by the Guest of Honour, Mr. Dominic Hudson, Deputy Manager, Teaching Centre of British Council in Bangladesh concluded with a quote from George Orwell, “Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear,” thus promising an evening of surprises. It was followed by a heartening inaugural speech by the Chief Guest, Dr. Nurul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Eastern University.

Prof. Khondakar Ashraf Hossain, a prominent Bangla poet recited a few self-translated poems being able to both allure and humour his audience at the same time. Next, Dr. Radha Chakravarty, a Reader at the Department of English, Gargi College, University of Delhi, recalled passages from translations of Tagore, and story by Rashid Haider, 'Aaj Onamika' translated by herself. It was time for a skit next. The Autopsy by Sabrina F. Ahmad adapted from Write at Your Peril by Ursula Holden (found in New Writing Anthology) involved Tareq Adnan, Osama Rahman, Risalat Khan, Emil Shamim and Sabrina F. Ahmad.

Dr. Nuzhat Amin's poems, which expressed her responses on love, were retold by Brine Pickles members, followed by some of Professor Fakrul Alam's translations of the renowned Bengali poet, Jibanananda Das. His poems Swapner Dhanira (A Dream Message), and Shamarurha (His Highness) were performed by Brine Pickles Sabreena Ahmed and Theotonius Gomes.

Then came another play called Jalchobi Pradarshani by Idrak Hossain. This has been taken and modified from In the National Gallery by Doris Lessing, and directed by Fatima Tuz Zahra. This hilarious piece with the music compiled by Idrak Hossain was performed by Hasan Ameen, Rubaid Iftekhar Mahbub, Asif Iqbal, Sarah Z H and Alipha Khan and narrated by Fatima Tuz Zahra.

Next up was a performance of Rumana Siddique's Relatively Confused, by Munasir Kamal, Mrittika Kamal and Theotonius Gomes. The poet herself recited a few of her other poems, 'Watery Womanhood', 'Breaking News', 'No Vacancy' and 'Interminable'. These poems projected the reality that we live in, the comfort we manage to find even with the 'Breaking News' and riots around us.

Sabreena Ahmed recited 'Jalamoyi Nari' that has been translated by Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, followed by Professor Kaiser Huq reciting 'Published in the Streets of Dhaka' and 'Ode to the Lungi'. The response to Kaiser Huq's poetry is a déjà vu every time as it never fails to leave the audience crying with laughter! His very nationalist poem that glorifies the “lungi” does find itself useful in all occasions even as “a sleeping bag for two.”

Farhana Farid addressed the concluding speech drawing the program to a perfect ending having filled the crowd with all the senses that literature aims to provoke in its audience as always. Brine Pickles that started with its first show at the British Council last year, continued to experiment in all kinds of creative fields and has traveled around the city performing in numerous places including Omni Books, IUB, BRAC University, Words n' Pages and has organised several workshops with Dr. Patrick Dougherty and Prof. Fakrul Alam.