Feature

Touchy discourses of passion, pleasure and predicament

Adrita Shireen Khan

Book: When bhawdroloks are around commoners beware!
Author: Faheem Hasan Shahed
Publisher: Globe Library (Pvt) Limited
Distributors: Pathak Somabesh (Shahbag) & Friends Book Corner (Nilkhet)
Pages: 160; Price: Tk. 150; ISBN 984-15-0231-3

Not many English writers in our country are able to simultaneously blend the mood of seriousness and the craft of satire in their writings. We have some of the great names in our literary arena who have been writing since the 60's and 70's, but somehow the vacancy isn't getting filled up at the desired rate in the contemporary era. Amid this scenario, Dr. Faheem Hasan Shahed's unique offering “When bhawdroloks are around commoners beware!” is a unique treat for our readers.

This paperback book comprise 26 articles which, in every sense of the term, are thoroughly pleasurable to read at one go. One will discover the contemporary, more precisely Bangladeshi urban society, while roaming across the pages. And one will feel how it feels living in this typical societal framework, how things work and do not work.

The name of the book is interesting enough to draw attention, especially this 'bhawdrolok' term. This term was first coined in English by the legendary Nirod C. Chowdhury referring to the so-called elite, educated Bangalee snobbish gentlemen who usually keep a safe distance from the mass. Dr. Faheem's use of 'bhawdrolok' is in the same line of connotation which can be understood by reading his sardonic title article where he at one point says, 'Perhaps we are the only nation where we have no scarcity of bhawdroloks….But we, bhawdroloks fail miserably to face ourselves squarely in the mirror.'

The articles are creatively varied in nature which is evident from their titles as Dr. Faheem successfully broods over multifarious issues ranging from teacher-politics, culture and multiculturalism, woeful educational system's impact in society, personal feelings of ecstasy, anxiety and loss, cyber compulsion of children, begging and society's indifference toward beggars etc. I personally found, and expect the readers to find too, the first and the last articles as the catchiest ones given their subject matter and the writer's masterly treatment of the issues. The first one 'Their Dhaka-life in Bangkok' is on the writer's personal experience with our fugitive stalwarts in Bangkok during the 1/11 period who kept on enjoying their lavish lifestyles in Bangkok while getting admitted in the Bumrungrad Hospital as patients. The depiction of the scenarios will give readers a feeling of listening to a running commentary mixed with appropriate irony and humor.

One example would prove his ability to play with words. After coming to know of two infamous personalities admitting themselves in the hospital as heart-patients, the writer says, '…By virtue of their heartiest generosity of heartily grabbing public properties, they surely didn't have much time to donate a nickel in heart-foundations! Even if they had thought of doing so, the dramatic 1/11 intervention pushed them to the precipice before Bangkok saved them from the LIFE behind karar louho kawpat! Bumrungrad's heart-disease department rightly had to be their eventual destination.' He finally wished them good luck by saying, '…let them be blissful and peaceful with their Dhaka-life in Bangkok. Aha re, who knew that their Bangkok-life in Dhaka would meet such a brutal halt!'

A quintessential feature of Dr. Faheem's writings is his adroit use of Bangla in appropriate contexts which adds more color to his expressions. Some of these interesting expressions are: 'shawrbonaash', 'monsoonwalas', 'pawraner goheen bhitor', 'lousy bawdmaishis', 'borkhawali', 'jawnotar katar', 'aha re' and so on. One may recall here the Indian and African English writings where lots of Hindi, Tamil, Swahili or Zulu expressions are being used.

After finishing the book, readers will agree to what Prof. Syed Manzoorul Islam, country's foremost literary personality and art critic, maintained in his forewords at the back cover: 'Faheem writes with humor and irony and with the power of a good storyteller….The emphasis Faheem places [in his writings], if any, is on the resurgence of the human spirit. He himself is full of optimism, despite his often ironic attitude, and expects his readers to keep alive their hopes for a better tomorrow.' Leave alone everything, this is the kind of book that will entertain both the bhawdroloks and the commoners for sure.