Tag: Bengal

River as a Companion: Titash Ekti Nadir Naam
Art, Literature, Culture · Dams · Fish · Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk · West Bengal

River as a Companion: Titash Ekti Nadir Naam

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Part 2

Just as all festivities of a fisherfolk life are connected to the river, their dreams and nightmares are riverine too.

 “For several days I’ve been noticing something different in the river’s flow pattern-familiar calculation just don’t seem to hold. The current where we knew it to be slanted is now straight, where we knew it to be straight is now slanted. There is no fish. The fish leaped a little away from where I laid the net, where I expected the flow. Finally, I went near the mouth of the Kurulia Canal. Found the current there turning like a top. I couldn’t sleep and all of a sudden I had this dream, Titash has gone dry.”

– Titash Ekti Nadir Naam, Adwaita Mallabarman (1956), translated by Kalpana Bardhan [i][ii] Continue reading “River as a Companion: Titash Ekti Nadir Naam” →

Titash Ekti Nadir Naam: Swan Song of a River
Art, Literature, Culture · Bangladesh · Dams · Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk · West Bengal

Titash Ekti Nadir Naam: Swan Song of a River

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Part 1

 “Titash is a river’s name. Those living beside the river hardly know the etymological source of its name. They never tried to find out, they never felt any need to. There are rivers with significant names like Madhumati, Brahmaputra, Padma, Saraswati, Jamuna. And this one is called Titash!

No one will find its meaning in the dictionary. But is there any proof that the river might have been dearer to its people if it had a more literate, meaningful name? If a girl named Kajal-Lata is grandly renamed Baidurya Malini, her playmates will not be happy.”

“All the paths from the yards of Malo homes take them to the water of Titash. These are short paths. So short that a baby’s cry at one end can be heard by its mother at the other end. The pitter-patter of adolescent girl’s heart can be heard by the youth in their boats in the river. The only long road for them lies in the river’s midstream and it carries only boats.”

~ Titash Ekti Nadir Naam, Adwaita Mallabarman, 1956[i] Continue reading “Titash Ekti Nadir Naam: Swan Song of a River” →

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Ichhamati: River of Epiphanies
Art, Literature, Culture · Bangladesh · Climate Change · Environment · Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Ichhamati: River of Epiphanies

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“The banks of my pleasant Ichhamati are dotted with tiny villages, wild flowers, green trees and bird nests. In the past five hundred years, so many fishermen have cast their nets in the river, so many houses have been built, so many babies came in the arms of their mothers to take a dip in the river and then in the old age found their last bed near the cool waters of the river. I can visualise the countless who have approached this peaceful river bank through centuries. I shall write a story of about all this. This story shall be called Ichhamati.”

~ Diaries of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, Circa 1940s Continue reading “Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Ichhamati: River of Epiphanies” →