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Professor Anisuzzaman
Born in 1937 in Calcutta, Professor Anisuzzaman took his B.A. Honours (1956), M.A. (1957) and Ph. D. (1962) degrees in Bengali from the University of Dhaka. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago (1964-55), a Commonwealth Academic staff Fellow at the University of London, and was associated with research projects of the United Nations University (1987-93). Having taught at the Universities of Dhaka (1950-69) and Chittagong (1969-85), he has returned to the former in 1985 as a Professor of Bengali.
He has authored many books in Bengali and English including Muslim Manas O Bangla Sahitya (Dhaka 1964), Swaruper Sandhane (Dhaka 1975), Purono Bangla Gadya (Dhaka 1984), Factory correspondence and other Bengali documents in the India Office Library and Records (London 1981), Creativity, Reality and Identity (Dhaka 1993), Cultural Pluralism (Calcutta 1993) and Identity, Religion and Recent history (Calcutta 1995).
He has been a recipient of the Bangla Academy award for research (1970) and the Ekushe Padak, an award given by the state, for his contribution to education (1983).
He was a member of the Planning Commission to the Government of Bangladesh during the liberation war.
Recently he is president of the Bangla Academy.
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Sunil Gangopadhyay
Sunil Gangopadhyay was born on 7 September 1934 in Faridpur in what is now Bangladesh is an Indian poet. Sunil obtained his Master's degree in Bengali from the University of Calcutta in 1954. He has been associated with the Ananda Bazar group, a major publishing house in Kolkata, for many years, and after serving five years as the Vice President he is currently the President of the Sahitya Akademi.
Author of well over 200 books, Sunil is a prolific writer who has excelled in different genres but declares poetry to be his "first love". He was the founder editor of Krittibas, a seminal poetry magazine that became a platform for a new generation of poets experimenting with many new forms in poetic themes, rhythms, and words. His Nikhilesh and Neera series of poems (some of which have been translated as For You, Neera and Murmur in the Woods) have been extremely popular.
As in poetry, Sunil is known for his unique style in prose. Arjun, Pratidwandi, filmed by Satyajit Ray (English title: The Adversary), Aranyer Din-Raatri (The Days and Nights of the Forest, also filmed by Satyajit Ray), Abar Aranya (filmed by Gautam Ghosh), Ekaa ebong Koyekjon are some of his well known works of fiction. His historical fiction Sei Somoy (translated into English by Aruna Chakravorty as Those Days) received the Indian Sahitya Akademi award in 1985. Sei Somoy continues to be a best seller more than a decade after its first publication. The same is true for Pratham Alo (also translated recently by Aruna Chakravorty as First Light), another best selling historical fiction and Purbo-Paschim, a raw depiction of the partition and its aftermath seen through the eyes of three generations of Bengalis in West Bengal, Bangladesh and elsewhere. He is also the winner of the Bankim Puraskar (1982), and the Ananda Puraskar (twice).
Sunil has written (and still writes) in many other genres including travelogues, children's fiction, short stories, features, and essays. Among his pen-names are: Nil Lohit, Sanatan Pathak, and Nil Upadhyay.
Though he has written all types of children's fiction, one character created by him that stands out above the rest, is Kakababu, the crippled adventurist, accompanied by his young adult nephew Shantu, and his friend Jojo. Since 1974, Sunil Gangopadhyay has written over 35 novels of this popular series, most of which appeared in Anandamela magazine.
Awards
1972 :Sunil Gangopadhyay was awarded "Ananda Puroskar" for general work
1979 :He was honoured as the 'National Poet' from 'Akashbani' Kolkata
1980 : He was awarded 'Swarnakamal' prize from Govt. India for his written flimscript 'Sodh'
1983 : He was awarded 'Bankim Puroskar' for the book 'Sei Samay' from Govt. of West Bengal.
1984 : He was awarded 'Sahitya Academy Puroskar' for the book 'Sei Samay'.
1989 :He was awarded 'Ananda Puroskar' again for the book 'Purbo-Paschim'. He was awarded 'Sahitya Setu' puroskar.
1999 : His story 'Neellohiter Golpa' which was published in 'Sarodia Bartoman' was given 'Annada-Snowcem puroskar.
2003 : He was awarded 'Annadashankar' puroskar.
2005 : He was awarded 'Saraswati Samman' for 'Prathom Alo' . The award , instituted by the K K Birla Foundation.
For Details please visit http://www.sunilgangopadhyay.com/
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Samaresh Majumdar
Samaresh Majumdar is an eminent Bengali author of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. He has authored numerous novels which are widely read by the Bengalis. Animesh and Arjun are two of his famous fictional characters.
Early life of Samaresh Majumdar
Samaresh Majumdar was born in 1944 in Jalpaiguri in North Bengal. Samaresh Majumdar completed his formal schooling from Jalpaiguri District School. Subsequently he did his graduation in Bengali from Scottish Church College in Kolkata.
Samaresh Majumdar Literary works
'Dour' (Run) was the first novel written by this master novelist and published in 1976. However, he started writing short stories initially, the first of which was published in 'Desh' a Bengali periodical. Author Samaresh Majumdar is equally adept in writing novels and short stories. Some of the famous literary works of this Bengali author include:
• Dour – The first novel written by Samaresh Majumdar and published in 1976
• Uttaradhikar – This is the story of Animesh a boy and then a youth who grows up in the tea gardens of North Bengal. This is the first of the Animesh trilogy.
• Kalbela – In this novel, Animesh the hero arrives in Calcutta and struggles to adjust himself to Calutta's culture, politics and society. He is handicapped, and falls in love with Madhabilata a Bangladeshi girl whom he marries.
• Samaresh Majumdar won the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award for Kalbela in 1984.
• Kalpurush - The last of Animesh trilogy, this novel explores the conflict of Arko, the son of Animesh and Madhabilata, who tries to adjust between his parents idealisms and present day's consumerism.
• Arjun Beriye Elo - Arjun is another fictional character created by Samaresh Majumdar. Arjun is science fiction hero and a detective.
Other novels of Samaresh Majumdar include Sharonagoto, Saat Kahon I and II and Tero Parbon. Swapner Bazar, Ujaan Ganga, Tirtha Jaatri, Victoriar Bagaan, Aat Kuthuri Noy Darja, Attiyoswajan, Anuraag, Cinemawallah, Derdin, Ekmukhi Rudraksha, Garbha Dharini and Ekadosh Aswarohi are some of the other books written by the great literary personality.
Samaresh Majumdar has written about sixty noels and more than one hundred short stories. Samaresh Majumdar won the Ananda Purashkar in 1982 and the Sahitya Academy Award in 1984.
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Humayun Ahmed
Towards the end of 20th century, Humayun Ahmed emerged as the most popular novelist and story-writer of Bengali literature since Sharatchandra Chattopadhya. At least for the last two decades, Humayun Ahmed's books are topping the best sellers list by a big margin [1]. He has also achieved unparallel success as a playwright since he started writing screenplays for television in late 1980s. In early 1990s, he entered the movie-world and proved to be a successful filmmaker in spite of clear departure from traditional Bangladeshi movies. Although his novels and stories frequently build around urban middle-class life, his focus on rural Bangladesh is not negligible at all.
Humayun Ahmed often shows a fascination for creating stories around supernatural events. Also, he is considered the father of modern Bengali science fiction having to his credit a number of science fiction books that he has published since 1980s. As an author, he essentially belongs to the genre whose style is characterized by magic realism[2] In a popular survey conducted by the BBC, Humayun Ahmed was elected as one of the ten great living Bengalis.
Humayun Ahmed was born in 1948 in Kutubpur of Mymensingh district in the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. It is through him that the colloquial language of rural Mymensingh found a permanent seat in Bengali literature. His father Foyzur Rahman, a police officer and literature aficionado, was killed by the Pakistani army during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.[citation needed] Small wonder that the behaviour and attitude of police officers of Bangladesh often feature in his stories and novels. Ahmed's younger brother Muhammad Zafar Iqbal who is a university professor is also a writer of children's books and science fiction [3]. Recently Iqbal has also earned reputation as a newspaper columnist and a human rights activist.
Their brother, Ahsan Habib, is the editor of Unmad and a cartoonist as well as popular writer. Humayun Ahmed married Gultekin in 1973 who gave him five children. They divorced in 2005 as Humayun Ahmed decided to marry Shaon, a young actress, who has appeared in a number of his TV dramas and movies since early 1990s. The affair with Shaon since mid-1990s, eventually culminating in wedlock, fetched Humayun Ahmed a huge criticism from the people, specially the womenfolk of the country.
Humayun Ahmed attended Chittagong Collegiate School and Bogra Zilla School for his secondary education. For his higher secondary education, he attended the Dhaka College. He received excellent scores in Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and then he obtained second position in combined merit list of Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examination of the Dhaka Board. After graduating from the University of Dhaka with excellent grades, Humayun Ahmed joined the department of chemistry in the same university as a lecturer. He obtained his PhD. in polymer chemistry from the North Dakota State University. Professor Dr. Humayun Ahmed retired from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Dhaka for the sake of writing and film-making (according to his novel Chobi Bananor Galpo). Notably he is an honorary fellow in writing at the University of Iowa.
Humayun Ahmed had a meteoric rise in Bangla literature. His first novel, Nondito Noroke (tr: In blissful Hell by Mohammad Nurul Huda), written while he was still a student of University of Dhaka, gained immediate popularity and critical acclaim. Equally successful was his second novel, Shankhanil Karagar (tr: The Conch-blue Prison), later made into a successful film by Nasiruddin Yusuf. Humayun Ahmed went on to become one of the most prolific writers in Bengali literature, having published around one hundred and fifty novels to date.
Along with his more traditional novels and short stories, Humayun Ahmed is often credited with creating or maturing many literary genres in Bangladesh. The rise of Bengali science fiction can almost solely be attributed to Humayun Ahmed and Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, his younger brother.
His contribution to the comic genre is also considerable. His televised drama Bohubrihi was one of the most successful productions of the national TV of the country called Bangladesh Television. Its characters are still household names twenty years later. The drama combined a subtle comic wit with a social message, as did his successful comic essay collection Elebele. Humayun Ahmed later developed Bohubrihi into a novel.
Though set in the realities of middle class life, Humayun Ahmed's works display a particular penchant for the mysterious and unexplained. He himself and his literature are often referred to as "moon-struck", and references to the full moon in his prose are numerous. In almost every one of Ahmed's novels, there is at least one character who possesses an extraordinary milk of kindness—a characteristic of Humayun Ahmed’s writing. Also, he is prone to create funny characters through which he reveals social realities and passes on his message.
Another recurring theme in Ahmed's literature is the liberation war, which affected him deeply. His father was executed by the Pakistan Army during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. He, along with his mother and siblings, had to hide to survive. Humayun Ahmed has made a play titled 1971, several novels like Aguner Parashmoni (The Touchstone of Fire), Shyamal Chhaya (Green Shadows) and a recent novel named Jochhna O Jananir Galpo (The Tale of Moonlight and the Mother) based on the Liberation War. The novel Jochhna O Jananir Galpo has already received huge popularity and critical acclaim. His comic novel Bahubrihi ends with the character named Farid training parrots to say Tui Rajakar (tr. you are a traitor), with the goal of sending these parrots to Bangladeshi collaborators during the war, and this gained a huge popularity among the people of Bangladesh.
Dr. Humayun Ahmed wrote a notable book on 'quantum chemistry'. This book is named as "Quantum Rosayon". In this book he has represented the complicated theories of quantum chemistry. While scientific themes often occur in his stories, Humayun Ahmed sacrificed academic pursuit in favour of creative writing.
Humayun Ahmed has transformed himself into a prominent film and television personality. His first television drama, "Ei Shob Din Ratri" (Story of our daily life), gained unparallel popularity in the mid-eighties. He followed this with the comedy series "Bohubrihi", the historical drama series "Ayomoy", and the urban drama series "Kothao Keu Nei" (Nobody Anywhere). The last one featured an idealistic gang leader named 'Baker Bhai', who is wrongly convicted, and executed. Baker Bhai became such a popular character that before the last episode was aired, people across the country brought out processions protesting his death sentence. Funnily enough, public prayers and death anniversaries have been observed for this fictional character by Humayun-fans. Last but not the least, "Nakshetrer Raat" (tr. The night of stars, a long serialized televised drama was another hit that explored many facets of modern human life and relationship.
Ahmed explored the film industry both as an author and director. He directs films based on his own stories. His first film, "Aguner Parashmoni", based on the Bangladesh Liberation War, received critical acclaim and won the National Film Award in eight categories, including Best Picture and Best Director. The theme of the Liberation War often comes across in his stories, often drawing upon Ahmed's in-depth memories of that war.
Ahmed's film Shyamal Chhaya received an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. It was an entertaining moview with a storyline around the war of liberaiton war of 1971. The movie portrayed a realistic picture of the liberation war without malice and prejudice. Shaymol Chhaya has proved to be a captivating movie. In our polarised world where portraying practising Muslims negatively can bring international accolade very easily, Humayun Ahmed didn't take advantage of the situation. Instead of exploiting that sick anti-Muslim sentiment, he preferred to illustrate a story that is unarguably very close to reality [4].
Until recently Bengali fiction has largely been dominated by the works and style of Bengali writers from the West Bengal. Humayun Ahmed has distinguished himself with a unique literary diction that is unprecedented. His prose style is lucid and he resorts to dialogue rather than narration. As a result his demand for space is limited and the text is compact. He heavily depends on the characters he creates and he has unparallel skill in portraying a character with a very few sentences. He has proved capable of portraying rural as well as urban life with equal expertise. Frequently, he captures contemporary issues in his writings from a different angle. He is an optimist who is prone to focus light on the positive aspects of a person or an event even it essentially carries negative connotation. His portrayal of a hooligan or a prostitute is evidently non-judgmental. His human touch to stories hugely appeals to emotional Bengali psychology. Also, it should be noted that, his storylines often blend reality with supernatural episodes. This blend is subtle while hugely convincing. He does not sit to write a story to pass on a message. However, they never fail to pass the message of goodness, beauty and fellow-feeling among others. He has never resorted to eroticism or vulgarism to appeal to immature readership. In the contemporary literary world, perhaps none exists today who writes as spontaneously as Humayun Ahmed [5]
Awards
• Bangla Academy Award 1981
• Shishu Academy Award
• Ekushe Podok 1994
• National Film Award (Best Story 1993, Best Film 1994, Best Dialogue 1994)
• Lekhak Shibir Prize (1973)
• Michael Madhusudan Medal (1987)
• Bacsas Prize (1988)
• Humayun Qadir Memorial Prize (1990)
• Jainul Abedin Gold Medal
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