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A little ado from Brine Pickles
Amina Najeeba Khan attends a literary soiree at the British Council where young aspiring writers and performers put up a show alongside established professors and poets
photo by Andrew Biraj
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‘Crossing Cultures’, not like east meets west, but more like a blend of it all. It was a night of pure bliss for literary lovers. Brine Pickles, a group of young literature lovers and aspiring writers affiliated with the British Council, organized a dazzling evening of performance literature.
Because of the intermingling of different races, Bengali, Indian and British, the show got the name ‘Crossing Cultures’.
Deputy manager of British Council Teaching Center Dominic Hudson was present as the Guest of Honour for the event. The show began with his welcome speech, which ended with a quotation from George Orwell, ‘Liberty is telling people what they do not want to hear.’ This was followed by an inaugural speech by Dr Nurul Islam, founding chairman of the department of English at Jahangirnagar University and dean of the faculty of arts of Eastern University. According to him, the creative use of English has been a recent phenomena in our country and he believes that ‘the bright young man and woman of this generation is much more potent compared to a bright young man and woman of our generation.’
The night of performances started off with recitations of a few poems by the renowned Bangla poet professor Khondakar Ashraf Hossain, from his books ‘Tomar Naame Brishti Naame’ and ‘Nirbachito Kobita’. Though these poems were written in Bengali, they were recited and translated into English by the poet himself, reason being — as he explained to the audience — he was unable to find a better translator than himself till present. He began by warning the audience that they might find his poetry ‘bland and tasteless, rather like pickles without the brine.’ His poems ‘Naan Roti’ and ‘Noorjahan’, which was a relatively gloomy poem about a girl who was stoned to death, received much appreciation from the audience. He recited another one of his poems ‘Bhu Dorshon’, which was about the irony of life, in both Bengali and English so that he got the message clearly across to his audience. His last poem, a ‘Poem for Sheikh Hasina’ dedicated to the former prime minister herself advised the leader to ‘Keep up your ammunition for the coming winter’.
This act was followed by readings from ‘Boyhood Days’, translations of Tagore’s works by Dr Radha Chakravarty, a famous Indian writer and translator. A series of memoirs from Tagore’s childhood were expressed in the form of a story through this particular reading. Her second reading was a story by Rashid Haider, ‘Aaj Onamika’ translated by herself in her book, ‘Crossing’ and was about the post-liberation war Bangladesh. A passage from another story from ‘Crossing’ which was rather intriguing was next on the agenda, which left the listeners rather perplexed about what really happened to the girl who disappeared so suddenly. Next up was a science fictional story based on an Indian writer, set in the year 2075 when all natural resources had been used up. This story reflected people’s hunger for nature and how without it, one would truly feel incomplete.
The next performance, which was probably the highlight of the show, was by the Brine Pickles themselves of ‘the Autopsy’ by Sabrina F Ahmad, adapted from ‘Write at Your Peril’ by Ursula Holden. Performing the play were Brine Pickles members Tareq Adnan, Osama Rahman, Risalat Khan, Emil Shamim and Sabrina F Ahmad. It was a performance filled with humour and starkly different from the performances preceding it.
Then followed recitations of poems by Dr Nuzhat Amin, in one of which she expressed her sentiments on love, ‘Love is as infinite as the flea market’ by Brine Pickles members, followed by selections from 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 amidst the soft tunes of the guitar.
Rather different from the other pieces of the evening, Theotonius Gomes next performed a song, ‘Hearing Myself Think.’ The lyrics of this particular piece were adapted from Richard Beard’s short story and composed by the performer himself.
The play ‘Jalchobi Pradarshani’ by Idrak Hossain, adapted from ‘In the National Gallery’ by Doris Lessing and directed by Fatima Tuz Zahra was another hilarious piece performed by Brine Pickles Hasan Ameen, Rubaid Iftekhar Mahbub, Asif Iqbal, Sarah ZH and Alipha Khan. The narrator was Fatima Tuz Zahra and the music was compiled by Idrak Hossain. Throughout the play, a sixty year old man was seen trying to get young men to notice the ‘masterpiece’ in front of them and failing miserably. In the end he is seen losing his own interest in that and chasing two teen girls instead. This play was amusing and was a change from the other acts.
Performance of Rumana Siddique’s ‘Relatively Confused’ was followed by the play, by Munasir Kamal, Mrittika Kamal and Theotonius Gomes. Next the poet herself recited a few of her other poems, ‘Watery Womanhood’, ‘Breaking News’, ‘No Vacancy’ and ‘Interminable’. The poem ‘Breaking News’ is based on the violent events that took place in Dhaka last October, and how despite all the riots going on around, one still is able to live in the comfort of our his own home without any fear. The poem ‘No Vacancy’ is about loneliness and ‘Interminable’ is about the ups and downs of life. The line ‘the waiting time is interminable’ is repeated throughout then latter poem.
‘Jalmoyi Nari’ translated by Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam was recited by Sabreena Ahmed next, followed by Professor Kaiser Huq, Bangladesh’s only international poet in English, reciting ‘Published in the Streets of Dhaka’ and ‘Ode to the Lungi’. The last poem was, to describe in one word, uproarious. It had the viewers in fits of laughter. The lungi, according to the poet, is a complete wardrobe in itself. According to the poet, ‘when romance strikes, the lungi is a sleeping bag for two.’
With this and a concluding speech by Farhana Farid, the dazzling night of literary performances came to an end. Thanks to the Brine Pickles, literature lovers were able to gather in one place, fill their hearts with content while watching and listening to some exquisite pieces being recited.
‘Crossing Cultures’ is the first literary evening put together by the Brine Pickles at the British Council since the ‘Connecting Futures’ project ended in 2006. Since then they have been surviving on their own and many of their former members have now become teachers. All of the members are university going students, as Sabreena Ahmed herself informs New Age, others who were members have passed out to pursue their profession as teachers. Many of them are translators. They meet up four times each month, once each week and sit down and assess each others’ work. They themselves criticize their work so as to get better. After the first publication, they are now thinking of a second. According to the group member, Brine Pickles group is the first in this country to introduce performance literature. They see themselves going forward and achieving a lot more. Their wish is for more people to be interested in joining their group so as to make it larger.
Within the space of a couple of years, Brine Pickles has made its name in the field of literature. The project ‘Connecting Futures’ which ended in 2006 established mutual understanding between Brine Pickled and young writers from Uk through two consecutive creative writing workshops conducted by Dinesh Allirajah. The workshop concluded in the first publication of the Brine Pickles, Maps and Metaphors which explores the unity amidst diversity of the eastern and western cultures.
Since then, Brine Pickles have performed in a number of places, starting from omni Books, IUB, BRAC University, Words ‘n Pages and have also organized workshops with Dr Patrick Dougherty and Professor Fakrul Alam.
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