“Esho hein Boishakh Esho Esho “ -a song which almost every Bengali by heart bears to sing out loud even with the weakest voice, on every resplendent first day of Bengali New Year, and we the Bengali students of University Malaya, ( Kuala-lumpur, Malaysia) are proudly enriched with such strong feeling as-well. It’s the feeling which day-to-day reminds us of where we come from & actually belong, the basis of our true cultural roots to our own expression of belonging – originality – individuality – to Bangladesh. To us, the history of “Pohela Boishakh” or the first day of the first month of the each Bengali year, that we recall is - Under the Mughals, agricultural taxes were collected according to the Hijri calendar. As the Hijri calendar was not a purely lunar calendar, it didn’t not match with the harvest seasons. Due to what the farmers back than were struggling to pay taxes out of season. So, The Mughal Emperor Akbar to simplify the tax-collection process ordered a reform of the calendar. Therefore, Fatehullah Shirazi, a renowned scholar and astronomer, formulated the Bengali year on the basis of the Hijri lunar and Hindu solar calendars. The new Fasli San (agricultural year) was introduced on 10/11 March 1584, but was dated from Akbar's ascension to the throne in 1556. The New Year subsequently became known as Bônggabdo or Bengali year. Though, Celebrations of “Pohela Boishakh” started from Akbar's reign. It was customary to clear up all dues on the last day of the year. On the next day, or the first day of the New Year, landlords would entertain their tenants with sweets. On this occasion there used to be fairs and other festivities. In due course the occasion has become part of domestic and social life, and turned into a day of merriment for Bangladeshi people. The main event of the day was to open a “halkhata” or new book of accounts and say goodbye to old dues. (Internet)
As I recently moved in to Kuala-lumpur to do my post-graduation, I was already going through a sturdy despair as I thought I wouldn’t be able to celebrate this year’s “Pohela Boishakh” or even feel for it the way I felt all these year back in my home-country. As in Bangladesh, it means Ramna Botomul, Street Paintings, Colors of Liveliness and Joy depicting through Rallies, Concerts, Traditional Bengali foods – dressing – events everywhere; People despite of their religious-social-linguistic differences all coming onto one ground for a day to be identical in their own terms of celebration and festivity. As like as me, there are hundreds here away from home - friends and family, juggling through the heavy study outlines & foreign culture scenarios, caught in between mid-semester study pressure & urge for even going back to Bangladesh for one day only to be part of the outstanding fete of existence. But due to our educational limitations and certain personal bindings we couldn’t. So, some of us decided to bring Bangladesh to us when we can’t go to her. As a result, we succeeded both organizing and performing in the name of “Pohela Boishakh Celebrating Night” ourselves- in-front of almost 400 local & international people of University Malaya & outside the campus audiences on the very 13th April evening by going live on stage with the pure Bengali Folk-Singing, Dancing, Game-shows related to our language, Fashion-show and solid breathtaking Band-Song Performances in just twenty-five days of initiative-planning, strong efforts towards effective promotions, rehearsals, publicizing face-to-face information’s from person-to-person and the necessary fund raising tasks.
Despite of Belonging to diverse departments, staying in altered places – mostly holding different social-mental-educational backgrounds – we all bonded with one conjoint element – we are Bengalis and no matter how far we are , we belong to Bangladesh at the end of each day of our lives. I know it sounds bit dramatic and maybe a bit exaggeration, but that is honestly what we feel. Living here is nothing comparable to the life in Bangladesh. Maybe, we are not suffering from the un-stable price-hikes or the messy political disputes, the continues load-shedding, hectic traffic jams, the day-to-day tension arising regarding security of citizens etc. but we miss our country in each possible way we can. Because every time we place our steps on this ground we know it’s not ours – and I strongly believe every true Bangladeshi who stays abroad feels as exact as we do. For us, the event was a way of re-connecting ourselves and doing all that we can do to reveal the true colors of our culture – and in such process we thank the entire UM officials, Faculties and Admins for respecting our festival and allowing us to hold the event inside the premise and supporting us with the proper permissions and auditorium facilities. As the event started out with Quran recitation by Ruhul Amin and the theme song of “Pohela Boishakh” sang by Birbal, Raquib, Delta, Rashik, Osru, Khairul & me followed by the speeches from the chief guests - Naseruddin Solaiman, Assistant Registrar (International Students Center – ISC of UM), Soud Rahman, Director (GSA- Sweet Dreams Travel &Tours Sdn Bhd, Show Sponsor), S. M. Anisul Haque, Counsellor (Bangladesh High Commission, KL) & Ehsan Soodmand, President (University Malaya Int. Students Association – UMISA). Most amusingly all the speeches had one particular statement – “it seems suddenly the auditorium is all about Bangladeshi atmosphere and we are in some event of Bangladesh in itself”. With the vibrant Hosting of Osru and Rashik, the event than was followed by a gorgeous dance number by Delta, an unplugged medley of Famous folk songs such as Shadher Lau, Ghate Lagaiya Dinga, Ektara Bajaiyo Na, Tomar Ghore Boshot Kore (Birbal, Raquib, Rashik, Me), an interesting game show on the Bengali alphabets based on entirely the international participants from the audiences hosted by Rasikh and Rafat. Fascinatingly, the fashion show choreographed by Farhad was executed on the ramp by five foreign lovely female students (Boyeon Moon – Korea, Liu Shuoyi –China, Meerim Omorova–Kyrghistan, Zhenishgul Istanbekova–Kyrghistan, Ajar Nurdinova– Kyrghistan) of UM all dressed in traditional saree’s in different Bengali ways escorted with five of the male-organizers. We also had a Malaysian Post-grad Student Vikki, who managed perfectly to sing the famous – “Manobono Biharini” as like as any Bengali singer as part of the show which was an enormous attainment. Finally, there were two band performances – in which not only Birbal, Khairul & Raquib who rocked the stages with the famous Bengali band songs of all times but also remarkably the Bengali Student of MMU (Multi-Media University) performed vividly as-well in their own terms of celebration and respect to the “Pohela Boishakh”. All the audiences were treated with traditional delicious Khuchuri- Begun Bhaji- Ilish Mach Bhaja” as in the food menu was made by us, the organizers to keep a clear relevance to Deshi specialties – which became complete appreciation and liking of the night among the audiences both Bengali and Foreigners. And throughout the event it was Sakib, Saiful, Parisa, Dinky (IIUM), Rafat (MMU), Shawkat, Jahid, Kawsar etc. who were running back and forth regardless of any sort of tiredness for hours to bring all the performances together backstage and making the show go on-wards till the end without any difficulties. (Hats Off to them. We could perform on stage because you were watching our backs in each-single moment). Also gratitude to the remarkable photography of the entire event done by Hussain Fakrudeen, who is originally from Sri Lanka currently working in KL, for being on his toes the whole evening to picture our special moments.
It’s been exact two days after the celebration and so far the response is tremendously inspiring and appreciating. People are already asking when our next New Year celebration is and what we will be planning for it. When we first sat down together for the planning, we were quite keen to even expect less than 150 people as we knew living in abroad, people tends to be more busier with own life and living. But when we opened the event, we found Bengali students of MMU, UKM, Sunway University, the foreign students-teachers along with families, the parents, even the collogues of the post-grad and PhD students in the audience seats. It was just few hours but for us, the organizing committee - it was an experience of lifetime. We are young and we are away from home, we don’t see our families or hug our friends for months, we don’t sit in the roads in the evening anymore to have the “tong dokaner cha” and gossip, we don’t even have fuchka to fill our mouth with, we don’t go to the concerts of Guru’s like James, Ayub Bachchu, Maksud or can’t dance to the beats of bands like Artcell-Aurthohin-shironaamhin-lalon etc. or watch Mila-Fuad-Habib banging the stages with some mind-blowing music pieces where we can tear our voices into…we don’t get to have rickshaw rides all around our respective areas as-well. We weren’t able to shop for the red-white color combination new clothes or have the delightful special sweets on the Nobo-Barsha morning even or standing taste the panta-ilish in the hot weather of different areas of Dhaka city. We even missed the Chayanot-singing presentation at Ramna and “the Mela” at DU area. However, we tried to fulfill such huge incompleteness with our five hour show, where we forgot where we are – we only remembered who we are – and how badly we miss our country. We poured each possible way all that we hold inside towards our culture – mixed them up with verbal or physical efforts and turned the UM Pardana Siswa Auditorium into more like “Pohela Boishakh Moments” in our own maybe imperfect but magical ways. Lastly, I thank my fellow members in the committee – I am blessed to be found by you and to find you, as I feel connected to you through what we mutually hold within ourselves – which is Bangladesh. I am grateful to you for those 25 days of working together and mostly the show – which made me, forgot that how far I am from my country; my loved ones and making it all feel like home again. And to the readers back in home and abroad as in me, especially the youth of our times - Unfortunately most of us try to act like a Bengali for a day and rest of the year act as if some alien in the home grounds by neglecting the language, blaming the difficult living style of Bangladesh, blaming the flaws of social-educational-cultural norms which is more of so-called revolution of freedom of free-mind. Please let’s love-respect- do everything possible for our country – because at the end when you are ever in abroad and true to your roots– when you’ll see there is not much to relate to your original culture you will become devastated even for a very short period of time and you would realize how much have you wasted in picking out the flaws of your birthplace rather than actually recognizing it for its contribution to your existence.
Photographs By Hussain Fakruddin (A free-lancer currently working in Kuala lampur from Sri Lanka)
