Thaindian News

Dhaka, Nov 25 (IANS) Bengali literature has bright future, with growing readership in both Bangladesh, India and wherever the Bengali-speaking diaspora resides, India’s best known Bengali poet and litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay said.He visited Madaripur, his birth place in Bangladesh’s Faridpur district, to open a three-day “Sunil Mela”, a literary fair that ended Sunday, to celebrate his 75th birthday, BSS news agency reported.

Sunil Literature Practice and Research Centre organised the fair in his ancestral home at Purba Maijpara village under Kalkini Upazila (sub-district).

A total of 20 stalls displaying books written by him at the fair, turned into a festival with the presence of poets, litterateurs, artistes and bookworms, among others. Other attractions of the fair included live performances of ‘jari’ and ’shari’ folk songs, The Daily Star newspaper said Tuesday.

A library and healthcare centre, named after him, are being set up at Sunil’s ancestral home.

The poet was accompanied on the visit by his wife Swati Gangopadhyay, elder brother Anil Gangopadhyay and daughter Konika Gangopadhyay.

Like Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and Qazi Nazrul Islam of the last century, modern-day writers, poets, artistes and musicians are well known in both the South Asian nations.

Sunil Gangopadhyay was born on Sep 7, 1934. He obtained his Master’s degree in Bengali literature from the University of Calcutta in 1954.

He was associated with the Ananda Bazar group, a major newspaper-publishing house in Kolkata, for many years. He is now the president of Sahitya Academy after serving as its vice-president for five years.

An author of more than 200 books, Sunil is widely regarded as one of the most prolific writers having excelled in different genres, but he proudly declares that poetry is his “first love”.

He was the founder-editor of “Krittibas”, a poetry magazine that became a platform for the new generation poets, experimenting with many new forms in poetic themes, rhythms and words.