The annual book fair, or the Ekushey Boi Mela, takes place every February in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and it was one of the biggest events of my life from 2004 to 2015. In a sense, for me, the annual culture and practice of publishing new books was kick-started by this book fair. Each year, the breathless …
Shuddhashar has entered its third decade this year. The journey has neither been smooth nor planned out in detail. The story began in December 1990 with a youthful passion for poetry and literature that soon grew into an aspiration to influence the broader culture and society. The hope was to bring about a change in …
Looking back over the three decades of Shuddhashar Read More »
In the early days of Shuddhashar, there was excitement around new ideas, different ways of looking at the world, and information that challenged our societal assumptions. Day by day, our mentality shifted because we were opening up. Some subjects are very difficult to write about. There are so many scattered events, contexts, and emotions …
A publisher’s disclaimer about LGBTIQ+ solidarity Read More »
Bangladesh is a small nation in South Asia, gaining independence in 1971. After 24 years of existence under the religious defined Pakistan, created at the end of the British Raj, Bangladesh was born based on a nationalism centred on language. The aspirations of economic, political and intellectual emancipation accelerated and organised the country’s birth. All …
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen, good evening. Please accept my warmest wishes, love, and gratitude. I fondly remember Bangladesh at this time. The emotions that are inspired by the colours of the dried roses echo in my mind like the melody of a violin. Ladies and gentlemen, you are probably aware that I have arrived here …
21 March is Human Rights Day in South Africa. All over the country, different events took place discussing Women Rights, Children, LGBTQI as well as ‘the past’. What has been achieved and what should still be done? 24 years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa has come a long way. And even if it seems …
In 2013, Spring arrived a few days early in Bangladesh, and its advent was a raging bloom. On February 5, Bangladeshi bloggers and online activists fleetly occupied the Shahbag intersection, to protest against the mild sentence of life-imprisonment awarded to atrocious war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary-general of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islam party, who committed heinous …
Greetings everybody. My love affair with books began at an early age. A love of reading turned into a love of writing, which turned into a passion for publishing. I started my very first magazine when I was in my first year of college – I called it Suddhashar, which means “True Sense” or “True …
