Reviews, Vol I, Issue III
Gurudev Rabindranath
Tagore had once
said that a
bird does not
fly in the
sky merely for
delight, its main
purpose lies in
the searching for
food. Eminent Bangladeshi
litterateur Humayun Ahmed’s
Bengali novel ‘Uraalpankhi’ (Flying
Bird) (2002) reminds
the saying of Tagore to
a great extent.
Ahmed has told here the
story of birds
like human beings
who are always
flying that is
running after terrestrial
comforts ignoring all
emotions and sentiments
which have provided
the supremacy of
human beings over
others. In today’s
world one’s ability
is judged mostly
by the mundane
achievements he/she has
made. Family, friendship,
love, trust, humanity,
fellow feeling, all
such valuable emotions
are gradually taking
back foot. People are
becoming impatient. Moreover
the problem of
unemployment is making
the well educated
young generation hopeless
and intolerant which
adds fuel to
all the social
unrest. The novel
though deals with
such contemporary themes, at
last shows that
feelings and emotions
are not dead
among whole mankind
completely; that it
is love and
sympathy which conquer
all.
The novel’s
story mainly revolves
around Muhib, a middle-class, highly
educated but unemployed
well behaved young
man who lives
in the city
of Dhaka with
his bachelor uncle,
mother, and two
married elder bothers.
He is greatly
liked by all
for his good
nature except his family members
who often rebuke
him for not
doing anything for
financial independence. Muhib
has become like an unpaid
house-help who is
always ordered to
fetch flour from
the grocery shop,
to postbox others’
important letters, to
go the market
to buy Hilsa
fish for his
brother and unmistakably return
the change to
his sister-in-law etc. He has
already sat before
many interview boards but surprisingly has
not been appointed
anywhere so far. His father
Shamsuddin Saheb lives
separate from his
family for any
unknown reason related
to a girl
Jamuna. All the
family members except
Muhib have cut
off relations with
him. He loves
Muhib very much
and the latter
comes to meet
his father at
intervals. Muhib has
a group of
friends comprised some equally educated
but unemployed young
men. They often
sit together and
have a little
drinking and smoking
session to temporarily
forget their agony
and despondency. Muhib
joins them but
he is freed
from any such
addiction. He shares
a special friendship
with a girl,
Nora who is
a singer and
only daughter of
a rich father.
One fine day
he again goes
for an interview
and to his
surprise this time
he cracks it.
He gets appointment
letter of a
multinational company and
is asked to
join it. Later
he decides to
leave it when
he comes to
know that Nora’s
reference has brought
him the job.
In the
mean time one
member of the
friends’ group, Haroon
suddenly decides to set his
body on fire
in front of the Press
Club of Dhaka
to protest against
the govt. and
attract the notice
of the mass
to the severe
problem of unemployment.
He pitches only
an umbrella and sits under
it before the
Press Club. At
first all the
members took the
matter lightly and
join the fun.
They fix the time of 12 a.m. for Haroon’s self-sacrifice. They even put up banners and posters to publicise
it. They
try to contact
famous persons to
come and support
the cause. The masses too take interest in such an
unusual matter. But gradually the
course of event
starts to take
u-turn and it
gets serious. The
electronic and press
media come to
cover the issue.
They take interviews
of Haroon. But
all the efforts
fail to attract
the notice of the govt.
and even the
opposition parties. Gradually
more people start
to gather around
the place to
see the fun.
Situation gets worsen
as public start
demanding the fire
incident to happen
at any cost.
At this point
of time heavy rain comes
to their defence
and disperse the
public. The group
members straightaway shift
from the place with sick
Haroon to the
apartment of Khayerul
who is a
restaurant owner and
an admirer of
Muhib. All of
them decide to
go for ‘hibernation’
until people get
cooled and forget
the incident. They arrange for a drinking session. After sometime
they get heavily
drunk and to
the stupor of
intoxication they suddenly
set the whole
third floor apartment
on fire and
come downstairs. At the very moment Muhib
discovers that unwell
Haroon has been
left alone inside
the burning apartment.
He at once
moves towards the
third floor to
save Haroon. Next
day all the
newspapers release on the front
page the death
report of a
rebellious, brilliant, and
unemployed young man
who set himself
on fire to
protest against the govt. and
one of his
friends has seriously
been burnt in his
effort to save
him. Muhib is
admitted to a
hospital. His father
and all his
well-wishers come there
to pray for
him. The novel
comes to an
end here.
Humayun Ahmed
(1948-2012) was a
professor of Chemistry
in the University
of Dhaka, Bangladesh
up to mid
90s. Then he
resigned from his
post to devote
all his time
to writing and
film making. He
is popularly known
among masses as an author,
dramatist, and filmmaker
and considered as
the ‘cultural legend’
of Bangladesh. Ahmed’s
claim to fame
was his very
first novel ‘Nondito Noroke’
(In Blissful Hell)
in 1972 and
after that almost
all of his
books remained in the list
of best sellers.
The characters of
‘Himu’ and ‘Misir
Ali’ are his
two such creations
which have gained
popularity not only
in Bangladesh but
also to all modern Bengali
literature lovers. Some
of his books
have also been
translated in many other languages.
Ahmed was conferred
with ‘Ekushey Padak’, one
of the highest
civilian honours in
Bangladesh for his
substantial contribution to
the field of art and literature along
with many other
national and international
acclamations.
Ahmed is best known
for the representation of middle class lives; its values and
sentiments in his
works. His tremendous
popularity mainly rests
in his use
of easy and lucid prose
and this very
novel is no
exception of it.
He wrote the
novel some thirteen
years ago but
its relevance is still
very much there
in the society. The
severe problem of
unemployment in a
country always make educated young generation frustrated.
Though the place
of the event
is Bangladesh, it
has transcended the
place in its
appeal as we
can easily notice
today such problem
hence youth unrest
everywhere in the
sub-continent, sometimes in
abroad too. The neglectful treatment
towards Muhib and
his friends by
others is a
known picture to us. It
depicts society’s growing
irresponsibility, inhumanity and
indifference. At the
same time it
also reminds that
impulsiveness takes us
nowhere but to
more hopelessness and
destruction.
Lucid prose
though provides an easiness in
reading, sometime loses
compactness. This very thing has happened
here also. Over lucidity brings
ennui and we
find if some
otiose episodes and
characters would have
been eliminated from
the text, it
would get more
solidity. Actually the
novel holds the
content of a
brilliant short story
but Ahmed’s unnecessary
elongating of the
narrative has made
it only a
good novel alleged
with some nonsensical
detailing.
Reviewed by Prosenjit Ghosh
A Teacher, Creative Writer, Independent Researcher, Book Reviewer from West Bengal, India
Contact: prosenjitghosh12@gmail.com
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