A decade in Toronto - 17

At the Toronto Reference Library for the Cosmopolis Toronto project

Photographer Colin Boyd Shafer launched the Cosmopolis Toronto project in August 2013. I heard of it on Facebook. And wrote to Colin who had this crazy ambition of photographing an individual from every ethnicity that had made Toronto home. That was one staggering project, both in the immensity of its scope and its execution. I believe by the time the project ended a couple of years later, he had managed to photograph individuals from 200+ different countries who were now Torontonians.  

Colin wanted everyone who was interested in participating in the project to explain why they’d chosen Toronto as their new home. My answer was simple: Toronto is cosmopolitan; it's vibrant, encourages enterprise, is tolerant, accommodative and gives everyone a chance to live their dream – our hometown Bombay (Mumbai) once shared these characteristics. Toronto is home because it has welcomed me, accepted me, helped me create a space for myself as a writer.

Colin responded immediately and accepted me as a part of the project. The subject had the choice of selecting the venue where s/he wanted to be photographed. I choose the Toronto Reference Library, because “Toronto gave me the opportunity to become a writer. While I was a journalist and a communications person for many years in India, in Toronto I wrote fiction for the very first time in my life.” The subject was to also choose something that linked them to their past. I choose a photograph of Eros Theatre from the 1950s.  

At the photo shoot at the Toronto Reference Library, Colin instructed me that I wasn’t allowed to smile. The photo is still on the site. You may see it here: Cosmopolis Toronto Website. Then, a couple of months later, he arranged for a video shoot where he interviewed some of the participants. I was among the handpicked few to be interviewed, asked to explain my two home cities – Bombay and Toronto. It was an interesting experience. You may see the short interview here: Cosmopolis Toronto YouTube.

The project went on to acquire larger dimensions and became a part of Myseum Toronto and the photographs were exhibited in all Toronto libraries. In 2015, Colin finally produced a book Cosmopolis Toronto: The World in One City. It was launched at a glittering event at the Toronto Reference Library. Colin has kept himself busy with other interesting projects after Cosmopolis Toronto.

At the video shoot of Cosmopolis Toronto

Cosmopolis Toronto was one of the most interesting projects in which I participated. I’ve blogged about it on a few occasions. If you’re interested in reading about it (which is highly unlikely) you may click here:

Cosmopolis Toronto

The World in One City

Also in 2013, MG Vassanji and Nurjehan Aziz involved me in the third edition of the Festival of South Asian Literature and the Arts. It was one of the best in a short-lived series. MG Vassanji and Nurjehan Aziz did everything to make the festival truly global in its content. FSALA was “a Canadian arts festival with a difference, promoting writers from South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and those not writing in English, who though major figures in their own countries are not always known to the global ‘mainstream’."

If the previous edition had Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani, this edition had Selina Hossain, the Bangladeshi author and Prasanna Vithanage, the Sri Lankan filmmaker, whose Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You Without You) was shown at the festival. It was the first time I saw Anjali Patil, who has since gone on to become a known face in Indian cinema. I also met Sharankumar Limbale, a Dalit author of global repute.  I translated one of the short pieces that he read at the festival from Marathi into English and posted it on this blog. It’s been one of the most accessed blog posts.

Read the translated piece: Sharankumar Limbale

There were others, too, and the line-up included globally renowned authors. What I remember the most of the festival was how I was to get Selina Hossain from the airport and both of us spent two hours at the airport without meeting each other. Finally, she took a cab, reached the hotel, and was justifiably upset when I met her later that evening. But she granted me a great interview that I posted here.

Read the interview: Selina Hossain

In 2013, Mahesh Dattani, unarguably the only Indian playwright in English who has acquired global fame, visited Toronto. There were seminars in his honour, staging and reading of his plays. Towards the conclusion of his hour-long talk, Mahesh said he feels most connected to three of his creations – Dancing Like a Man (1989), Morning Raga (2004), and Where did I leave my Purdah (2013) - these creations encompass his love for dance, music and theatre.

With Mahesh Dattani

“They form my triptych,” he said.

Overcoming my general reticence, I said the plays that really form his triptych, plays that he will really be remembered for are Final Solutions (1993), On a Muggy Night in Mumbai (1998), Seven Steps Round The Fire (1998) all of which evocatively deal with the issue of minorities (religion, sexual orientation, gender).

Mahesh admitted he hadn’t really thought of them as such, but agreed that they do form a unit.

Harishchandra's biography in Polish

In 2013, Aleksandra Skiba a librarian at Pomeranian Library (The Central Library of the West Pomeranian Province) in the Polish city of Szczecin sent me an email inquiring about my grandfather Harischandra Bhatt, an eminent poet in Gujarati. She was researching Wanda Dynowska – Umadevi and Maurycy Frydman – Bharatanda, and came across references to Harischandra.

Intrigued, she wrote to me to find out more but ended up giving me more information about my grandfather than I’d known. Umadevi, who was Harischandra’s creative collaborator for a brief period, claims that Harischandra was in love with a young Christian woman and even wrote a poem on Jesus Christ for her.

It’d be pointless to recap the content of the two blogs – one of which is a guest post by Aleksandra. But I do urge you to read them.

Rediscovering a Poet

To look for something and to find the other

By writing about the past, I renew history: Selina Hossain

Selina Hossain

Selina Hossain is an eminent Bangladeshi author. She was in Toronto to participate in the Toronto Festival of Literature and the Arts 2013.  I spoke to her during her visit. Excerpts from an interview:

Why do you write?

I love observing. I remember observing nature as a child, observing the relationship between a man and a woman, between a mother and her children, the way people live their lives. When I went to the university in the 1960s, I began to put into words all my gathered experiences. Initially, I wrote poems but within two to three years I realized that poems were not my form. I needed a larger canvas so switched to writing short stories and novels.

You have written over 30 novels.

Yes, 32 novels. Most of my novels explore human emotions, poverty, and the relationship between people and the State, different conditions of women, how women are treated by the society.  I write stories that explore our cultural roots. For instance, my novel Purno Chobir Mognota (2008) is about Rabindranath Tagore’s life, between 1899 and 1901 when he lived in what is now Bangladesh.

The characters in the novel are characters from Tagore’s stories. I believe that had Rabindranath not come to this part of Bengal, he wouldn’t have understood the connection to nature and poverty.

Rabindranath came to Patisar on an invitation in 1937. At the end of the novel I express my theme by making a contemporary parallel saying that he dedicated his song ‘Amar Sonar Bangla Ami Tomai Bhalobasi...’ to the people of the land. This song was accepted as the national anthem of Bangladesh in 1971.  

In my novel on Mirza Ghalib, Jomuna Nodir Mushayra (2011), I attempt to relate the past and connect it with the present. Ghalib was the poet of the subcontinent. My idea was to depict how a poet saw his times, to show how Galib passed his days during Sepoy Mutinity. I tried to depict the time for the young generation of the present. I sought their reaction. They told me that when they were going through the description of Sepoy Mutinity in my novel, they thought they were reliving the liberation war of Bangladesh.

Reading in Toronto

But my novels aren’t just about the past. I don’t believe in romanticising the past. I link the past with the present. By writing about the past, I renew history.

Your writing is pronouncedly political.

All writings are political. You show me any writing that is not political. Everyone has political thoughts in his/ her live consciously or unconsciously. I love that my story may turn into a political idea. I was in my early 20s when the 1971 war of liberation broke out. It made a lasting impression on me. 

It is the theme of my novel Hangor, Nodi, Grenade (The Shark, The River, The Grenade – 1976). Satyajit Ray was keen to make a movie based on the novel, but abandoned the idea when fundamentalists force took charge of the country after Sheikh Mujib was assassinated.

So this is an example how politics destroys art. We can think of Tolstoy who was not awarded Noble Prize for petty political reasons.

Would you agree that fundamentalist forces have shaped South Asian geographies?

On the contrary, I would say that it is secular forces that have shaped our societies. Bengali society on either side of the border even today is defined by what Chandidas said five hundred years ago Shobar upore manush shotto tahar upore nai (Humanity above all else). The common people have imbued with secular thoughts. Often it is the state that prevents common sense from prevailing. When I see Bengalis living in enclaves near the borders of India and Bangladesh, I often wonder why the leaders can’t solve this simple problem. It is because of the State. It is because of the Border Security Forces (BSF). It is because of the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). My novel Vumi-o-kusum (2010) looks at this simple and yet complex situation.

Is the State is an important character in most of your works?

The State is an important character in everyone’s life. Whether you live in Toronto or in Dhaka, you can’t avoid or ignore the State. A peasant, a fisherman, or a professional may harbour notions that their thoughts are their own, but the undeniable reality of our life is that those thoughts are influenced and controlled by the State not always directly but indirectly by its policies, but its various apparatuses. My novels examine this relationship. But my approach is not polemical. I prefer the personal. I am a committed writer and my fiction combines the personal and the political.

What are your impressions about Bangladesh?

I am impatient with the slow pace of change. We achieved liberation 42 years ago but the lives of people haven’t changed. We have a tremendous social capital in Bangladesh. We must tear asunder the status quo that hampers progress. Many say this is left-wing thinking, I say this is thinking for the humanity.

Who are your favourite Bangladeshi authors?

Syed Waliullah, Hasan Azizul Huq, Shamsur Rahman, Shahid Qadree, Syed Shamsul Haque, Rizia Rahman, Akhteruzzaman Elias.

And Bengali?

Mahasweta Devi and Sunil Gangopadhyay.

Photo credit: Fathima Cadre