Sahitya Premir Asar
Minutes of Meeting
30 March 2012
4 Baker Avenue, Glen Waverley
8 p.m.

Guest speaker :
Shubhendu Das.

Apologies :
Ramen Bagch, Debasis Banerjee and Shonali Gupta.

Minutes :
Uma Acharyya.

Readings :

• Shubhendu Das
  Shubhendu Das, our guest speaker, read two of his own short poems in Bengali.
  
  
• Kalyan Banerjee
  Kalyan Banerjee read out his own translations of two well known poems   Rupashi Bangla and Bonolota Sen by the famous  Bengali poet  JIbanananda Das.   The first poem was a tribute to nature, and different aspects of nature, specially rural nature, like crop fields, birds and rivers were portrayed vividly.  The second and more well known poem Bonolota Sen,  describes a female character by the same name, in a place called Natore of present Bangladesh. The poet repeatedly portrays with his imagery, the image of human fulfilment personified by a woman. 
  
  It was an excellent translation bringing out the poet’s emotions vividly . There were discussions also on other translations of the poem by different  poets including Jibananda himself.
  
  
• Shyamali Larsen
  Shyamali Larsen's presentation was in "blog" style. The thoughts and the writing were her own. In her presentation, Shyamali used bits and pieces from the recent movie Kahani and played the famous Tagore song Ekla Chalo Re, sung in the movie by Amitabh Bachan.
  
  Shyamali's presentation was followed by a thought provoking discussion on the issue of changes within the new generation.  Whether or not such changes have been adapted by the older generation, and live up to their expectations, still remains debatable.
  
  
• Lutfar Rahman Khan
  Lutfar Rahman Khan read his own translation of a short story ‘once upon a time’  by the German author Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991.  The story was written in the background of Aparthied days in  England, a very touching story with a tragic end.  It tells about a very well- to- do family  - parents with a little boy and his pet,  and also their set of servants.   However, they are in constant fear of intruders and burglars, and try to make their home safe and protected against invasion.  In the process, they go on adding one after another safety device and sophisticated  appliances  so as to  remain  secure, against vandalism of any kind.  However, by the irony of fate, their little boy himself becomes the victim of those devices and they lose their son.
  
  The translation was excellent and flowed smoothly even in Bengali.
  
  
• Close of meeting :
  The meeting closed at 9:45 p.m.
  
  
• Next meeting :
  The venue of the next meeting and matter to be presented are yet to be decided.  Whether or not the meeting should be replaced by the annual dinner also needs to be discussed and decided by the members, and is in process.