Elocution group Katha o Kabita celebrated International Mother Language Day at Anya Theatre in CK Block on February 21. The poems and audio plays performed recalled Bangladesh’s struggle to uphold Bengali as its mother tongue and tried to inspire the audience to be proud of the language.
“The number of Bengali readers is dwindling these days. Even if a child buys a Feluda book he buys the English translation as he is slow in reading Bengali,” noted the chief guest, playwright Banani Mukhopadhyay. “But if we want a change we must start with our own families.”
Mukhopahdyay said her son-in-law was Tamil-born and didn’t speak a word of Bengali till his marriage. “But now when he sees me stressed, he quotes Tagore’s Birpurush, saying: ‘Ami achhi, bhoy keno ma koro?'’ If a Tamil boy can love Bengali then why not Bengalis?”
Students of Katha o Kabita’s CA and FD Block branches then presented audio dramas like Bhasha Janani and Simanto Bhenge and works by poets like Sukanta Bhattacharya and Joy Goswami.
“These days we can barely speak Bengali without using English or Hindi words and phrases,” said Debasmita Dutta, a CA Block resident who recited. “But today I consciously tried to speak in chaste Bengali.”
Anindita Basu, director of the institute and herself a student of elocutionist Jagannath Basu, said they have around 50 students. “Many are middle-aged women who come to pursue their passion once their children grow up. But we also have many children from English medium schools whose parents want them to learn Bengali literature,” said Basu, who along with Mukhopadhyay performed an audio drama from the latter’s new book Hridayer Kachhakachhi.
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