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Nazrul Geeti in Odia

Kazi Nazrul Islam (25 May 1899 – 29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, writer, musician, and revolutionary, and is the national poet of Bangladesh. He wrote and composed music for his nearly 4,000 songs, collectively known as Nazrul Geeti, which are widely popular today. He created an avant-garde genre of Modern Bengali Songs. He also wrote short stories, novels, and essays but is best known for his poems, in which he pioneered new forms such as Bengali Ghazals. His writings explore themes such as love, freedom, and revolution and have been widely translated into many languages.

Recently Symphony digital Audio has launched a Nazrul Geeti album in Odia. This is for the first time that a Nazrul Geeti album has been released in Odia.

It has twelve songs sung by Namrata Mohanty, a well known singer in Odisha. She is a B-High grade singer of AIR, Cuttack since 1983. She has learnt Hindustani classical vocal from eminent musicians like A. Maheswar Rao, Shantanu Das and Dhananjay Satapathy. This is her fifth solo album. Her earlier solo releases include three albums of Odia modern songs, Janhare Tolide Ghara (2009), Dipa Jale Dipa Libhe (2010), and Chhuti (2014), and an album of Hindi traditional bhajans named Ninad (2014).

These songs have been translated by veteran lyricist-cum-music director, Swarup Naik.

Listen to the album. I am sure you will like it.

Save Wetlands 

Wetlands are essential for humans to live and prosper. They provide freshwater and ensure our food supply. They help sustain the wide variety of life on our planet, protect our coastlines, provide natural sponges against river flooding, and store carbon dioxide to regulate climate change.

But unfortunately we are destroying our wetlands in the name of development. And we are reaping the consequences. Look at Bhubaneswar. With its hilly terrain with natural drainage system, there should not be any water logging. But because of blocking of the natural drainage system and filling of wetlands- the city is experiencing heavy water logging in the rainy season and water crisis, with receding ground water level in the summer. This has happened and is happening in several cities big and small across India. The recent unprecedented flood in Chennai and almost regular flooding of Mumbai could be partially blamed on this.

We need to save our wetlands before it is too late. With this objective 2 Feb is observed as World  Wetlands Day. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Since 1997, the Ramsar Secretariat provides outreach materials to help raise public awareness about the importance and value of wetlands.

This year 2016 the theme for World Wetlands Day is ‘Wetlands for our Future: Sustainable Livelihoods. Let us understand the vital role of wetlands for the future of humanity and specifically their relevance towards achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals.

Book Fair

More and more book fairs are being organised in different parts of Odisha. Bhuaneswar has more than five book fairs a year now. Almost all towns are now having book fairs. As per a conservative estimate over 70 book fairs are now organised across the state.

But when it comes to the sales of books, things are not very encouraging. In the fairs the bestselling book categories are: religious books, children’s books and how to books. So much so that some book fairs have been organised only with this category of books. Books related to literature and other subjects gradually are losing ground so far sales is concerned.

Many of the book fairs are now turning to kind of mela with umpteen numbers of food stalls and stalls selling stationeries and knickknacks including feng sui articles. The literary and intellectual discussions generally organised at the book fairs are losing attraction. The organisers collectively need to think something out of the box to revive the attraction of the Book Fair.

Tailpiece: 40 years of marriage:

 A married couple in their early 60s was celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant.  Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table.

 She said, 'For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.

 The wife answered, 'Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband.

 The fairy waved her magic wand and - poof! - two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

 The husband thought for a moment: 'Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.

 The wife, and the fairy, was deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish. So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof...the husband became 92 years old

Moral: Men who are ungrateful should remember fairies are female.

(Courtesy: An anonymous Email forward)

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Mrinal Chatterjee, a journalist-turned media academician lives in Dhenkanal, Odisha. He can be contacted at mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

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2.2.2016