Pasha, the second novel by Kazi Shahid Ahmed, chairman of Gemcon Group, was unveiled at Bangla Academy auditorium in the capital yesterday.
The programme started with a stage drama adapted from the novel.
The drama featured four old men on stage smoking hookah while Arun, a young man who lost one of his legs during the 1971 War of Liberation, and Nila, Arun’s wife, render different songs. In the final scene, Nila lays her head upon Arun’s chest as they recline on a bed.
“The novel explores events from the British era to contemporary times where the writer sketches out a picture of social change punctuated by movements like the anti-British movement, Muslim revolution, Swadeshi movement and the War of Liberation in 1971,” said renowned author and playwright Syed Shamsul Haque.
“The idea was beautifully presented through the love story of Arun and Nila as readers also discover a wonderful combination of fairy tales and daily life happenings,” he said.
The love story is the life of this novel, he added.
Kazi Shahid said: “My father, a Swadeshi movement activist, brought me to Kolkata 62 years ago when the Muslims could not cultivate paddy and were compelled to cultivate jute. The readers will find many lines of dialogue in the book which were spoken by my father. There are many characters in it that are real.”
In addition to Pasha, the English version of Shahid’s first novel, Bhairab, first published in 2013 in Bangla, was also unveiled at the programme.
The 336-page English translation was done by Arifa Gani.
In February this year Kazi Shahid’s autobiography, Jiboner Shilalipi, was unveiled.
The programme was presided over by Professor Rafiqul Islam while speakers and guests congratulated the author on the publication of his second novel in his seventh decade of life.
