After a whirlwind tour of Mymensingh in late October last year, I decided to visit Kazir Shimla in Trishal on my way back to Dhaka. As I turned off the Dhaka-Mymensingh national highway into a narrow village alley, my GPS briefly struggled to guide me.
Under the blazing midday sun, a local sitting idly on a tea stall bench stepped forward to help. Pointing down a road, he directed me to take a left turn to reach my destination: the Nazrul Smriti Kendra (Nazrul Memorial Centre).
Bangladesh’s national poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, was born in undivided Bengal and stayed in various regions across Bangladesh throughout his life. His longest stay was in Dhaka, where he relocated after the country's independence and where he passed away in 1976. Though his footprints span from Comilla and Chittagong to Faridpur and Sirajganj, his very first step into today's Bangladesh occurred in Kazir Shimla during his early teens.
My 2025 visit to Kazir Shimla offered a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how a budding poet acclimatized to a newfound home in 1913—some 600 kilometers away from Asansol (West Bengal), where he had previously rolled bread at an eatery and worked at a tea joint.
Kazi Rafizullah, a police officer serving in Asansol at the time, frequented that eatery and recognized a rare spark of literary brilliance in the 14-year-old boy. He brought Nazrul from Asansol to his ancestral village home in Kazir Shimla and helped him return to formal schooling.
Nazrul enrolled in the seventh grade at Dorirampur High School (now Nazrul Academy) in Trishal. However, true to his wandering spirit, Nazrul could not settle in one place and left Kazir Shimla the following year.
Over two decades ago, the government established the memorial centre at Kazir Shimla to preserve the rebel poet’s first stay in Bangladesh and to share his heritage, rich literary works, and philosophy with today’s youth.
Unfortunately, it feels as though we are not doing justice to this historical site. The centre remains largely deserted. It is a two-storey building housing a half-heartedly arranged library, a meeting facility, and a handful of memorabilia, photos, and manuscripts—with very few visitors even aware of its existence.
When I knocked at the main entrance, no one answered at first. I opened the gate, walked past the courtyard, and approached the building complex, where I was finally greeted by a middle-aged caretaker. He was cordial and offered a guided tour of the rooms and floors.
Frankly speaking, there was not much to immerse oneself in. It should be a rich trove of Nazrul's legacy and a bustling hub for researchers, academics, and writers. Sadly, it is not.
Inside, I found a few bookshelves, historical photographs hanging on the walls, and a decaying wooden cot once used by Kazi Nazrul Islam. A framed manuscript of Nazrul’s famous poem, Notuner Gaan (Chol, Chol, Chol)—the national march of Bangladesh—is also preserved there.
As Bangladesh celebrates 'Nazrul Year' (from May 25, 2026, to May 25, 2027) with nationwide events held across 64 districts and 74 upazilas this weekend, it is time to enrich memorial centres like the one at Kazir Shimla. We must equip them with richer artifacts and books that highlight the versatility of our great poet and humanist. We need to transform these quiet sites into vibrant, inspiring spaces that draw in visitors, literary enthusiasts, and cultural activists alike.
