When Bengal came to Afghanistan: From Kabuliwala to Shabnam

The connection between the distant and unknown land of Afghanistan was established by Rabindranath Tagore with his most celebrated short story Kabuliwala, which was published in 1892. The connection was later cemented by Tagore’s disciple and his first batch graduate of Viswa Bharati University, Syed Mujtaba Ali who went to Afghanistan in 1927 as a teacher of English and French. Through Ali’s memoir of his time in Kabul, Deshe Bideshe (published in 1948) and later his novel, Shabnam set around the same time (published in 1960), the lifelong assignation between Afghanistan and the Bengali readers developed.

In this free-flowing talk, journalist, writer, translator and photographer Nazes Afroz will elaborate on the empathetic and deep bond between Bengal and Afghanistan. He will discuss the historical connections along with his own exploration of Afghanistan and his photographic journey with the Kabuliwalas of Kolkata.

About the speaker

Nazes Afroz has worked as a journalist for more than four decades in print and broadcast media, 18 of which for the BBC, covering current affairs spanning South, Central and West Asia in the capacity of a producer and later as a senior editor.

Apart from coauthoring a cultural guidebook on Afghanistan, Nazes has translated Syed Mujtaba Ali’s classic memoir of his time in Kabul, Deshe Bideshe into English under the title In a Land Far from Home: A Bengali in Afghanistan. Published in 2015 by Speaking Tiger, the translation has attracted critical acclaim.

Nazes Afroz’s second translation of Syed Mujtaba Ali’s travelogue Joley Dangay was published by Speaking Tiger under the title Tales of a Voyager in 2023.

His latest translation of Mujtaba Ali is his novel Shabnam – a deeply touching and heart-rendering love tragedy set in Kabul in the late 1920s has just been published (July 2024) by Speaking Tiger.

As a passionate documentary photographer Nazes has held several exhibitions in countries across three continents from 2015 including his work on the Kabuliwalas of Kolkata.

Light refreshments will be provided.

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