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16 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2016 DT Dhaka Lit Fest Quotes of the day “Never have I ever cheered so hard for a team in a match against England!” - Alex Preston, on the Bangladeshi cricket team “Honestly, we are all Donald Trump” - Rasheda Rawnak Khan “Poetry is no better than cooking” - Steven Fowler “There is no such thing as biological racism. Everything stops at Homo sapiens” - Professor Sanjeev Jain “There are a lot more songs about lost love than found love. Maybe because you have other things on your mind when you’ve found it” - Simon Broughton “People are inherently against technology” -Professor Abed Chaudhury “There was no conflict between the Bengali and Muslim identity. It was concocted by few intellectuals who had agenda.” - Faruk Wasif “Really happy to be here. More people should actively participate to introduce our ideas and literature to the world and present it on a global platform which, I believe, Dhaka Lit Fest aims to do.” - Zonayed Saki Photo: Rajib Dhar Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain Photo: Rajib Dhar
Dhaka Lit Fest 17 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2016 DT | panel review | Of Googlies and Chinamen • Sabrina Fatma Ahmad The stereotypical image of the writer – or any intellectual, for that matter – is of the retiring, unathletic figure. This idea is not a new one, and it must have goaded enough writers into putting down their pens momentarily, to pick up their bats, balls and wicket stumps to form the Authors cricket team in 1891. The team had such luminaries as Arthur Conan Doyle, and PG Wodehouse, to name some. After the First World War, the original team evolved, losing Photo: Rajib Dhar some old players, picking up new ones, and so it has been since. At present, the torch is being proudly carried by Charlie Campbell, literary agent and captain of the Authors Cricket Club. He has led this team of writers in over 130 games, and they have faced the Rajasthan Royals, the Vatican and the national team of Japan along the way. Their book, The Authors XI: A Season of English Cricket from Hackney to Hambledon, was shortlisted for the Cricket Society MCC Book of the Year Award. Campbell was present, along with team-mates Anthony McGowan, Alex Preston, and Richard Beard in a light-hearted, interactive panel titled “Of Googlies and Chinaman”, moderated by Khademul Islam. The discussion kicked off with a general discussion about the recent cricket matches between England and Bangladesh, and Alex Preston garnered hoots and cheers when he declared “Never have I ever cheered as hard as I did for a team in a match against England.” To which Anthony McGowan, author of two literary thrillers and a slew of books for young adults, quipped “You’re such a suckup, Alex!” This of course prompted a series of digs about McGowan’s game, with Charlie Campbell and Richard Beard ganging up with Preston to provide anecdotes. The rest of the panel continued in a similar vein, peppered with hilarious anecdotes about the team’s travels around the world and their matches (and spectacular losses!) against the unlikeliest opponents. One such story worth mentioning was their match in the Vatican. “Two of our players met the Pope, who was minding his own business, expecting us to talk about religion, and suddenly he’s got two cricketers giving him a cricket cap” said Campbell. Apparently, the Authors lost that match. “It was the only game where we were beaten and then forced to pray with our conquerers. That hasn’t happened in a while” he added. Themes such as sports writing, and how the nature of the cricket – with its nail-biting moments and moments of mind-numbing boredom, is beneficial for the writers, were explored. Many of the questions from the audience centered around sledging, and the answers, mirthful as they were provided some insight on the egos, insecurities and emotions of the writers. There was also some musing on the role of cricket in alleviating political tension, and building communication between teams and nations. This wonderful, fun-filled session ended on a positive note, with the team expressing their wish to return to Bangladesh for an opportunity to play with our league teams, to explore places like Chittagong and the Sundarbans, and certainly to attend more literary festivals. • Panelists say a big no to ‘Ruddhosshor’ • Mahmood Sadi The four speakers who went up on the main stage of Dhaka Lit Fest at around 4:15 pm to take part in a panel discussion titled “Ruddhoshar: Bolte Keno Mana” yesterday had one opinion in common-“Voices have to be raised.” Moderator Harun Ur Rashid, Head of News of Bangla Tribune ignited the floor by simply explaining the title of the session which meant “why there are restrictions in expressing opinions.” And the four panelists- Blogger Arif Jebtik, Journalist Probash Amin, Columnist Rasheda Rawnak Khan and Educator Aireen Jaman vehemently went on expressing their views for the next one hour without any restriction. They had difference of opinions, observed freedom of expression and the right to speak from their own point of views and agreed upon one thing that “Without raising voices, changes for good don’t happen.” They also condemn the section 57 of ICT act and said that this should be abolished immediately. Probhash Amin said that our constitution guarantees our freedom of expression under the subject of reasonable restrictions. “This restriction doesn’t mean that we cannot express our views. This restriction is there for our selfcensorship so that we refrain ourselves from expressing views which hurt someone else.” Arif Jebtik however opposed Amin’s view. He said that self-censorship is the worst kind of censorship. “We are already under a lot of censorship including that which is imposed by the state. On the top of that if we censor our own views for fear of hurting someone, changes will not take place.” “If Galilieo stopped himself from saying that the world is not static with the thought in mind that the churches will be hurt by his statement, we wouldn’t have been able to learn the truth.” He said that truth has to be told for the sake of truth. “If you look at history, you will see that any positive change happened because someone raised his/her voice.” Aireen Jaman echoed Jebtik’s stance and said that in this era of communication and technology, it is hard to contain voices and opinions. “That’s why the governments want to impose rules and regulations to restrict the flow of information.” Terming the section 57 of ICT act a black one, she said that with that provision, someone can get jailed for 14 years for posting something on Facebook which someone else might find offensive. “This is just wrong. In India, there was a similar act but their Supreme Court nullified it over a writ petition.” Probhash Amin, Arif Jebtik Rasheda Rownak Khan also agreed with Aireen and said that this provision should be abolished immediately. Rasheda said that there are other ways of raising voices than raising voice. “The recent rejection of aid by the Santal population in Gaibandha is a good example of that. They raised their voice with their action.” • If Galilieo stopped himself from saying that the world is not static with the thought in mind that the churches will be hurt by his statement, we wouldn’t have been able to learn the truth
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