Local Bangladeshi author Subrata Kumar Das to celebrate publication of two books, 60th birthday, at upcoming event
By YUANTONG ANITA LIU
Local Bangladeshi author Subrata Kumar Das’ 60th birthday will be celebrated at an event this Sunday honouring the publication of two of his books.
The event will be held at St Paul’s United Church, 200 McIntosh St., in southwest Scarborough, on Sunday, March 3, starting at 6 p.m.
Toronto Poet Laureate Lillian Allen, industrialist Jay Sarkar, Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Scarborough Southwest MPP Doly Begum, Beaches-East York MPP Mary Margaret McMohan and Scarborough Southwest Councillor Parthi Kandavel have been invited to join the celebration of Das’ work.
Scholar Dr. Dilip Chakraborty, of Brampton, will chair the event.
The two books on Das that are being celebrated, along with his 60th birthday, are A Wonder Boy of Intellect, and Hirok-Joyonti: Subrata Kumar Das (Diamond Jubilee: Subrata Kumar Das.
According to Das, he invited them as “very distinguished people who are associated with the Bengali community.”
He said the event will have three segments. The first segment is the opening session when the prominent singers of the community will perform musical shows. Next will be the launching of the book event. And the final segment will be “dinner and fun time.”
An East Toronto resident, Das is a Bangladeshi-Canadian writer, curator and community organizer. Starting his writing career in 1993, Das has written 29 books and contributed to Canadian literature and its translation into Bangladeshi.
Asked about the future of Bangladeshi-Canadian writers in Canada, Das said he believed the future is very promising.
“I have seen that many new initiatives are being taken to interact with the Bangladeshi community and the Canadian community, specifically in the writing zones. And what we have done is to make a breeze between the Canadian writers and the Bengali writers.”
Kanadiyo Sahityo: Bichchhinno Vabna, translated to Canadian Literature: Some Snapshots is a book Das published in 2019 that “helped the Bengali community to go into the Canadian literature more and more.”
“It took about five years for me to write that book at the very beginning,” said Das. “I didn’t have any vision to write because it seemed very difficult to me to go through Canadian literature (at the very beginning).”
Das said he bought more than 1,000 books on Canadian literature to start his exploration in this area as the first step to writing. Then, he began to establish connections with Canadian writers.
“We began to invite the Canadian writers. They came to our community. They talked about their literature, and we began to learn. It was not only for me, it was for the community, and we tried to air those programs through NRB, a Bangladeshi television channel.”
Das said the local Bengali community began to gradually become associated with Canadian literature through these initiatives.
In 2020, Das was invited to the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) for the first time and led teams of Bengali writers at the event.
Das said as more writers are involved in these interactions, more books from Canadian literature will be translated into Bengali in the future.
“Many more writers will be writing on Canadian literature. They will be translating Canadian literature into Bengali, and thus the future of the Bengali writers in Canada will be brighter.”
Publication of Subrata Kumar Das’ book A Wonder Boy of Intellect will be celebrated during his 60th birthday party in southwest Scarborough this coming Sunday.
Das said he had been a teacher in Bangladesh for about 20 years before coming to Canada.
“In Bangladesh, I had been a teacher and I had worked at school, at college and at tertiary. And for that reason, I feel very proud that I have taught at all the levels from the elementary to the tertiary,” said Das.
“Settled both financially and socially” in the Danforth Avenue area near the Bengali Hub near Victoria Park Avenue, Das migrated from Bangladesh to Canada in 2013 with his wife and daughter and has lived here for more than 10 years.
Das said the thriving Bengali Hub in the area makes him feel happy to be connected with his past as he and others now work on making their lives in Canada.
“We are getting associated and interacted with the Canadian things: Canadian society, Canadian system, Canadian people, Canadian literature. But we are not detached from the Bengali people, Bengali literature, Bengali culture, and Bengali heritage. And so we feel very comfortable to be here, to be associated with the community of people.”
Das said his writing career is “hugely inspired” by the Bengali people.
He showed a comment he posted on Facebook about publishing books and got more than 350 comments in Bangladeshi.
“What does that mean? It means that they are encouraging me. They are happy to see my success. They’re happy to see my involvement with the Canadians,” said Das.
He said he believes we can create a positive society if we are willing to work more for each other.
“I have to dream. If you ask me what my dreams are now, I can say a good number of dreams I do have. It is because of my previous experience (that) initiates me and encourages me to take new initiatives, to fulfill, or to create new dreams,” said Das.
