Flights of Passion: Songbird in Nazrul

Abstract

As our train sped through the evening fog and the clogged Dhaka streets opened up to the quiet suburbs, we started counting down the hours to reach Rajshahi. When we finally disembarked, a sweet aroma of mango blossoms greeted us. Spring was in the air. W e were staying at the outskirts of a newly developed neighbourhood by the river Padma Vast plantations stretched to the horizon, as far as the eye could see. Our host. Professor Abdul Khaleque, seemed to have a green thumb. The garden in front of his bouse was a wild burst of colours of dahlia, marigold, chrysanthemum and more While we chatted away in the garden, our host pointed out at a bird on the nearby fragrant kamini bush. ‘It’s the rare Bulbuli that Nazrul was so fascinated with’, he said The Bulbuli lays eggs in a nest, deep inside the bush, to keep predators away’, lie added. I watched in amazement at the small greyish bird with a crop of feather on its head - much like a crown. So this was the Bulbuli - the red-vented nightingale that had inspired Kazi Nazrul Islam to write countless songs! I could see with my mind’s eye how the poet must have sat and watched in wonder as the Bulbuli chirped away and flapped its dainty I wings. One of his famous ghazals: