Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > English
Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Nahid Kaiser:
Surya Tumi Sathi
Surya Tumi Sathi was composed when Sofa was in his early 20s. The novel centres around Hashim, a youth whose father converted from Hinduism to Islam. The religious conflict of Bangladeshi society was vividly painted in the book. Hashim's grandmother rises above the orthodox rituals and thoughts of her society by taking responsibility for Hashem’s newly-born baby. Living in a society where a Hindu does not even take food from a Muslim neighbour, Poddar Ginni, an aged, ordinary-minded, pious woman, does not hesitate to come see the dead body of her grandson’s wife. The whole story was narrated in a very conventional way, but despite that, the book was acclaimed for its characterization and the novelist's sincerity in the analysis of social values.
Nahid Kaiser:
Onkar
In Onkar, Sofa achieved his own individual qualities as a novelist in the context of form and content. The 24-page novel assimilates an extraordinary theme in a simple story.
Due to his father’s unwise activities, the narrator is forced to marry a mute girl. Having no other alternative to save his own family, he has to do it. The mischievous father-in-law arranges a job for him. His sister, who resides with him in his town house in Dhaka, practises songs with a harmonium. It is discovered that his speechless wife is trying to make sounds with that musical instrument. This makes the narrator-husband more sympathetic to his wife, and it inspires the woman to try even harder to speak. One day after the death of Asad in 1969, while a procession passes by their house, the housewife goes out to the veranda and tries to voice the slogans, but only blood flows out of her throat and she dies. In the novel, the socio-political condition of the society as well as the socio-familial environment has been delineated very minutely and skillfully.
Nahid Kaiser:
Onkar
In Onkar, Sofa achieved his own individual qualities as a novelist in the context of form and content. The 24-page novel assimilates an extraordinary theme in a simple story.
Due to his father’s unwise activities, the narrator is forced to marry a mute girl. Having no other alternative to save his own family, he has to do it. The mischievous father-in-law arranges a job for him. His sister, who resides with him in his town house in Dhaka, practises songs with a harmonium. It is discovered that his speechless wife is trying to make sounds with that musical instrument. This makes the narrator-husband more sympathetic to his wife, and it inspires the woman to try even harder to speak. One day after the death of Asad in 1969, while a procession passes by their house, the housewife goes out to the veranda and tries to voice the slogans, but only blood flows out of her throat and she dies. In the novel, the socio-political condition of the society as well as the socio-familial environment has been delineated very minutely and skillfully.
Nahid Kaiser:
Alat Chakra
In Alat Chakra, Liberation-time helpless Bangladesh in Kolkata is the focal point of the story. The story of the narrator, Daniel, and his lover-friend Tayeba works as a thread of loosely-related episodes, though in the same scenario. Different viewpoints about the liberation of Bangladesh, its possibility, and its way to success have been moulded into the work. On December 3, 1971, when India declared war against Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh became certain, Tayeba, a cancer patient, passes away in the blackout night.
[edit] Aali Kenan
Sofa created an existentialist character in Aali Kenan in a very true Bangladeshi context. The political scenes, from Ayub Khan to Sheikh Mujib, have also been portrayed vividly.
Nahid Kaiser:
] Death in Maran Bilash
Maran Bilash is about the spontaneous talks of a minister at his deathbed. From 12:13 a.m. until dawn, the minister opens his mind to his attendant-cum-political follower Moula Box. In these episodes, the whole life of the minister has been pictured—from his boyhood to his maturity. All the misdeeds of his life as the minister are revealed here, one after another. The novel exposes a society where immorality is the only ladder for a politician to climb the top. The minister's hateful activities include such misdeeds as poisoning his younger brother, having a sexual relationship with a woman of his mother’s age, and burning the headmaster in his house.
[edit] Gaavi Bittano
Sofa has placed the supreme institution of Bangladesh, the Dhaka University, in a satiric milieu in Gaavi Bittano. Sofa ridiculed Bangladeshi society by making caricatures of the people of this highest education centre.
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