21st February and More Musical Moments

Bengalis love their language and are proud of the fact that some of their own died to defend it.

Ekushey February,   February 21st, a national holiday in Bangladesh also called Shaheed Dibas (Martyrs' Day), marks a day in 1952 when several students were killed by police firing on them for campaigning for the recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. Back when Bangladesh was 'East Pakisan, the Urdu speaking West Pakistanis tried to impose Urdu as the official language of the people. Millions of Bengalis would have had to deal with their government in a foreign language. 


 So this year, on Feb. 1st Bangla Academy in Dhaka kicked off a month long Bengali book fair.  The opening ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and  the special guest speaker was William Radice, a poet and translator of Bengali from London University.  The ceremony ended with John singing a Tagore song in both Bengali and English.

There was of course a lot of security as we entered the Bangla Academy.     Throngs of students were there in support of Sheikh Hasina.

John sang:
"Like sorrow and laughter, May comes after March and April's waiting'
So comes this sacrifice of songs I spend my days creating. 

Meeting a director at the Academy

How come the foreign guy's dressed like a Bengali and the Bengali guys like foreigners?