Today I suddenly got a writing offer from abroad. Panditi book, based on a previously published text. 3000 USD, from a very famous university, I refused. Trust and respect for the scholarly world is low. Too much hassle, but once I wrote an article like this about Bengali literature.
The only academic paper I wrote on Bengali literature was on Manik Banerjee’s “Padma Nadiman Majhi”. For my Canadian university, York University, my writing was edited by two professors, the editorial board was 8 people from 4 countries and even the novel was translated into English so that the board members could read it. A website is made with all the writings so that everyone – concerned scholars – can read. There were regular votes and comments, since it was a project of the Canadian Central Government International Department, so it was organized.
I have to sit in Dhaka and have many Skype meetings, I read 15-20 Bengali books on this writing, I revised the 6000 word text 6 times, I read about 100 books on philosophy, it took 6 months, and at the end of what happened, I felt like a scholar of the world. The culture is not mine. Assume that my position was won in a strong way but not happy, I understand that Pandit is fragile.
And thinking about Bengali civilized intellectuals, it seems that they do not think very critically. Leftism seems like a religion to many. This celebration of “foreignness and individual freedom” shocks my Western pundit board. Why did the critics not notice that Kuber left his disabled wife Mala? A professor at Yale who was quite upset with you – the feminist – didn’t like my book. It seems like a romantic composition of the left genre of West Bengal.
However, I received 2000 Canadian dollars for writing, which is of great use. I quickly returned to Dhaka from Canada to buy a TV, fridge, bed and couch (2012). The book was printed, ten years ago, and I haven’t opened it, the scholarly process for another day.
