Shadow over the Henna Tree

By Rummana Chowdhury

This is the touching love story of Moyna, born and brought up in Toronto, who goes to discover her roots in Bangladesh, and Shafiq, who is a Bangladeshi war baby, (War of Independence of 1971) but has been adopted and raised in Canada. The readers are immersed with the cross cultures of Bangladesh and Canada. Many a time her inherent lessons from Shakespeare, Maugham, Ondaatje, Atwood, Darvesh, and Akhmatova are pinned against her personal inground teachings of Zainul Abedin, Jasimuddin, Lalon Fakir, Hason Raja, Tagore, and Nazrul. Her inward-eye ponders over the literary crosscurrents of Buddhism and Sufi poetry and the world of Humayun Ahmed and Shamsur Rahman. Moynas confusion has no boundaries. The fruits, blossoms, and seasons of Bangladesh are compared with the changes of nature in Canada. The Murshedi, Bhatiali, and devotional songs of the East are contrasted with the country, jazz, blues, and folk songs of Canada.

The universal language of poverty and suppression, of forceful acceptance- these are lines that Moyna must learn to blur as a diasporic South Asian female. Moynas brother has been eternally unhappy and sleepless for years and years trying to make sense of these very lines. It is cruel to even ask Aakash to try harder. A person who has never slept peacefully in such a long time cannot do justice to blurring lines without sacrificing something more.

Moyna was pensively walking down Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. The cosmopolitan mixture of faces in front of the Eaton Centre amazed her. Black, brown, white, beige, yellow all shades, shapes and sizes. African-Canadians, Italian-Canadians, Chinese-Canadians, Japanese-Canadians, Indian-Canadians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Koreans and so on and so forth. Were they all Canadians or were they still clinging to their past roots of culture and tradition?

Seemingly like any other tree with dark and light green hued leaves, the henna tree did not appear to be particularly special or powerful, yet the unimaginable burst of flaming red colour when made into a paste and applied to hands, feet or hair was a miracle. The henna tree was as mysterious as life itself, with all its intricate mysteries. Often shadows darken lifes images with their tales of sadness and frustration but the silver lining of the clouds rotate and bring about unending stories of joy and merriment. The shadow which had covered the henna tree could gradually move away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524552596

Rummana Chowdhury

Rummana Chowdhury is the author of forty-three books, in both Bengali and English, which include poetry, short stories, novels, and essays. She is a leading global commentator on issues of migration that pertain to the South Asian Diaspora. She has received several notable awards including Woman of the Year, 2010, Canada, and Best Writer and Translator for Diaspora Literature, Ontario Bengali Cultural Society, 2016. She has also received several awards for her contributions to Bengali, English and Diasporic literature and translation work, including, most recently, the Kobi Jasim Uddin Award, 2019, and the Bangladesh Lekhika Shongho Award for Literature and Translation, 2017. She immigrated to Canada in 1982 and for the past thirty years has worked as an accredited interpreter/ translator. She lives in Mississauga, Ontario. Dusk in the Frog Pond and Other Stories is her new collection of short stories.

Book preview

SHADOW OVER

THE HENNA TREE

RUMMANA CHOWDHURY

Copyright © 2016 by Rummana Chowdhury.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016917458

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-5261-9

      Softcover         978-1-5245-5260-2

      eBook         978-1-5245-5259-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 10/27/2016

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Contents

Other Publications by the Author

About the Book and the Author

Dedication

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Acknowledgement

Glossary of Terms

About The Author

Other Publications by the Author

1. Akasher Dike / Mirages of Gold

2. Hete Cholechy Pathe Pathe

3. Kothar Tou Shesh Nei

4. Shukher Katha Dukher Katha Moner Kotha

5. Summer Lights, Winter Reflections

6. Tales from Abroad by Rummana Chowdhury-I /

Rummana Chowdhury’s Probash Golpo: 1

7. Blue Lotus Red Lotus / Neelotpol Roktotpal

8. Canada: Invisible Bondage of Love

9. Tales from Abroad by Rummana Chowdhury-II /

Rummana Chowdhury’s Probash Golpo: 2

10. Twilight and Evening Star

11. Moonlight Reflections on Ice / Tushare Jotsnar Protichhobi

12. Can I Touch the Sky / Aami Ki Akaash Chute Pari

13. Rummana Chowdhury’s Probash Golpo Somogro-I /

Rummana Chowdhury’s Collection of Tales from Abroad: 1

14. Folklore of My Soul / Porane More Ektara

15. Shades of Mysticism

16. Rainfall and a Little Bird / Brishti Badal O Chotto Pakhi

17. Bhalobashar Kobita / Poems of Love

18. A Trilogy of Coffee

19. Where Do I Belong

20. Dreams by the Apple Tree

21. Snowflakes Keep Falling on My Head

22. Bring Me a Dream / Ekti Shopno Ene Dao

23. Unknown Imagery

About the Book and the Author

(Comments by writers, authors and other people of the literary world)

The story in her novel depicts a lot of her own struggles and dilemmas, common to immigrants settling in a new country. The protagonist Moyna, born and brought up in Canada, has been exposed to cross cultures, values between the East and the West and expectations from immigrant parents who cling to their own history, heritage, and culture in spite of settling in a foreign country. Moyna travels to Bangladesh with her parents and siblings, and her understanding and reviews from her own perspective are very interesting. She is exposed to Bangladesh’s rich culture and rural lifestyles and is totally charmed. She is exposed to and understands the works of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, rural poet Jasimuddin, and spiritual and Sufi compositions of Lalon Fakir and Hason Raja. She falls head over heels in love with Bangladesh.

Fariah Chowdhury

Academic and Social, Cultural and Political Activist

Toronto, Canada

A page turner, deeply moving and beautifully written. . . Her fans won’t be disappointed. She writes with a depth of feeling and tenderness and at times, she brings tears of both joy and sadness. Every now and then you stumble across an extraordinary book that at first appears like countless others, but then your read it and you are amazed at the treasure hidden within. . .

Monjori Banik

Music Student, Winner of Book Reading Competition, 2012 & 2013

British Council, Dhaka

She learns about the War of Independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and falls in love with one of the thirty war babies brought over to Canada by the Canadian government in 1972. It is through Moyna’s trials and tribulations and her life’s adventurous journey that the international readers learn about the distinctly rich culture, literature, history, and heritage of Bangladesh. In this particular perspective, when I visited Toronto I saw that Rummana Chowdhury has been working as a cultural and literary ambassador of Bangladesh in a foreign land. She has introduced her own country to the international readers and outside arena.

Farida Hossain

Award-Winning Author (Ekushey Padak) and PEN President

Bangladesh

Rummana’s character in the novel through her protagonist Moyna is highly interesting. Moyna’s perception of her parents’ birthplace, her mother’s and father’s personal character and day-to-day life in a foreign land, and personality development of her siblings draw the readers’ attention. The readers unanimously fall in love with Moyna.

Dr. Nashid Kamal

Academic, Nazrul Exponent and Author

Rummana’s first novel deals with the culture, literature, nature and universal humanism of both Canada and Bangladesh. Her cultural and historical setting envelopes the reader into an exquisite world of magical realism.

Farida Rahman

Award Winning Author and Cultural Activist

Toronto, Canada

As the shadow moves away from the henna tree, the human capacity for love, compromise, and graceful acceptance shines through the radiant colours of the henna leaves. This spellbinding journey nurtures the imagination of all people who are displaced from their own familiar country or who move to a new country in quest of a better life and living. This is an exciting and learning experience for readers all over the world. Rummana has created a rich, often intense, stunning vision of two countries, Bangladesh and Canada. Often she is unflinching with the truth, through Moyna’s failures and successes. A profound story that carries the heavy weight of history.

Rashida Banu

Writer, Critic, and Teacher

Toronto, Canada

Wonderfully satisfying and poetic at times, but often, things left unsaid are the most powerful. A beautifully written novel, mesmerizing, yet has a genuine power of its own. Moyna is very endearing, but somehow, she gets the readers by hitting the nail on its head at the tight time.

Lili Bilkis Jahan

Educator and Professor of English Literature

Bangladesh

Rummana’s command of the English language is noteworthy. She holds the readers’ attention and interest in an admirable manner through Moyna’s journey to Bangladesh and life and living in Canada. Her use of words and expressions is very spontaneous, a tale of courage and unconditional love and the experiences of a woman in this modern world. She meanders through a cultural journey and introduces the readers to various elements like the glorious rice and paddy fields, festivals and folk songs of her parents’ birthplace, its unique seasons, historical background, Sundarban rainforest, Zainul Abedin’s paintings, distinctive ceremonies, pageantry customs and rituals, and much more. The War of Independence of Bangladesh in 1971 is a panoramic sweeping of eyewitness history. These are compared and contrasted with the nature, values, principles, people, and urbanised society of Canada, where Moyna is presently living. Universal humanism and close family bondage win at the end, in spite of the social, religious, cultural, political, and psychological pressures. The victory of Moyna epitomises the unseen struggles and glorious success of all immigrant families in this multicultural mosaic of Canada.

Sacedah Ahmad Ph. D.

Educator, Coventry

UK

Rummana is serving Bangladesh with her diasporic literary work in her own distinct manner. This is a beautiful novel about the fundamental human requirements. The war baby she falls in love with is a fearless human being who is infected with the poison of his history and birth but also carries the antidote to carry on a fulfilled, happy love through Moyna’s magnetism and optimism. Rummana’s writing is the acceptance of magic in the rational world, as Moyna explores the foundation between reality and illusion, history and myth, and the shadow of life’s explorations often covering the henna tree and preventing it from bursting out in the abundance of its fiery glory.

Dr. Durdana Ahmad Bhuiyan

Pediatrician and Author

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Rummana Chowdhury is renowned in the literary world as an essayist, poet, short story writer, columnist, fiction writer, translator, and researcher. I am certain she will be very successful with her first novel, keeping in mind how she has dipped into Bangladesh’s literary treasures and history and showcased them to the outside world.

Syeda Nazmun Nahar

Author, Publisher and Researcher

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Rummana Didi’s self-composed poetry recitation has charmed everyone in India, Bangladesh, and North America. It is my belief that her debut novel, to be published from USA, will definitely rock the literary world!

Joydeep Chattopadhyay

Author, Recitation Artist, Poet and Researcher

Kolkata, India

Toronto in the fall, a very nice description from an interesting angle. I am struck by the detailed observations of Bangladesh and of Toronto. The cultural clash seems to be one of the themes, and for me, it works. It interests me the most as a Canadian reader. Good dialogue. The character of Moyna I like best is when she observes her new city and when she deals with her parents and her brother.

Bill Smart

Author

Toronto, Canada

Dedication

For Kathleen and Joseph O’Connell, two very precious people who have always helped me, guided me, and believed in me.

And to my beloved birthplace, Bangladesh, for timeless love through its priceless literature, culture, heritage, and history.

And to my adopted country, Canada, for blessing me with a chance to explore the boundless sky.

Foreword

This is a great pleasure for me to write down my observation, very brief although, on reading the manuscript of Rummana Chowdhury’s soon-to-be-published novel, Shadow over the Henna Tree. Rummana’s talent as a writer is strong, and she can pour herself out at equal ease in prose and poetical ways of expressions. She has already earned the reputation of being renowned as a poet and writer of stories.

Shadow over the Henna Tree looks like a lively plant in the autobiographical garden of the writer. The protagonist has probably been created in her own image. It is a story of two worlds, one in the East, in Bangladesh, and the other in the West, in Canada. The worlds are thousands of miles apart in physical as well as spiritual senses. But they come so very close in the imagination and emotion of the diasporic Bangladeshi Canadians whose symbol is Moyna, protagonist in the novel. We have heard of torn countries in Huntington’s writings as well as others. We come to know of torn souls in diasporic narratives where an individual is found to be torn in the relation between what he is now