The pages of Bengali poet, playwright and novelist, Syed Shamsul Haq

from Bangladesh...

Jaleswari, an imaginary township and surrounding villages, set by Syed-Haq in the north-eastern corner of Bangladesh has featured heavily in his work since 1974.   It is loosely-based upon Kurigram, one of the most impoverished districts of Bangladesh and the town of his birth.

"Jaleswari" is derived from two Bengali words: Jal (water) and Iswari (Goddess).  Legend has it that the Goddess appeared as a poor woman to a boatman, asking him to take her across the river as a favour.  The boatman gladly complied. 

Once across the river, the Goddess appeared in her full splendour and granted him whatever his heart desired.  Rather than ask for untold riches, the boatman merely asked that his children would never want for milk and rice.

Through the ordinary lives of Jaleswari's ordinary residents, Syed-Haq upholds an image of Bangladesh that portrays the socio-cultural and myth-realism of a nation that has emerged through a baptism of fire...