Moona Chowdhury unveils new books with Kabbokola

Poet and author Moona Chowdhury unveiled two newly published books at a lovely cultural function organized on Tuesday at the  National Art Gallery auditorium in Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The books were available at the Ekushey Book Fair of Bangla Academy, which concluded on Saturday.

The cultural program was organized by Kabbokola, a school of recitation founded by Moona Chowdhury. The program featured poetry recitation by young students, ranging from ages 6 to12. There were also dance and group song performances. During group singing, the children were joined by some of their parents.

The chief guest of the occasion was State Minister for Cultural Affairs, KM Khalid. Rupa Chakraborty and Ataur Rahman were the special guests of the event.

In his speech, the state minister said: "Our life's stories, our life's happiness, joy, and sadness become immortalized in poems and novels. If we can compile those poems and novels, and publish them, then we can make them accessible to the general public. Therefore, I am completely supportive of today's program. Thank you to Moona Chowdhury for constantly writing and publishing your works.

"Furthermore, organizing a cultural program with such young artists is very difficult. You know that proverb in Bangla, where you cannot really weigh frogs on scales since frogs will always jump away. That is exactly how difficult it is to work with children. And yet, Moona pulled it off very well. I think I saw 16 to 17 children perform today, and each gave a marvelous individual performance. This goes to show the amount of effort put in by Moona.

" I would also like to say that whenever I am invited to such programs, before the event the organizers put in a request for a monetary donation very abruptly. Moona did no such thing. I have a lot of love for this organization Kabbokola. If Moona will graciously accept, I would like to offer Tk1 lakh as a donation to the organization," the state minister added.

On the occasion, the books that were unveiled were titled Tara Bhora Raate and Kuashamakhha Trishna.

Regarding her feelings about the program, Moona told Dhaka Tribune Showtime: "I speak in Bangla and I speak for Bangla. The joy I find from working in art, literature and culture, I do not find anywhere else. I feel overwhelmingly happy in being able to hand over a poetry anthology and novellas to my readers during the month of February every year. It is the month of celebrating language, for our own Language Movement took place in this month. When our respected elders attend such small initiatives to encourage and stimulate our creativity, I take pride in them."

This book unveiling ceremony, accompanied by a cultural program, takes place once every year in the month of February. Kabbokola, a school that has recitation students of all ages, has been organizing this event since 2017.