prothom hello ,
Did you write that article in the sixties?
Maleka Begum
I don't remember exactly, but I think I wrote it after the independence of Bangladesh.
prothom hello ,
Your book, a biography titled 'Pretilata Vaadear', was published in 2018. Your article was written after independence. So your journey with Pritilata Vadedar was quite a long one. How was this journey from one article to a whole book?
Maleka Begum
I would say it was a joyous trip. But it also had its fair share of pain. It was a pleasure because I was learning new things about Pretilata. It was sad because when I was reading about Pritilata, there were very few books about her, like I said. I really struggled. I will visit Dhaka University Library, Central Library and many libraries and study old books to gain information about Pritilata. There was different information about him in different books. It took time to verify all the information – what was fact, what was exaggeration. I used to spend hours in libraries. The library staff would ask me, “What are you doing here?”
I also went to India for books and information. I talked to many people. Uttara Chakraborty from India helped me in finding books. Pritilata's younger sister Shanti Chaudhary had written a book 'Birangana Pritilata' and that book was very helpful.
I have a habit of doing many things at once. When I was reading about Pritilata, I was also reading about Leela Nag. While I read, I make notes in my notebook. Thus, I had been reading about Pritilata since the sixties. I met Matiur Rahman in the sixties. He was a source of encouragement in my writing endeavours. He also encouraged me regarding my writing on Pritilata. He used to say, “Writing is not enough, you have to tell others about all this.” But I would think that first I will know about it in detail, then I will share it with others. That's why it took me so long to actually get the book out. It took me three or four years to write the book.
