Syed Manzoorul Islam (SMI): The focus of our discussion today will be on why you chose the river Halda as your subject matter. I know it’s a unique river that is a natural spawning ground of a particular kind of carp; it’s also a beautiful river which is being polluted by wastes of all description.…

The Hindu epic Mahabharat refers to a river as bishwasya mataro or the mother of the universe. Rivers are the lifelines for people who consciously or unconsciously depend on their contributions as ‘interfaces between ecosystems and human well-being’. For the visionary painter S M Sultan (1923-1994), the River Chitra which flows by his village home,…

The relationship between rivers and settlements is an ancient one. In fact, major cities of the world have originated on the banks of rivers, with the river as sustenance for water, as well as transportation, irrigation, climatic and ecological benefits. For some cities, the relationship was sacred and spiritual. A more urgent aspect of rivers,…

Here, in this development wasteland, rivers don’t live; they merely exist. They exist as relics of their halcyon days when rivers were truly wild, mysterious, free. Or as a side character in their own story, as told through poetry and music. They exist to serve, to nurture, not to inspire imagination. They exist in collective…

A conversation between architects, urbanists and writers, as they reflect on rivers and how they have influenced and inspired our imagination and have impacted on the global architectural landscape over the centuries. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf (KKA): Kongjian, you and I have had many occasions to meet since the conference on water (University of Pennsylvania, 2012),…

Crossing a river has always inspired metaphysical reckonings. Can one cross the same river twice? The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, a native of Ephesus in Asia Minor, does not think so. He once stated that “you cannot step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.” What he means is…

Prominent Tagore scholar, parliamentarian and author Pramathanath Bishi, who was close to the poet, wrote in Shilaidahe Rabindranath, “He who has not seen the Padma has not seen Bangladesh; he who has not known the Padma has not known Bangladesh; he who has not understood the Padma has not understood Bangladesh; everything seen and felt…

“The Luckia or Seetul (silver) Luckia, as it is sometimes called from the transparency of its water, is, as regards scenery, one of the finest rivers in the country”¹ “Tranquil and smiling, [Shitalakhya] the most beautiful of all the rivers of eastern Bengal”² Nature precedes culture, but when the two meet, the bond is inseparable.…

As a resident of Bangladesh, it is quite hard to imagine that many years ago, a kind of cotton fabric made by the local people of this place attracted the whole world. This fabric, once called Bangla Kapor (Cloth of Bengal), Dhakai or Gangetiki is now more commonly known as ‘Muslin’ (Karim 1963; Eaton 1993).…

Bangladesh is the largest delta in the world. The mighty rivers that flowed down from the magnificent Himalayas deposited silt and sediment over countless millennia forming the land, and that is the country we call home today. It goes without saying that the rivers have quite literally shaped the country, and subsequently its history, economy,…