Washington Bangla Radio presents poems by Prithwiraj Choudhury recited by acclaimed elocutionist Bratati Banerjee and the poet Prithwiraj Choudhury himself. You can listen to the recitation recordings below on demand - these are also being broadcast on WBRi Live Online Kolkata Bangla Radio.

Video 1
Purbo Paschim - From the book Abhishar Dot Mp3
Recitation by Bratati Banerjee and Prithwiraj Choudhury

This poem is about the human struggle and tumultuous events etched permanently in world history around the Bangladesh liberation war. On 16th December 1971, the allied forces of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini of Bangladesh decisively defeated the (West) Pakistani forces deployed in the East resulting in the largest surrender, in terms of the number of POWs, since World War II. Aside from military repercussions, the massive socio-economic impact resulting from displacement and chaos in West Bengal and Bangladesh can be felt even today. The poem poignantly retraces the event, contrasting the status-quo a quarter century since, lamenting about the political division of West Bengal and Bangladesh, ultimately deriving from an arbitrary line drawn on a map by British occupiers over 60 years ago.

Video 2
1. Meye Belar Jhil - Recitation by Bratati Bandopadhyay : Dedicated to Mrinalini  Devi, featuring paintings by Rabindranath Thakur
2. Kalidas - Recitation by Prithwiraj Choudhury
3. Ekti Robibarer Smriti (Memories of a Sunday) - Recitation by Bratati Bandopadhyay
4. Hate Khori - Recitation by Prithwiraj Choudhury
5. Abhishar Dot Mp3 - Recitation by Prithwiraj Choudhury

High Quality Audio Recordings

Audio recording from the Videos above

Bangla Kobita - Prithwiraj ChoudhuryPrithwiraj Choudhury lives in Boston and is currently pursuing his doctorate from the Harvard University. He is the author of two books of poetry: ই-মেলে ঈশ্বর (Email-e-Ishwar) and অভিসার ডট্‌ mp3 (Abhishar dot mp3), both published by Pratibhash in Kolkata. The books are available online at parabaas.com bookstore.

Prithwiraj is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and has worked with IBM, McKinsey & Co and Microsoft. He can be reached at prithwic [at] hotmail.com.

Bratati Bandyopadhyay is one of the top contemporary Bengali elocutionists with highly acclaimed published albums and live performances and numerous awards and recognitions spanning over 25 years and a thousand performances, each one special to Bratati and unforgettable for the attending audience. Bratati founded 'Kabbayan' (1990) - an institution for learning of elocution beyond mere pronunciation of some lines, for poetry is as much food for the mind as it is treat to the ears. Click here to listen to free samples online and download Bengali Recitation by Bratati Bandopadhyay in MP3 format >