Another couple of books

1) Bloody Foreigners by Robert Winder (which I am currently reading)
2) Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam (fiction novel recommended by my friend Usma Malik)

Edit to add more books to this list:

3) Across Seven Seas and Thirteen Rivers: Life Stories of Pioneer Sylhetti Settlers in Britain
by Caroline Adams, Tassaduq Ahmed (Introduction), Dan Jones (Illustrator) (recommended by Julie Furnivall)
4) Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (recommended by Vanessa Gebbie)
5) Songs from the River's Edge by Katy Gardner
6) Age, Narrative and Migration: The Life Course and Life Histories of Bengali Elders in London (Hardcover) by Katy Gardner (both Kay Gardner books recommended by Jahangir Ali)

Katy Gardner Wrote Back

Here's the reply on Friday 11th July:

Dear Hazera
Thanks a lot for the email. What you're proposing sounds really interesting, especially if you can make a connection between the experiences of the older generation and children and younger people born in the UK (on the latter, I'm currently involved in a project on transnational Bangladeshi kids in London, in which we're looking at how they connect to different places and negotiate between Sylhet and London - we'll be having an exhibition of the kids' art work at the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green from January - March 09.)

There's a lot of stuff you could read that you'd probably find useful:
1. Routes and Tales of the Bangladeshi Settlers, A. Chowdhury 1994 Birmingham History Group (or something like that)
2. Across 7 seas and 13 Rivers, Caroline Adams
3. Age, Narrative and Migration : the life course and life histories of Bengali Elders in London 2002 Katy Gardner
4. Ayahs, Princes and Lascars, Pluto Press, Rozana Visram 1986

You might also want to be in touch with the Brick Lane Circle, who've been holding a series of talks about Bangladeshi life in the UK, migration etc. You can find out more at: Brick Lane Circlew: www.BrickLaneCircle.orge: bricklanecircle@yahoo.co.ukt: 07903 671 787
Good luck - let me know how you get on
Best Wishes
Katy

Books to add to the Bibliography

My good friend from uni, whom I call Akuma for reasons I can never remember, has just recommended a book to me by Katy Gardner called "Songs from the River's Edge" which someone else has also mentioned recently so I guess it's fate. He is Bengali too and we actually grew up in Luton so we have some common ground and he's read more widely than me.

Whilst browsing through Amazon, I also noticed another book by Katy Gardner called:
"Age, Narrative and Migration: The Life Course and Life Histories of Bengali Elders in London" (Hardcover).

I wonder if she has a website. I may need to write a letter asking for
a) permission to use one or two passages from the books
b) advice on her research methods
c) recommended reading.

I will go now and learn more of this fascinating person.

LRPS Panel - 1st Image - Lime Kiln - Lindisfarne

Working Title & Start of Book Log

Well, now that I've made a lot of noise about writing this documentary book about how my dad got to the UK, I am not a professional researcher (although my post-graduate certificate in Health Informatics should claim otherwise) and nor am I a genealogist so no idea at this moment about how to sort out all the keys things I need to do...

I'm hoping part of this blog will serve as a sort of "log" of how I will approach it and record my efforts - good and bad...

Also, I'm still thinking of what to call the book. A few working titles come to mind so I'll list them here:

1) "One foot East, other foot West"
2) "Fathers' journeys" (deliberate possessive plural as some of the book will also include short features about other men/women of his generation)
3) "Londoni" (Generally a Bengali term referring to one who has been abroad, specifically to the UK)
4) Coming back to the idea of creating myths, legends and heroes from the stories of these first travels of immigrant fore-fathers, I think a better title is required than the three above and I want to avoid it coming across as too commercial or as if it's some kind of "soundbite". How about "Passage from Sylhet"? or "Sylheti Journeys"?

I suppose I will have to sleep on it, but so far, none of these really sound right. I wasn't specifically thinking that the book would only include stories from Bangladeshi migrants and certainly not just those from Sylhet, at any rate, those "other" stories would only be intermittently spaced between the whole of describing my father's footsteps. So, perhaps it needs to be more personal? Oh, I'll come back to it. I'm sure something much more organic will emerge as I start to compile it.

The PLAN:

1) Research - to validate exact dates for things like flights, official documents and so on. I have to make sure these all come from primary sources (I knew I did A-Level history for some reason). This will help me fill the gaps of some of the timelines and to work out what I need to address either through some oral collection from living relatives or another means. I think this part of it is going to be the most difficult because I'm barely speaking to 99% of the family right now....

The research will also involve finding at least 2 or three other families whos parents came over at about the same time as my dad and collect their transcripts of that so will need to send out calls for submissions of these in the next few weeks. They'd have to be people I have no family link with - completely and totally fresh stories to my own.

2) Structure. I think I already have a vague idea in my head that this will have the following:

a) Introduction - why I have the desire to write this and the scope of what's included and what's excluded. (2000 words)
b) Timelines (as validated as possible), maps and other interesting artefacts to help visualise and illustrate the wider picture. (1000 words)
c) Brief History of migration from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan - with focus on Bengali migration. Information about migration now, census data on poverty, employment, education, health. (6000 words?)
d) Brief history of the poitical context of how Bangladesh was formed and its current political state. (3000 words)
e) Presentation of the relevant documents in time sequence order from each decade split into chapters - 196os, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s up to my dad's death) and the known details surrounding them in terms of the family, the context in terms of immigration and the context in terms of my father as an individual while linking his experience to the experience of some of the others who will be interviewed. (20,000 words)

f) A chapter addressing the implications his migration has had on the family and the wider issues in British Society. (5000 words)
g) Conclusion/Personal thoughts about the journey (3000 words)
h) Log of how this book was compiled. Mistakes I made, things I learnt. (3000)
i) Bibliography
j) Index

So far, the plan appears to be a word count of between 43,000 and 50,000 words.

Voice

I don't have a voice yet. I'm trying too hard all the time.

A Bit of Culture

Go listen to some of Bishi's stuff:

http://www.bishi.co.uk/music.html

I have to confess, when I saw her on the Culture Show on the BBC a couple of nights ago, I wasn't sure what I would make of this but I gave it a chance and I think she's amazing.

Mediocrity

There's something wrong with me.

I read work by the most brilliant people and I over-analyse it, look for the teeniest, tiniest plot holes or try to sniff out anything close to a hackneyed or near-cliched phrase that I can't even read a newspaper without going, "that's shit that is".

How do I switch my brain OFF? How do I go back to enjoying the flow of words, the nuances, the emotional resonance without saying, "hmm, that image just doesn't work" or "that's a bit of a mixed metaphor, that is"?

What's wrong with me?

I can't even enjoy Harry Harrison any more. And when I was 15, his Stainless Steel Rat made me laugh and cry heaps. So, how do I become 15 again and see the world every day as if it's still the first day?

What should I read that will repel that cynical, blackened heart of mine? Suggestions on a postcard, please.

Ah, I'm a Journalist

Doh! Facts, truth, haha. I'm a journalist! I woke up this morning realising I had solved that particular question.

So, what does this mean for my creative endeavours?

I guess the question really is what kind of writer SHOULD I be?

I quote from ex-fellow-Boot-Camper, Louis Malloy from an email correspondence:

"...I think you know once a certain type of story starts to get accepted for publication. That's probably not a self-confident answer, but we're at the mercy of our audience. If you want to be writing epic tragedies, but you can only get comedy porn published, then face it- you're a comedy porn writer. Just an example of course, not specific to me."

That about sums it up, doesn't it? I don't think I will make it as a journalist, maybe a columnist - maybe. As a writer, now, that looks more and more like it's going to be something commercial and as Louis said, whatever mercy the audience have at the time of going to press.

Speaking of the press, I think we're in an amazing age of freedom of the "press", whether you're a blogger or a staff writer for the New York Times. It's a shame there's so little worth reading out there. When people were doing illegal pamphlets in some dark-age, it was out of necessity to get some truth (or a version of it) to someone, somewhere. But now, what cringe-worthy rubbish is out there? Where's the quality, dude?

Subbing

Well, the thing is I only sub things about once in a while when I really feel the urge. Everything I have ever submitted anywhere has found a place - more or less. Which begs a question - why do I not submit more? Am I a procrastinator? No, I don't think so? Do I feel my work is not good enough to submit unless it's perfect? No.

Do I not write enough? No, that's not the case either.

I think it's because I don't want to submit things just for the sake of seeing them published somewhere. I want to write things that mean somethng and move someone. If they don't move me, then why bother?

There's also a heck of a lot of places to submit to, whether online or traditional print mags and there-in lies another compelling problem? Have I read enough to know what's good or not yet?

Definitely not.

The other problem is I don't actually LIKE reading any literary fiction whatsoever. I like critiquing - that's never an issue - God, I love hating something, but I actually don't like reading stuff that's been made up. I like facts, documents, reality. So, that leaves me with a dilemma...and a deep question to ask myself which is "what kind of a writer am I?"

I've asked a fellow writer this and hope he'll answer but I will have to incubate the question for a while. I thnk it's why I am more and more drawn to writing an account of my father's migration, but also because facts are always tangible and can be checked and be made certain. With fiction, there's all kinds of level of disbelief one has to suspend and I can't do it - most writing just isn't good enough to do that. The only time I can do it is with Sci-fi and that's because you already know from the outset it's going to be a world so made-up that you just have ride along with all the beautiful made-upness, the gadgets, the weirdly contorted views of the world we know or worlds we don't know.

I will cogitate on this and see what happens.

Asheka Troberg

Well, I can't talk about Brooklyn Voice and not mention one of its founding editors, Asheka Troberg, right?

Here's a letter she wrote to the http://www.theDailyStar.net about the Bangladeshi community in Brooklyn:
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=34700

I'd quite like her to join the Fiction Workhouse if she gets enough time away from her hectic schedule at the BV. But I think you'll agree, that there is certainly a difference in attitude in writing style between US SE Asian writers and UK SE Asian writers. I'd love to explore those differences with her but in the meantime, enjoy her letter.

Brooklyn Voice

The Brooklyn Voice is a site with a penchant for a rather quirky approach to being a magazine for the thoughtful consumer of literature, music and the arts in general. It also has a vibe about it with South East Asian roots but equally firmly with its feet in the US. The humour is American but its soul is from the East.

I'm going to keep a good eye on this site because even though aesthetically, it won't please everyone (not yet, anyway), the articles, reviews and ethos of the production team are worthwhile. Please take a look.

I also think they will be moving quite a pace forward in linking in with a number of interesting writers. Catch them on facebook too.

Novels

So, I started two novels.

One is just utter pants and it's been shelved for about 5 years and it makes me cringe to even look at it.

The other is more like a good idea but without the necessary personal effort required to write it. I will write it.

However, I've come upon another idea. Not really a novel this time but more or less a living documentary and I actually do think it's worth doing. I recently found a whole load of old papers and documents belonging to my late father, documents which explain his journey to the UK and help me build up a picture of his lonely steps to a cold Britain over 40 years ago. It's also opened my eyes about some of the family history too - both personal, emotional and financial. It's filling in a few of those gaps for me and I have even figured out my sister's actually a year older than I thought. It's those bits of certainty that compells me to actually write this thing.

I have a structure in my head about how I want to put it together - but I also want it do something for a generation of people under 25 - and that is to given them a glimpse of what their parents and grandparents went through during that period of pre-Enoch migration. I want them to understand that they can aspire to something and actually, to be a tiny bit grateful for those lonely journeys.

I am thinking of collaborating on this as a project perhaps with one or two other writers of my generation with migrant routes.

But you know, this idea, it's got a bit of passion behind it - and it has facts, truth as well as that ordinary mystique you get with folk-tales and handed down oral tradition. I can make those early "pioneers" into heroes, legends, and who knows, their descendents might let them live on in their own actions. They might understand how important it all is.