Rahad Abir’s arduous journey towards publishing his debut novel

It was early 2014. Rahad Abir was in the United States, doing an MA in Tesol (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). One day, he had a long, heated conversation with his wife, who asked him what exactly he wanted to do with his life.

She had a point after all.

Abir, a graduate of English Literature from Dhaka University, had always wanted to be a writer. And so he had maintained the practice of writing religiously since his freshman year in 2001, without attaining much recognition.

After graduation, he even pursued a career in journalism, both in Bangla and English, because "it involved writing." But due to below-standard wages alongside the nonexistent media freedom, he left the country for London in 2009.

In the following two years, he had written almost nothing and lived off doing all kinds of menial jobs. In early 2012, he started having suicidal thoughts. Then he left London and moved to the US, and switched from Bangla to English. But still, life hadn't been taking him anywhere.

Illustration: TBS

However, to his wife's query, Abir had just one reply: "I want to write." So, she suggested they come back to Bangladesh so he could focus on writing while she would pay the bills and take care of the finances. She was working for a bank in Bangladesh, and at that time was on maternity leave. Abir happily accepted the offer and left the US in two months without finishing his degree.

Undoubtedly, it was a big risk. But also, a risk worth taking.

Nearly a decade down the line, Abir, once touted as "another Madhusudan" by his friends for abandoning his mother tongue for English, is on the verge of having his debut novel, 'Bengal Hound,' published in October this year.

But once again, it was far from a fairytale.

In a recent interview with The Business Standard, the man who was born and raised in old Dhaka, recalled the rigorous, laborious and excruciating journey in detail, described what one can expect from his debut novel, and shared some valuable tips for emerging Bangladeshi writers willing to write in English. 

The breakthrough

After returning to Bangladesh, it took Abir two years to complete the first draft of 'Bengal Hound.' Then, sometime in 2016, Mushfique Wadud, Abir's former colleague from the New Age, sent him a link about a writing fellowship in the United Kingdom. He applied with an excerpt from his novel and was awarded the 2017 Charles Pick Fellowship.

"The judges were impressed by the lucidity and power of your prose and by the strength of the story you have to tell," the fellowship granter bowled Abir over with this comment in the email.

Afterwards, Abir spent six months at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Incidentally, Kazuo Ishiguro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017, was also a graduate of UEA's creative writing programme.

It was at UEA that he first learned about MFA programmes in the US where one can get paid while earning a writing degree. In 2019, he got accepted into Boston University's MFA programme where Jhumpa Lahiri and Ha Jin are among the notable alumni. He has been living in the US since then and teaching at a college in Georgia.

However, Abir doesn't believe the MFA degree helped him get better at his craft, even though he enjoyed the writing workshops, having his work critically read and reviewed by his peers and professors. Rather, he had one particular reason to apply to the programme.

"I did it to get some money and buy more time. It takes years to complete a novel. Imagine a writer, male, in his late 30s, writing full-time in Bangladesh. He has no income, no published work, no recognition. How does that sound? I am sure people will take this would-be-writer as 'good for nothing'," Abir said.  

He also explained his decision to start writing in English in the first place. 

"There are many Bengali authors I admire whose works are equally outstanding as those of Conrad, Joyce, Faulkner or Hemmingway. Due to their choice not to express themselves in the language of the colonisers, many of the finest Bengali authors remain largely unknown to the world. My decision to start writing in English was primarily motivated by this factor," said Abir.

"I, however, write Bangla in English. And writing in English enables me to respect the traditions and cultures of my home country, while also understanding the enticements and expectations of a global audience," he added. 

'Bengal Hound'

It took Abir about eight years to complete his debut novel 'Bengal Hound,' which will be published by Gaudi Boy, an independent press. In the meantime, he has written many short stories and worked on other nonfiction pieces.

In Abir's own words, "Writing a novel is a laborious process. I believe one needs a lot of discipline, determination and family support to walk this path."

The novel is set in East Pakistan in the late 1960s and tells how the Bengali people were increasingly disappointed and outraged by West Pakistan's oppression. A major part of the narrative recounts the 1965 Hindu-Muslim riots, and the 1969 uprising, which paved the way for independence.

Shelley Majumder, the protagonist of the novel, is a student at Dhaka University studying English. His mother and two sisters moved to India, while he remained in East Pakistan with his father. Shelley, at a time of political discord, is further thrown into disarray when he elopes with his childhood sweetheart Roxana, a Muslim girl from his village, which sparks a chain of events reflecting the turbulent relationship between Hindus and Muslims during the 1960s.

"The 1971 War of Independence inspired many fiction works, but little is written about East Pakistan's tumultuous period that led to the creation of Bangladesh. When I thought about writing a novel, I wanted to focus on this time period," explained Abir. 

Interestingly, Abir modelled Roxana, one of the main female protagonists of the novel, after his maternal grandmother's sister.

"During the Pakistani period, my nani's sister ran away with her boyfriend on her wedding day. Her own family members subsequently murdered her. Sadly, it's still unknown how exactly she was killed or where she was buried. Family lore says her dead body was thrown into the river," said Abir.

With 'Bengal Hound' awaiting its release, Abir is now working on a short story collection, which was a finalist for the 2021 Miami Book Fair Emerging Writer Fellowship. He is also working on another novel that he hopes to finish next year, though he does not wish to disclose any details about it just yet.

Perks of being an unpublished writer

According to Abir, South Asian literature in the West is still mostly dominated by works from India and Pakistan, which has made it a little difficult for Bangladeshi authors to get the attention they deserve for their work.

"Another fact is that not many Bangladeshi writers write in English. And Bengali literature from Bangladesh in English translation is still scarce," he said.

Having said that, from his own experience, Abir believes that it is very important to send one's work to the US/UK and other reputable international literary journals, instead of publishing them in Bangladesh. 

"Publishing a book is a lot easier in Bangladesh, and the temptation is irresistible when you have, say, enough short stories to put in a collection. Once you publish a book, you're ineligible for many writing fellowships, awards, and opportunities that are only open to unpublished authors," Abir said.

"For instance, the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award gives £10,000 to an unpublished writer for a manuscript-in-progress. There are many more. Keep writing and be patient. Patience pays off in the end," he concluded.