Kee Khobor Stories
Kee Khobor will feature blogs, poems, vlogs and podcasts. The reflections will be shared publicly throughout the year, with our official launch on 26th March 2021.
The various identities of the Bengali community in the UK will be explored and celebrated. We will facilitate an open exchange of ideas and give voice to views, some of which may otherwise not be heard.
The project will leave a legacy that provides stewardship for future generations to not only have pride in their identity but to own it and derive strength from it, and give younger people who may be struggling the confidence and opportunity to belong to something wider.
The reflections will provide an opportunity to look ahead to the future development of the community and not only stay relevant as a community within a changing society but be inspirational to the development of wider British society.
Unashamedly Bangladeshi
Being the last commonwealth cohort to arrive certainly put us at the bottom of the pecking order and a smaller build from the other South Asian communities meant that we were easy targets. Growing up, we had to learn to defend ourselves or run. My understanding was: if you run you would have to do that all your life. I chose to stand and fight when I was able to.
The Best of Times
Photo: Ahmed Hasan
I feel my growing years were the very best of times, an age of wisdom, in a season of light, with the spring of hope and laughter. So much fun and laughter.
A Tale of Two Rivers
I’ve always felt it easy to belong to London...who wouldn’t? When I first came to work in London in 1999 it was still a city that embraced every type of being with open arms. I could walk down the streets in gothic attire or a saree, and neither would get a second glance. I valued this all the more because having moved to Finland in 1986, I always used to notice how people stared at us...we would often be the only dark-skinned people in the city.
School Lunches
One minute you’ll be enjoying yourself, thinking you are comfortable here, and the next, it’s that all too familiar stare and those words echoing, “go home, GO Home!”
Rabindranath Tagore - The World Poet
For Prabhashi Bangalis like me, that the influence of Rabindranath Tagore will be strong. But what about the next generation?
16th December
Poem: 16th December, A New Nation Born
9 months of darkness, horror, death and destruction
3 million sacrificed, slaughtered, pillaged and displaced
Frightened, fearless, fractured, unbroken, freedom prevailed
When I Speak Bengali
Mohsina Alam’s story.
I wish I could tell my 14 year old self that there are no standards you have to meet to belong to a culture… 50 years from now, I hope to see more successful Bengali women in the public eye.
Do I Belong?
Shuba Khatun’s story.
“Do I belong? I’ve learnt to accept that I am Bengali and British. Not English but British. I no longer shy away from speaking about my heritage, both the good and the bad. Just like I have lived in England with good and bad.”