Shagufta Tasnim Nur, winner of the ‘Pursuit of Passion’ – interuniversity literary competition for fiction, aspires to become author of her own book of fiction that may not be too far away…writes Saad Hammadi
Clik here to view.
SOURAV LASKAR
Afternoons are best. The mind is at peace with most of the day’s works sorted. She would sit down with her laptop in the living room, turn on YouTube to listen to the Boyce Avenue covers, and immerse into the serenity of thoughts that could produce her next work of fiction.
Five years ago however, it would be an entirely different story for Shagufta Tasnim Nur, a young and passionate fiction storyteller, who just championed the fiction category of ‘Pursuit of Passion’ inter-university literary competition hosted by the North South University Communication Club from October 12-17. Students from 16 universities participated in the contest. Back in the days, passion was at its infancy and life revolved around school and private tuition mastering the knowledge of pure science.
Pure science was her forte in high school but once over with school she considered business administration as her discipline in undergrad at the Institute of Business Administration at the University of Dhaka. Currently, on her third year at the IBA, Shagufta has come to the realisation that writing is a gifted craft she would like to pursue more seriously as a career.
With all the changes and shifts from pure science to business and then to a career that best relates to literature for a discipline, it ‘sounds very messed up, doesn’t it?’ she asks warily just as creative minds tend to think and speak. But what do you know about wonders passion can drive one to!
At 21, she seems determined though, to continue her aspiration to become author of her own book of fiction. Once done with her undergrad she would try to find work belonging to her academic discipline ‘to show the society that I am eligible to get a job,’ she says, but eventually it would have to be writing where she can freely express herself, seek peace and satisfaction out of her work.
To that end, Shagufta has already made her footsteps. For the last five years or so, Shagufta has been a closet fiction writer. Only a close group of friends would have the rare privilege to read her stories and share their reviews. And with appreciation from friends for her writings, Shagufta wanted to test her skills for real. That meant taking her stories to the public, beyond the circles of her known group of people.
She ‘wanted to be judged by people who actually knew what writing was about and those who are experts in the area.’ That brought her to the inter-university literary competition hosted by North South University Communication Club. A friend shared a link of the competition on the Facebook page of the IBA batch she belongs to. She picked up the link from there, applied and got picked up for the competition held in October.
Shagufta championed the fiction category among 101 fiction writers. She was judged best storyteller in the final round of 15 stories by a jury of New Age Youth and Shout of The Daily Star.
Contestants penned their story in two hours in the first round on the topic ‘dream’. Those who made to the second round were again given two hours to write another fiction on ‘time’. Shagufta’s final piece revolved around how a couple’s pursuit to stay close to each other wiped out the geographic distance and two time zones they lived in, only to explain how love is timeless.
The romantic story was a work of fiction but the ideas evolved out of experiences around her. In this case, Shagufta borrowed her sister’s experience as an influence. ‘I took the idea and modified it a bit.’ The four pages of creative ingenuity won the writer a prize-money of Tk 10,000.
With a penchant for writing stories revolving around emotions and feelings, mostly because she feels she can express them well, Shagufta tells New Age Youth, ‘I do not generally write about myself because I don’t have experience that would ensue into writing.’
Indeed a good author is not just about language and structure but an observer of experiences. ‘It takes more time to think than to write,’ says Shagufta, and in a calm environment she can produce great stories. ‘I work very well in a calm environment,’ says the young writer, who has been slowly stepping up her efforts towards taking writing as a career and as part of it for the last two years she has been writing for an online publication.
Her attempts to write a journal has failed on numerous occasions since grade V until she gave up the idea. Days that went too plain are what she blames behind her cessation to keep the pages of her diary turning. Having moved on from the phase of not having a personal experience or an event to pen on her diary, Shagufta has developed a penchant for writing every day and although these are not complete work of fiction, she writes bits and pieces that appear on her mind. ‘It’s not essentially a diary,’ but she calls it a ‘collection of work.’
‘Usually what I think seems very scattered and putting it on paper helps me articulate what I think,’ she says.
A story’s appeal is often determined by the narrative. While different writers have different ways of putting their thoughts on paper, Shagufta prefers to share stories through fiction because ‘it would be more intimate.’
An avid reader of JK Rowling, Khaled Hosseini and Jodi Picoult, Shagufta aspires to write books someday, which may not be too far away.