Call for peace

Visitors at the poster exhibition (top), a scene from the play Tringshoshotapdi

On the day several cultural organisations around the city chalked out elaborate programmes and called for world peace, which has been disrupted by conflict between nations.

The first programme of the day began at the plaza of Institute of Fine Arts. Sculptor Rasha arranged an innovative event -- display of his latest work Hiroshima Sculpture Project. Rasha asserted, "The project is not yet complete. Our ultimate target is to create a sculpture made from a 70 ft tree with a huge granite-made basement (120 ft × 120ft × 20 ft). It will take two years to complete and the estimated budget for the project is Taka six crores.

"Science should be used for the betterment of humanity and nature, and not for destructive purposes. However, some scientists are creating weapons, which are capable of annihilating masses as well harm nature. That's why I have used a tree as the medium for my Hiroshima Sculpture Project."

Rasha expects participation of a good number of Bangladeshis in the project. The artist also hopes that the project will generate interest among people from all around the world.

The programme was dedicated to late artists Abdur Razzaq, SM Sultan and novelists Ahmed Sofa and Akhtaruzzaman Elias, who had earlier organised programmes on Hiroshima Day. The organisers demanded that the United Nations should observe August 6 as 'World Day of Grief'.

Swapnodal, a theatrical group, and Japan-Bangladesh Foundation jointly organised another day-long programme at the Experimental Theatre Stage, Shilpakala Academy to observe Hiroshima Day.

The programme began with a poster exhibition. Humayun Kabir, the president of Japan-Bangladesh Foundation, collected these posters from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Foundation in Japan to display the destruction of the city by the nuclear bomb.

Moreover, a documentary film featuring the moments from the Hiroshima blast to the recovery from destruction has been projected at the plaza of the Experimental Theatre Stage.

Visitors at the exhibition said that such poster displays would generate public opinion against nuclear weapons. Foreign guests expressed their satisfaction at the solidarity of the Bangladeshis with the Japanese victims of Hiroshima.

Later the visitors flocked to a stage play -- Tringshoshotapdi (thirtieth century) by Swapnodal.

Zahid Ripon has adapted the play from Indian playwright Badal Sarkar's work. In the play the narrator interrogates some historical characters such as Einstein, the scientist who invented the theory on which atom bombs were later developed, Major Fereby, the pilot of the aircraft who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and Major Claude Itharby who carried the nuclear bomb to Nagasaki and later became insane on his realisation of the crime.

In addition he has packed some punches against contemporary brutal war activities by the American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. And through a replicated military exercise he has depicted the nuclear activities of the world's superpowers.