‘It’s been two years today, a full two years, and it continues to amaze me that people run for their lives the moment they see me.

Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) has been customarily characterized as a rebel poet, particularly, if not exclusively, because of his 1922 poem called “Bidrohi” (the Rebel)—a poem that fiercely stages his political, linguistic, even metrical rebellion all at once.

It has been 50 years today since an independent Bangladesh got its national poet.

From Churulia, Bardhaman to Dhanmondi, Dhaka. And so many places in between - College Street, Taltola Lane, CIT Road. And of course Kolkata, dear city. During his lifetime, the bohemian poet Kazi Nazrul Islam wandered and dwelled in many places. On his birthday, we look at those towns, cities, and localities bearing his memories.

Although many seminars and discussions are going to be held to mark the 117th birth anniversary of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam today, only a handful of research has been done on the poet in the last few decades.

His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the title, 'Rebel Poet'. Accomplishing a large number of much-admired works throughout his life, Kazi Nazrul Islam is more than a rebel.

Darirampur in Trishal of Mymensingh, the place gripped with Nazrul's memories, is ready to celebrate the 116th birth anniversary of national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, through three-day national level programmes.

Aggrieved locals block the busy Dhaka-Mymensingh road for nearly an hour demanding national celebration of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s birth anniversary.