Eminent Indian poet and litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay said that Bengali literature still has bright prospects, as the readership in West Bengal and Bangladesh is sizeable and growing.

He made the remark while talking to a BSS correspondent on the concluding day of the three-day 'Sunil Mela' that ended on November 23.

Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has returned to India to renew her visa, which expired on Tuesday, officials said.

She flew in to Delhi from a European capital and was whisked off to an undisclosed location, they said.

Nasreen was forced to leave Calcutta last November after angry protests by Muslims. She spent four months in Delhi before moving to Sweden.

Today is Shraban 22 of the Bengali month, the 67th death anniversary of the Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore. He died on this day in 1941. Rabindranath Tagore has a great contribution in the arena of Bengali literature. He is the greatest poet of the Bengal. His wonderful creations not only confined to poetry, he virtually left no field of literature untraced in his lifetime and every field of literature in Bengali was illuminated by his touch whether it is song, story, novel, drama, travel or essays. His influence is such that neither his contemporaries nor the following generation could come out of his style and influence completely.

Academics at a seminar in Dhaka on Tuesday stressed the need for taking lessons from the speeches of the National Poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, to unite against misrule and misdeeds worldwide.

মানিক বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের শততম জন্মদিন উপলক্ষে মানিক তনয় সুকান্ত বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় তিনদিনের সফরে ঢাকায় এসেছিলেন। এ সময় তিনি বাংলাদেশের মানুষের আতিথেয়তায় মুগ্ধ হয়েছেন। এদেশ ও মানুষের প্রতি তার ভালোবাসার কোন কমতি ছিল না। সুকান্ত বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের সাক্ষাৎকার তুলে ধরা হলো।

The nation will celebrate 109th birth anniversary of National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam today across the country with festivity and in a befitting manner.

To celebrate the day the Government has chalked out various programmes to be inaugurated by the Chief Adviser to the Caretaker Government Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed at a function at 10:00am at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city on Sunday.

The 109th birth anniversary of the national poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, the voice of dissent and revolution whose poems and songs were a clarion call to the oppressed and the indignant, will be observed today. The government and several socio-cultural and political organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day.

Rabindra Kachharibari at Shahzadpur in Sirajganj that preserves many of the famous works of nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is now in a shambles due to lack of care and maintenance. Many works of Tagore inside the Kachharibari building was also exposed to damage and destruction due to indifference of the local administration for their proper upkeep.

Patisar, otherwise a remote, silent and serene village of northern Naogaon district, is now humming with activities, especially of artisans and sculptors who are giving final touch to the statue of great poet Rabindranath and renovating the Nobel laureate's "Kuthibari" as the locals will organise a grand cultural fair there to celebrate the 147th birth anniversary of Tagore on May 8.

Many of the Tagore scholars opines that Rabindrnath never had warm relations with his wife Mrinalini, but the past stories at Dakkhin Dihi of Jessore, house of his in- laws have other views to offer.

The story goes like this that the great poet fell in platonic love with Mrinalini Devi when he was visiting his maternal uncle's home.