Jamaica, New York: Shahid Qadri, one of the greatest poets of Bengali Literature, has died at a New York hospital on Sunday 28 August 2016. He was hospitalized with high blood pressure and fever last Monday and later shifted to the ICU of New York’s North Shore University Hospital for the last three days in an unconscious state. Qadri had been struggling with severe renal diseases for last one decade.
The poet’s wife Neera Qadri will bring his body by an Emirates Airlines flight that will leave New York for Dhaka at 11:00pm (NY time) on Monday. The poet’s only son Adnan Qadri will leave New York for Dhaka on Monday morning by another flight, according to the family members. Shahid Qadri’s first namaz-e-janaza was held after Magrib prayer on Sunday at the Jamaica Muslim Centre in New York. A number of Shahid Qadri fans, relatives, cultural activists, poets and journalists attended the janaza. The poet, who had been honored with Ekushey Padak and Bangla Academy Award, was 74. Before the janaza, ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh at the UN, Masud Bin Momen, said that the government would bear the costs of air tickets. The body of reputed Bangladeshi poet Shahid Qadri is expected to arrive in Dhaka early Wednesday.Born in Dhaka in 1942 in a Muslim family, Shahid Qadri is considered one of the prominent poets of post-1947 Bangla literature. He had been staying in the US for last three decades. Qadri received the Ekushey Padak, the highest national award of Bangladesh, in the category of Language and Literature, in 2011. Earlier, in 1973, he was awarded Bangla Academy Award.
After the publication of his third book, Kothao Kono Krondon Nei [No tears anywhere], Qadri stopped writing and moved to London first and then to Germany. Later, in the mid-80’s, he moved to the Boston in the United States. After the publication of his third book, Kothao Kono Krondon Nei [No tears anywhere], Qadri stopped writing and moved to London first and then to Germany. His poems were translated into English by many prominent names in Bengali literary domain– Kabir Chowdhury, Kaiser Haq, and Farida
He is one of the prominent poets of post-1947 Bengali poetry, who brought a new angle to the Bangladeshi scene by introducing urbanism and a sense of modernity. His poetry is infused with patriotism, cosmopolitanism and universalism and in its treatment of nature and city life, it delves deep into the conflicts and the sense of alienation pervading modern life.
