Nashid Kamal


Nashid Kamal is a Bangladeshi vocalist, writer and professor of demography. She is the eldest granddaughter of Bengali folk singer Abbasuddin Ahmed. Kamal is widely regarded as a Nazrul exponent. For her contributions to Nazrul's works, she has received awards including the Nazrul Award from the Nazrul Academy in 2009 and Nazrul Padak from the Nazrul Institute in 2014.

Background

Kamal, the eldest of three children, was born in London, England to parents Mustafa Kamal and Husne Ara Kamal. Her father was a judge and served as the Chief Justice of Bangladesh. Her mother was a poet, philanthropist and professor. She was the Chairman of the Department of Social Welfare at Dhaka University before she took her retirement. She has two sisters, Naeela Sattar and Nazeefa K. Monem. Her uncle, Mustafa Zaman Abbasi, is a Bangladeshi musicologist and aunt, Ferdausi Rahman, is a popular Bangladeshi playback singer. At the age of two, Nashid Kamal moved with her parents to Bangladesh, her mother country, to live permanently.
Kamal started singing at a young age. On 25 December 1964, she appeared on Pakistan Television, East Pakistan Centre, which is now Bangladesh Television as a child singer on its inauguration day. Apart from studying, She started learning music from various notable gurus including Ustad P.C. Gomes, Ustad Akther Shadmani, Ustad Quader Zameeree and Pandit Jasraj Besides learning music and singing, she became a debater and television presenter. Kamal was awarded with the Best Speaker prize in 1976, when she participated in the first ever TV Debate Competition in Bangladesh called Torko Jukti Torko.
Kamal married Anis Waiz, a medical doctor, who served the Bangladesh Army and retired as a Major general. He died in 2002. She has two daughters, Armeen Musa and Aashna Musa. Armeen, a singer-songwriter by herself, conducts the choir Ghaasphoring. Aashna is a lawyer and resides in the U.K.

Education

Kamal attended the Holy Cross Girls' High School, and stood 7th in the merit list for girls in the Secondary School Certificate examination in 1973. In 1975, she sat for Higher Secondary Examination from the Holy Cross College, and stood 2nd in the combined merit list. She studied statistics for her BSc degree at the University of Dhaka, and passed with a first-class-first in 1980. Subsequently, Kamal went on to Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario in Canada to do her MSc in mathematics, and achieved the degree in 1982. Kamal attended the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine at Camden for a doctoral degree in medical demography, and was awarded with the PhD in 1996.

Career

Researcher

Kamal's professional career as a researcher started in 1983, when she joined ICDDR.B. She worked there for three years. She had, also, been a consultant to UNFPA in Bangladesh and Sudan. She has more than 25 publications in peer reviewed journals including the widely acknowledged health journal – The Lancet.

Academic

Kamal joined the Institute of Statistical Research and Training at Dhaka University in 1986. Later, she joined Independent University, Bangladesh as the Head of Department of Population-Environment in 1996 and worked there until 2010, when she joined North South University as a Professor of Biostatistics. and BRAC Business School as Adjunct Professor until 2014. She is currently working as an Adjunct Professor at the IEDCR, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh. Nashid Kamal has been a visiting scholar in the Department of Anthropology, Penn State University, Department of Sociology, Southern Illinois University and Department of Statistical Sciences, University College London.

Writer

Nashid Kamal has fourteen published books, 12 as a writer and two others as an editor. She writes both in Bengali and English. She has written fictions, poems, autobiographies, articles and essays. She, also, has translated notable Bengali literary works in English mostly from Nazrul. The Return of Laili is her most talked about book series, which is a translation of Nazrul's popular songs. Chokrobak is another noteworthy translation that comprises twenty two romantic poems of Nazrul. Her other translations include Biography of Kazi Nazrul Islam, a biographical on Bangladesh's National Poet originally written by Rafiqul Islam, and My Life in Melody, an autobiography of Abbas Uddin Ahmed. Jui Phuler Verandah and Rideau Nodir Dharey are Kamal's famed autobiographies that feature her life events in home and abroad. The Glass Bangles, written in English, is a novel about a Bangladeshi Sylheti girl married to someone living in London. Ajibon Bosonto is one of her favourite books that is a collection of fourteen short stories. Chiro Unnoto Momo Sheer and Ei Achi Ei Nai are two books of collected articles edited by Kamal that feature her parents, Justice Mustafa Kamal and Professor Husne Ara Kamal, respectively. The Garden of Errors is another collection of articles written by Kamal herself, and includes selected writings published in popular daily and weekly newspapers and magazines like the People, Holiday, Daily Star and Probe since 1972.

Vocalist

Nashid Kamal is singing for over four decades. She is widely known for her reputation as a fine singer of Nazrul Shongeet and Bengali Folk songs. She is also a classical and semi-classical music artist. Besides, she also sings Urdu Ghazals. Apart from singing in Bengali and Urdu, she has sung in many other foreign languages including Japanese, Chinese, Rumanian and Turkish. Kamal has eleven recorded musical albums to her credit, composed of Nazrul Geeti, Ghazals and Folk songs. She has been a regular performer in various Radio and Television stations in Bangladesh and India since she started singing as a child artist.. She has performed in many stage shows in India, Bangladesh,Pakistan, Japan, Turkey, Romania, USA,UK and Canada. In 1989, as Bangladeshi delegate she performed in the inaugural session of Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata,India sharing the stage with Manna De, Sandhya Mukhopadhay, Lata Mungeshkar, among others. In 2009 she went as a Bangladeshi delegate to sing in the folk festival in Uzbekistan.She has performed in the `Bongomela' in USA 2013, 2018 and Nazrul Shommelon in USA 2018.

Awards

2017 Channel I Music Award, Nazrul songs, Bangladesh
2017 Michael Madhusudan Dutta Award, Kolkata, India

Fiction