Wikipedia:Ekti Khuner Swapna

Ekti Khuner Swapna (lit. 'Dreaming of a murder') is a Bengali novel written by Bangladeshi author Humayun Azad. The novel was first published in Ekushey Book Fair, Dhaka in February, 2004. The novel deals with unrequited love and betrayal. This novel is considered one of the best works of Humayun Azad.

The novel was written on the backdrop of the 1960s decade's Dhaka University student life. Humayun Azad dedicated this novel to his own university life as he was also a student of Dhaka University from 1964 to 1968.

Plot
A broken-hearted lover of Salimullah Muslim Hall of Dhaka University goes out in the middle of the night in Palashi area of Dhaka. Suddenly he falls in front of his beloved Sufia's house. Has been studying for more than three years; The young man's love story continues to flashback to the back. Born into a peasant family in a village, the young man had never met a woman, his university classmate Sufia was the first woman he had ever seen in his life, but he could not speak. Before class starts the next day, the young man tells Sufia that he is in love with her, but he doesn't know if she is in love or not, although he assumes that she loves him. On the same day, Sufia takes the young man to an abandoned room in the university and in the room, they talk and later they sit in silence; suddenly two lovers come and become seminude and involve in sexual activity with each other in front of Sufia and her lover, the scene changes Sufia's mind which Sufia's lover understands. Sufia didn't come to class for two days after this incident, the young man thought a lot about Sufia for two days why she didn't come. On the third day, the young man meets Sufia and when the young man asks Sufia why she did not come, Sufia says that she did not come by chance. When she came to class the next day, Sufia did not look at the young man; And the next day, Sufia calls the young man on her own, and as she speaks, Sufia gives him their home address, and when asked if Sufia has fallen in love with the young man again, Sufia says again that she doesn't know. After going to Sufia's house on Wednesday afternoon, Sufia takes the young man to the roof in the evening and then at one stage she proposes marriage to the young man, but later Sufia herself says that the young man is unemployed, it is not possible for young man to take care of Sufia. Sufia says he will ride a rickshaw on Friday. At the gate of the library on Friday, where Sufia told him to wait, the young man waited in the afternoon but did not find Sufia and later becomes very upset for it. On the same day, at ten o'clock in the night, the young man went to Nizam, a friend of Jinnah Hall in the university, and Nizam showed the young man a foreign magazine. Later, the young man came to his house and could not sleep all night because of anxiety for Sufia. Over the next few months, he wrote in his personal diary the details of the young man's meeting with Sufia, referring to 'honey' and 'poison', beginning on 12 December and ending on 21 February; The young man has to leave his hall due to political turmoil at the university in the middle and he goes to his cousin Tofajjal's house on Green Road, goes to his own village house and refuses the love proposal of a tenth-class girl in the village. The young man's mind wandered to the village, before the university problems were over, he came back to Dhaka and went to Sufia's house, again Sufia proposed marriage to the young man and the young man told Sufia about his unemployment. After that the young man does not go to the house of Sufia for a long time, his mind is sad, Sufia does not call him, Tofajjal has a television in his house, there is a record player, the young man cannot concentrate on watching television or listening to music on record player due to his sadness. University classes begin in early March and the young man goes back to his own hall, chats with friends but the sadness does not leave his mind. Sufia doesn’t come in the first class after the turmoil of the university, when he leaves the library in the afternoon and goes to the canteen, he meets Rahima, a classmate of the university. Rahima forces the young man to get on the rickshaw and Rahima takes the young man to Ramna restaurant. After eating with Rahima, the young man feels Sufia. The next morning, the young man goes to the next class late without going to the first class and when he sees Sufia, she was talking with her friends beforehand. When the young man wanted to take Sufia to a restaurant, Sufia asked him to come to their house in the afternoon. At home, Sufia indirectly talks about marriage to the young man. After that, the young man did not see Sufia for several days. One day, when Sufia wanted to go for a walk, the young man took her to Tofajjal's house on Green Road. Two days later, Sufia shows the young man the sari given by Tofajjal, which makes the young man angry. That day the young man could not sleep at night thinking different things and did not go to class in the morning. The next day the young man goes to Sufia's house again and says that he will marry Sufia himself and Sufia says it is not possible now. The next day, the young man goes to Sufia's house again and Sufia's mother says that Sufia has gone out to a friend. When Sufia returns, the young man sees her wearing a sari given to her by Tofajjal. The two of them go for a walk tomorrow, but the young man does not find Sufia while waiting for Sufia. The young man rides in a rickshaw to Tofajjal's house on Green Road. He unlocked the door and saw that Sufia and Tofajjal were sleeping naked in the bed. Seeing this, the young man sees his most beloved human naked with other man and in anger throws a metal-lock on Sufia's face and sleep of Sufia and Tofajjal breaks; The young man still loves Sufia in his subconscious mind and wants to take her to the hospital for her head injury but Sufia does not want to go. The young man then leaves the house with a broken heart. The young man subconsciously wants to kill Sufia but actually he doesn't want to proceed as he loves Sufia, the reason for thought of killing Sufia comes into the man's mind as he saw Sufia sleeping nude with other person, this incident broke the trust between Sufia and him. The novel ends when it is mentioned that the young man dreams of murdering and dreaming of a murder has kept him alive.

Characters

 * Sufia - The main female protagonist of the novel. A girl from middle-class family who studies in Dhaka University; she lives in Dhaka's one of suburban areas with her parents and younger siblings.
 * Tofajjal - A man who is ten years senior in age than Sufia; Sufia feels attraction for him. This man works in a company, he was married before and was known to have sex with his maid-servant. Sufia is introduced to this man by her lover, Tofajjal is Sufia's lover's cousin.
 * Sabiha Sardar - The girl who engages in sexual activity with Shamsher in front of Sufia and her lover; Sabiha is a student of same age as of Sufia, studies in English department of the same university where Sufia studies and comes from a rich family.
 * Shamsher Ali - Sabiha's lover who is a member of NSF, a pro-Ayub politics based students organization.
 * Rahima - A female-classmate of the unrequited lover man of Sufia; Rahima takes the lover of Sufia to 'Ramna restaurant' by insisting, she rides on a rickshaw with Sufia's lover by trying to sit with him closely.
 * Md. Ahmad Ullah Miah - A teacher of Sufia's class who advises the unrequited lover boy to not to talk with girls.
 * Rajia - A teen-aged girl who studies in class ten proposes Sufia's lover in a love-letter written by herself. Sufia's lover rejects Rajia's love proposal as he only wants Sufia.
 * Nizam - A friend of the main male protagonist of the novel who is a member of the National Students Federation (NSF), a student-based political organization in 1960s East Pakistan.
 * Rafique - A friend of the main male protagonist of the novel who draws nude pictures of university teachers and girls.
 * Rahman - A comedy-artist of the Salimullah Muslim Hall who marries a girl of 9th standard.

Sufia's lover's name has never been mentioned in any part of the novel; but it is told in the first part of the novel that he comes from a poor farmer-family.

Setting
The novel, set in the 1960s decade, is about the love story of a young man in the Salimullah Muslim Hall (SM Hall) dormitory of Dhaka University; Humayun Azad, the author of the love story of an anonymous young man, has expressed it in a poetic style. The society of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) at that time was very conservative. The male and female students of Dhaka University had to address them each other by using the honorable version of the 'you' pronoun in Bengali-language but if romantic relationship developed between a male and a female, the honorable version of 'you' pronoun was to be stopped while talking with each other. The protagonist of the novel, the main character, is seen talking to his classmate Sufia firstly in honorable manner addressing her the honorable version of 'you' pronoun, while another classmate Rahima, with whom the protagonist of the novel eats and drinks, also uses the honorable pronoun 'you' in each other's conversations, and the protagonist's friend Nizam also addresses Sufia 'you' in a honorable manner. Another thing has been mentioned in this novel and that is the addressing manner of student dormitory gatekeepers to students as 'sir', this thing was norm in 1960s Dhaka University.

It is Humayun Azad's last novel, a short one-sided love story of a young man is believed to be inspired from Humayun Azad's small part of his own life while he was also a Dhaka University student in the 1960s decade. Humayun Azad did not give an exclusive interview on the novel. While ailing Humayun Azad was undergoing treatment in Thailand, a journalist from the Daily Bhorer Kagoj newspaper questioned him about his last essays. Humayun Azad himself wrote some poems in the 1973 book 'Alaukik Istimar' (book consists of his own written poems collection), which indirectly indicate this novel's story to a little extent.

The novel deals with the then Dhaka University dormitory 'Dhaka Hall' (now known as 'Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah Hall') and 'Jinnah Hall' (was named after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, now known as 'Masterda Suryasen Hall', named after Masterda Surya Sen), including the pro-Ayub student organization NSF (National Students Federation) and the East Pakistan Students Union, which was abbreviated as EPSU (now Bangladesh Students Union). The novel also mentions the then Dhaka vehicle 'scooter' (a kind of autorickshaw), the Urdu film actress of the 1960s Neelo, the then 'Gulistan' of Dhaka, the 'Naz' movie theater, the first Chinese restaurant in Dhaka 'Chou Chin Chou' and the sculptures created by Novera Ahmed and also it has mentions of James Bond novels, America's Life magazine which were available in Dhaka University in 1960s and British Council Dhaka. At the end of the novel the main male protagonist of the novel buys a book of Salvador Dali and later he is shown recting a German-language poem of Heinrich Heine.

Reception
This novel was the last published novel after author Humayun Azad's Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad (first published in 2003 in newspaper, though this novel was also published as a book for the first time along with Ekti Khuner Svapna in February, 2004) which was based on Islamic extremism in Bangladesh. Ekti Khuner Svapna is believed to be based on author's own university life's one of important incidents, Azad was also a student of Dhaka University in 1960s and he lived in Salimullah Muslim Hall, where the fictitious main male protagonist of this novel lives. This novel was not widely well received by the readers; readers complained about nude scenes of Sufia and Tofajjal and open sex scene of Sabiha and Shamsher; they also disliked the unrequited love theme of the novel. However, the novel was not called a vulgar novel as it contained some slang and taboo words which are unaccepted and objectionable among Bangladeshi educated readers community, while author's 'Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad' was declared as 'vulgar novel' and it was almost on the way to be banned. Some readers said that in the 1960s decade, Bengali couples never kissed each other nor they involved in sexual relationship before marriage where involving in romantic relationship was very uncommon as social restrictions were very strong, talking with female classmates for male students was not easily accepted, on the other hand, Bengali girls never engaged in fornication or infidelity, becoming fully nude in front of any person was almost impossible at that time, Azad wrote in a way that in 1960s decade, these things were normal in Bengali educated society, it stirred some controversies. However, some NSF (a pro-Ayub organization) student leaders were used to have sex with prostitutes by going to brothels and also by fetching prostitutes from brothels in student dormitories in their real lives which has been portrayed in this novel fictitiously.

Ekti Khuner Svapna was author Humayun Azad's third novel dealing with romance, interpersonal relationship and sexual tension following the successes of his novels, Sab Kichu Bhene Pare (1995) and Kobi othoba Dondito Aupurush (1999). However despite the huge hype, it didn't fare as well at the readers community. However, with repeated publicity in various newspapers, over the years, Ekti Khuner Svapna has been regarded as a cult novel among a certain readers-community that argues it is Humayun Azad's one of the best written novels.