Published: 02:51 PM, 21 June 2026
Shahnaz Shithy’s Travel Stories Add Another Feather to Her Diadem
Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury
Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru once said “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventures. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” Travelling is imperative for human hearts which cannot be satisfied with food or cash alone. In a world packed with consternations and stressful lifestyles, travelling shows us a way out to move away from invariable daily activities to have a distinctive taste of life apart.
Of late I was going through Shahnaz Shithy’s travel stories about her visits to London and Scotland where she explored a broad range of novelties and colourful horizons which she portrayed aptly in her literary escapades. Shahnaz Shithy is gifted with the outstanding quality of illustrating her visions and thoughts in superbly ornamented poetic words. She embodies extraordinary attributes that scholars and intellectually uplifted people are endowed with which gets reflected through her writing spree.
Shahnaz Shithy boarded an aircraft on 13 June 2019 with her husband and sons for flying to the United Kingdom. A description of some events on the airplane in vibrant terms offers a sound prologue to her travel stories compiled in the book titled “Kalpoloker Desh: Scotland O London”. The travel pieces start with her trip to the Scottish city of Glasgow in autumn that year. Shahnaz Shithy admired a professor’s statue in front of Glasgow University. She appreciates the university authorities’ honour for their legendary educators. Shahnaz Shithy adds to her stories a desire for paying homage to iconic educationists in our country officially. The waving petals of roadside daffodils and dandelions aesthetically narrated in the stories present a blithe spectacle.
The status of immigrants is stated precisely in the book. Shahnaz Shithy came across African and Indian people working for shops in Scotland. The value of labour in the western world impressed the author. No matter what jobs people do in prosperous countries, they uphold self-respect and job satisfaction in their sound and solid personalities all the time. The tales of Scottish kings and queens emerge in the author’s vivacious narratology with eye-catching creative dashes which we often find in fictional masterpieces. Fiction does not always stand for imaginary figments. It also denotes the thinking supremacy of poets and authors as well as their power to present ordinary things with unconventional verve which we notice in Shahnaz Shithy’s remarkable storytelling modalities.
The brisk availability of throbbing life in Scotland around Clyde River, Buchanan Street, Cessnock Subway Station, River Ness, Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew etcetera adorned the travel stories with rhapsodies of illusions and fantasies in the author’s writing primroses. Historical upheavals like Wars of Scottish Independence and Jacobite Rising of 1745 attracted Shahnaz Shithy while she was taking a look around museums and heritage sites. I moved back to my school days when I read the author’s unmatched vignette on Scottish Highlands. It reminds me of William Wordsworth’s wistful poems “The Solitary Reaper” and “Tintern Abbey” which taught me to visualize sweet childhood memories as I grew old with an urge to return to those days of innocence and blissful dreams.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s immortal maxim “He prayeth best, who loveth best” resonates with Shahnaz Shithy’s cemented grip on the peerless command over fascinating readers with striking tales and profound contemplations. She dipped into her bonds with English literature when she arrived in London. Shahnaz Shithy’s mesmeric depiction of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Carlisle Station, Dartford, Arcelor-Mittal Orbit, River Thames, London Dungeon, White Chapel Labyrinth, Dover Castle and another few places reserves the strength to spellbind readers magically. Some ruthless instruments for tormenting prisoners and rebels in Medieval England shocked Shahnaz Shithy’s humanitarian mindscape.
Nobel Prize winner American author Ernest Hemingway once said “I regarded home as a place I left behind in order to come back to it afterward”. Shahnaz Shithy concludes her book with a note on yearning to travel back home. Many years ago I read in a book that I cannot recall right now in which I found that all lovely travel stories are mainly about the trips we embark on for coming back to our roots. I can interrelate Shahnaz Shithy’s travel discourses with this perception. She liked the places she visited in London and Scotland but the longing bedded in her heart was all about flying back to her homeland wherefrom all her distinctive journeys begun. The patriotic underpinnings in this portion of the stories deserve eulogies too. The remembrances we gather from tours to foreign countries keep on buttressing our virtues and teach us to embrace varieties and dissimilarities with warmth and liberal outlooks. Shahnaz Shithy calls back to our minds another idiomatic expression which I often heard from a school teacher as a kid: “I know the world and the world knows me”.
Shahnaz Shithy is a wizened writer, poet and a highly skilled translator. She has authored a wide spectrum of verses and translated Brazilian fictional paragon Paulo Coelho’s short stories and has accomplished some other literary ventures. Literature runs in her veins being a senior faculty member taking classes on English language and literature in Premier University, Chittagong for a long time. Her research papers on literature and linguistic studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals. She completed Bachelor (Honors) and Masters in English literature from University of Chittagong. Later on she acquired another Master degree in TESOL from BRAC University.
Kalpoloker Desh Scotland O London was published by Tritio Chokh in March 2026. It contains 72 pictorial pages. This book, abundant with lingual splendour and authorial dexterity, adds without doubts another feather to Shahnaz Shithy’s dazzling diadem.
Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury is a contributor to different English newspapers and magazines.
