Patshala – A journey into memory

“We germinate brilliantly”
(School motto)

Centocelle Adorsho Bidda Niketon Patshala. 
The founder and President Mohammad Golam Mustafa with two teachers of the school. 
Centocelle, Rome, 5 March, 2022

It was June 2009 when the first Bangla patshala (school) of Bangla language for the children of the Centocelle district was officially inaugurated. Founded in 2008 by President Mohammad Golam Mustafa with the Director and teacher Monowara Akter, in a different location. Then in April 2010, the second patshala was inaugurated, the Centocelle Adorsho Bidda Niketon, officially registered in March 2011, still by President Golam and directed by Akter.

Bangla Patshala inauguration. Centocelle, Rome, 14 June, 2009

Lesson at the school. Rome, 27 June, 2009

At the time I was living in that neighborhood and I started taking my first photographs, after I had decided to abandon my previous job to try to live only on my passion.

And this passion was born and has remained over the years linked to the Bangladeshi community. Those faces and those colors were the push that opened a door inside me, which then has continued until now, publishing three books on Bangladesh, doing an exhibition in 2018 to celebrate my Ten Years of photography to the community up to visit Dhaka – finally – in 2020.

Yesterday I returned after a few years, the last time was for the eight-year anniversary of the school in April 2017, to visit the class which is now directed by my dear friend Atashi Saha, whom I always meet at the Hindu temple during puja, replacing the director Monowara Akter who is in England.

 

School anniversary. Rome, 25 April, 2017

So I went to look for those old photographs, of the inauguration, and they gave me tenderness because I almost seem to remember that enthusiasm, being the only Italian who was always with them and seeing some faces makes me smile even more than of a girl I was the photographer of her wedding a few years ago.

 

Thirteen years is not a short time. Many of them have left Italy, of others I no longer have any news. But that's the way it goes.

Of course, I was immensely pleased to come back to see and photograph the class yesterday with the teachers Atashi, Reshma, and Asma.

Now the children are still few, due to the cold and because they still cannot fill the classroom as usual for safety reasons due to the pandemic: normally the class hosts forty children, now they are about half and they range from 5 to 13 years, and lessons take place on weekends.

For me, this school is truly an important value in the community because the knowledge of one's own language in children born in Rome is fundamental, especially for the people of Bangladesh who have just celebrated the Mother's Language and Martyrs Day on 21 February.

It would take more.

Because a generation that is born without knowing in depth the bases of its culture is destined to forget its roots and weaken over time.

 

Centocelle Adorsho Bidda Niketon Patshala. Rome, March 5, 2022

I also like the fact that the teachers are Hindu and Muslim, because despite the conflicts that have occurred in the past in the history of Bangladesh and some friction that still remains, in Rome the coexistence between Hindus and Muslims is peaceful and friendly: and this too is a powerful lesson for school children.

 

The teachers Atashi and Reshma leaf through my book

That's why I called it a journey into memory, in those first blurred, crooked photographs, like someone who begins to vigorously chisel the block of marble without knowing what figure he will meet in its heart.

I will remain inexorably linked to these people.

As I have written many times, they are my good home, valobasha, as they say love in the Bangla language. That is, for me, the meaning of the word to photograph.

 

Centocelle. Rome, 17 July, 2009

Italian version