Sadaf Saaz

CALCUTTA CONVERSATIONS – 1:
1. S.B. Veda in Conversation with Sadaf Saaz

Poet, entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Hay Festival, Dhaka, Sadf Saaz is not only a multi-talented and multi-faceted individual, she also has experienced a journey with which we at The Global Calcuttan are intimately familiar: that of coming home to a place from whence we never came…(read the full write-up in a bit as we catch up with Sadaf since this was taken; in the meantime, feel free to watch the series on video).

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, she grew up in the UK, and when she was 13, her parents moved back to Bangladesh, taking her with them. This very British girl was enrolled in a Bengali-medium school, and had to adjust to becoming Bangladeshi, once more. The cultural metamorphosis prompted her to take solace in the world of words, putting them into verse.

A bright student, she gained admission to the University of Cambridge, where her father had taught, to study molecular biology. Upon graduation, though, she did something very different from her peers: rather than stay on in the UK or move to Europe, she went back to Bangladesh but this time, on her own terms. She got married, became an entrepreneur, and started to cultivate her serious interest in poetry, compiling her collection into a book entitled Sari Reams.

A promoter of performing arts and culture in Bangladesh, she decided to do the same for literature, co-founding Hay Festival, Dhaka, which is an international offspring of the famous mother-festival in the UK. Currently, the marketing director of Sidco Apparels, she joined us in Satyajit Ray Studio, ILEAD during one of her many trips to Calcutta, this time for the literature festial Kalam.

Part 1

Part 4