Ilish machher tirish knata
Boal machher dari
Bhutto saheb bhikkha kore
Sheikh Mujib-er bari.
Roughly translated, the rhyme from 1971 means “The hilsa has 30 bones, the wallago catfish has a beard; Mr. Bhutto begs, in the backyard of Sheikh Mujib”. It taunts the then Pakistan prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and spread like wildfire across East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), finding place in slogans, literature and graffiti, as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared war against West Pakistan, seeking to liberate his homeland.
Fifty years later, the rhyme has faded into nostalgia. It can’t be said for sure if the founder of Bangladesh enjoys the same popularity now as in 1971. But the popularity of the flavourful and fatty fish with thousands of sharp pin-bones has remained unscathed, not only in Bangladesh, but also in its Indian…
