What helped Partha to express his thoughts perfectly through mime?

A. Look at the pictures. Get into pairs and ask and answer the following questions.
1. What can you see in the two pictures?
2. Do you think they are different from each other? Why?

B. Read the text and choose the correct answer.
Culturally rich Bangladesh is the homeland of an artist whose fame took him across the border and honoured him with different national and international awards. Have you heard about Partha Pratim Majumder? He is a maestro performer of miming art. If food is the nutrition for a body, art is the nutrition of soul. To keep the souls alive and fresh different arts like music, dance, paintings have evolved during the ancient time. Humankind has tried to express himself from the very begin- ning of civilization. These expressions have taken the forms of art with the touch of his creativity in expressing the untold in silence. It is an art of depicting a character, mood, idea, or narration through gestures and bodily movements without any utterance. This ancient dramatic entertainment represents the primi- tive time when people would use signs as a medium of communication.

In Bangladesh, the boy named Partha Pratim Mojumder from Pabna overwhelmed people with this Art. He left people mesmerized by his graceful presentations of art of silence. It was like a new era in theatre art in Bangladesh when Partha came with effort to make people look at their everyday experience, but in a new form. He made people reveal meanings for all trivial things of life which they usually would overlook. He used to depict stories of sadness, laughter, different characters, birds, insects or even animals through his miming. Some of his topics are the portrayal of a thief stealing, one-sided love, picking up flower and hurting it, delicate changes in nature etc. His actions often led audience to their conscience on different issues. He is regarded as the pioneer of miming in Bangladesh.

Partha cherished a passion for art from his very childhood. He was born in a very cultural minded family on 18 January in 1954. His photographer father nurtured him as a passionate lover of art. The family resided in a village called Kalachandpara. There used be a lot of cultural programmes in Kalachandpara in those days which had an impeccable influence on Partha's affection for art. Destiny introduced Partha to a mime artist Mr. Jogesh Dutta in 1966 when he went to live at his aunt's home in Chandernagar, 30 kilometres away from Kolkata. Partha could foresee his future and got admission in Mr. Dutta's mime academy in Kolkata. The major lift up of his life was when he presented a solo performance at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in 1979. The then French Ambassador in Bangladesh Mr. Loic Moreau, having observed his talent as an audience in that programme, offered him a scholarship at France.
Partha took all the opportunities to learn from Mr. Etienne Decroux and Mr. Marcel Marceau, both of whom were legendary genius of miming at that time in Paris. He was trained in the mime school called 'Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris Marcel Marceau'. Gradually he became a very busy artist performing in Europe and America and he was highlighted in media too. Later on this Bangladeshi legendary mime artist received 'the Moliere Award' in the year 2009 which is the highest honourable accolade in the French Theatre. Next year, he was honoured with 'Ekushey Padak' for the contributing to Bangladesh. He was also awarded with Chevalier de l'odre des Art et des Letters' (Knight in the order of Arts and Humanities) in 2012 for his contribution all over the world.
This great artist is now looking forward to opening an international miming institute in Bangladesh. We hope more Partha Pratim Majumder comes out from the dream institution.

C. Questions: Choose the best answers.
1. Miming is a -
a. solo dance
b. drama without sound
c. music
d. recitation

2. What is not synonym for the word mesmerize mean?
a. make spell bound
b. overwhelm
c. hypnotise
d. shock

3. Who was not Partha Pratim's trainer?
a. Marcel Marceau
b. Jogesh Dutta
c. Loic Moreau
d. Etienne Decroux

4. Which year did Partha Pratim Majumder receive 'Ekushey Padak'?
a. in 2010
b. in 2009
c. in 2011
d. in 2012

D. Read the text B again. See if the following statements are True or False. If false, give the correct information.
 

a. Partho Pratim belonged to a culturally enlightened family.
b. Kalachandpara was 30 kilometres away from Kolkata. c. Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris Marcel Marceau is an international award.
d. Partha Pratim took his topics from very trivial issues of everyday life.
e. Performance at Shilpakala Academy created the major opportunity for him.

E. Read the statements below and form appropriate questions for each of them.

a. The birthplace of Partha Pratim Majumder is in Pabna.
b. Partha Pratim developed a passion for art from his childhood.
c. Jogesh Dutta was a renowned mime artist in Kolkata.
d. Partha Pratim performed in Europe and America.
e. Partha Pratim's dream is now to open an international miming school in Bangladesh.

G. Project: Do you know anyone who has skills to perform a special fit? Write about the person covering the following points.
 

• the first time the person came to know about it
• the time the person began to practise it
• people who supported him/her
• his/her achievements/ recognitions