Nationality Bangladeshi Books Hope in Technicolor | Occupation singer, writer | |
 | ||
Born August 16, 1979 (age 37) ( 1979-08-16 ) Cairo, Egypt Alma maters Bryn Mawr College, King's College London | ||
Srabonti Narmeen Ali (born August 16, 1979) is a Bangladeshi writer and singer.
Contents
Early life and education
She was born in Cairo, Egypt on August 16, 1979 in the Nile Hospital. When she was four, her family was posted in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she began her schooling in Jakarta International School (Patimura and Chilandak). At the age of eight, her family moved to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where she attended Lawrence Intermediate School and Lawrence Middle School. Her family moved back to their home country, Bangladesh when she was 12 years old and she spent a year in a local English Medium school called Bangladesh International Tutorial, before transferring to the American International School/Dhaka. She graduated from high school in 1997.
Srabonti went to Bryn Mawr College for her undergraduate studies and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science in 2001.
She worked in New York City after graduating from college for a year at an NGO called the Armenia Fund, USA. She moved back to Bangladesh in 2002 and began working at Bangladesh's leading English daily newspaper, The Daily Star, as a staff writer and a reporter in 2003.
In 2005, Srabonti took a sabbatical and completed her Masters in Culture and Creative Industries at King's College London in the United Kingdom and graduated in 2006.
She came back and continued to work for The Daily Star until she began writing her first novel in 2009.
Music
Srabonti has been a student of music from the age of three. She started training in Rabindra Sangeet with renowned singer Banani Ghosh when she was eight and continued training with other renowned singers such as Papia Sarwar, Saadi Mohamed and her own mother, Milia Ali. Simultaneously she was training in Indian classical music and learning choral and Broadway music at school and participating in various international inter-scholastic music and drama festivals all over South Asia.
She was a member of the Bryn Mawr and Haverford A Capella group The Looney Tunes while she was in college. When she moved back to Bangladesh she released a duet Rabindra Sangeet album with her mother in 2004 called Cholay Jai Din. She also released her first single, Ghumiye Thakai Bhao in singer and songwriter's compiled production of new artists, Jhalmurri in 2007. In 2010 she was assistant music producer for the motion picture Jaago and also sang in one of the movie's hit songs, Kano Chole Gele Dure. In 2011 Srabonti released her first solo album with both Bengali and English songs written and composed by both her and Shayan Chowdhury Arnob.
She currently has a number of single tracks out such as Amaro Porano, by Zaeed Zubair and O.E.Z. and Cold and Sentimental by Misha Ali (Sapient Ape).
Writing
Srabonti is a member of Writers Block, a group of Bangladeshi-based writers who write in English. The first chapter of her novel, Hope in Technicolor, was published in What the Ink, which came out in 2011 at the Hay Festival Dhaka. Her short story, Yellow Cab, was published in the Anthology, Lifelines, and came out in November 2012 at the Hay Festival. Her short story, Midnight in March was published in the e-journal, Urban Confustions, Issue 3, in 2013. Her short story The Seven Year Itch was published in The Six Seasons Review in November 2013 at the Hay Festival. Her novel, Hope in Technicolor, was published in November 2013 at the Hay Festival, 2013. She is currently working on her second novel.