The institute was founded in 1985 at a house, which was allotted by the government to Nazrul when he was brought in from Calcutta in 1972. At that stage he was suffering from an illness due to which he could not speak, said Abdul Hai Shikder, executive director of the institute.

The institute has a sales centre, museum, audiovisual room, library, auditorium and a room for recitation of Nazrul's poems and singing of his songs. Books, CDs and audiocassettes containing songs and poems of Nazrul, some of them in his own voice, are available for sale at the sales centre. Translated versions are available in English, Latin and French.

Abdus Salam, a technician who was sitting at the sales centre as the person in charge was on leave, said that a Chinese researcher translated selected poems of Nazrul into Chinese language.

He said there have been no orders from local English medium schools for the English translations of Nazrul's literary works. When asked why, Shikder said: "The students in these schools do not even know their own history."

Nazrul's bedroom has been made a museum. A pile of dust lay on the shelf above the basin due to poor maintenance. "There are only two sweepers who also have to work as peons," said an artist who looks after the museum along with a photographer in separate shifts.

He said this is his additional duty as his job is to design sets for cultural programmes.

Paintings, photographs, gramophone records, photocopies of Nazrul's handwritten poems, newspaper clippings of his works when they were first published and some medical documents are displayed in the museum. The photographs that were donated by various individuals following advertisements in the newspapers are laminated and pasted on cardboards.

Several artists at their own will drew the paintings. A particular painting displays a sequence from Nazrul's poem "Lichu chor". The artist admitted that the authorities did not give him any background information prior to entrusting him with the responsibility of looking after the museum. Consequently, he cannot answer all of the visitors' queries such as the source of a document that said "Trustees of the London Clinic Limited".

"Apart from my designated post, I also have to work as an assistant librarian and a peon," said Tamanna Anwar, the library attendant.

Her work involves attending to the needs of visitors, buying and selecting books, visiting various organisations, collecting information from various newspapers and even cleaning the shelves. "I have to ask a visitor to look after the library in case I need to go to the toilet," she added.

Although the institute has a research room, there is no researcher. The audiovisual room is unused as there is no equipment for recording. "If we had the necessary equipment, we would not have to rent studios for recording songs," said Salam.

Some of the employees, on condition of anonymity, accused the authorities of neglecting the institute. "We do not expect the government to provide adequate financial assistance to the institute as we ourselves are unable to be efficient in our work because of a lack of adequate manpower, stalled promotion process and absence of pension schemes," said an employee.

Shikder said that a prayer has been sent to the government a few months back for permission to recruit people in the vacant posts and for introducing a pension scheme for the existing employees. These are still under consideration. "If there is a pension scheme for the staff then it would help improve their efficiency," he added.

Shikder focused on the financial inadequacy of the institute. "It has been a few months since I joined this institute but I have already sent an application to the ministry for an increase in the current annual budget by Tk 3 million."

"We have only one broken microbus that remains unused most of the time. If we had more transport, we could bring schoolchildren to visit this institute and also visit our project site in Dorirampur in Mymensingh," he added.