Space For Rent
Saturday, April 23, 2016, Baishakh 10, 1423 BS, Rajab 15, 1437 Hijri


My Days at Dhaka University
Classmates, adda and art
 Junaidul Haque
Published :Saturday, 23 April, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 13
Our HSC exams of 1974 were held a little late as an aftermath of our War of Independence. We were admitted into the Department of English, University of Dhaka, in the second half of 1975. I was a writer since childhood and was into serious literature in my Dhaka College days. My midnights were spent reading TS Eliot and Jibanananda Das, DH Lawrence and Manik Bandopadhyay, Sudhin Dutta and Buddhadev Bose. I knew I would leave Science like my boyhood hero Kaiser Haq (five years' senior at St. Gregory's High School) and study nothing but English Literature. Bangla and Philosophy were my subsidiary subjects. My admission test viva was interesting as Imtiaz Habib Sir considered me a little audacious but was very happy when I could say a few words about T.E. Lawrence, and Syed Manzoor Sir threw me into ecstasy as he recognized me as a budding writer.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was brutally killed along with his wife and three sons, one of them a minor, on August 15, 1975. Our classes re-started a few days later. I remember one of my classmates, a thin and thinking young man with spectacles, passionately and courageously protesting the death of the great patriot. We feared that he would be in trouble, as he spoke fearlessly in the corridors. Little did we know that he was the son of Advocate Sirajul Huq, the brave lawyer-MNA who had told Khandaker Mushtaq point blank that he was not at all right in killing Bangabandhu. The outspoken young man was Anisul Huq, later a close friend and presently the Law Minister of Bangladesh. As a young man Anis smoked a lot but was well-read and was a fearless Bengalee nationalist.
Very soon I became a little popular with the boys for my friendly, warm, polite and shy nature (ahem). Within a few months we formed into a small group of close friends. I was an introvert as a child and a boy. But at nineteen or twenty I looked for adda with like-minded friends. I guess it was the contribution of literature. Our close circle included Syed Badrul Ahsan, a bespectacled budding poet, Farhad Bani Idris, handsome and well-built, Md. Shafiqul Islam, bespectacled and slim, Khairul Huq Chowdhury, soft-spoken and emotional, Syed Sadaquat Hossain, who almost looked an Iranian, and myself, tall and slim and well-built with spectacles (sigh). All of us were more or less meritorious students. Now Farhad teaches at Frostburg State University, Maryland, USA, Badrul is a reputed columnist, Shafiq is a senior bureaucrat and a Shakespeare scholar, Khairul teaches in Sydney and writes, Sadaquat is an established businessman and yours truly a writer of fiction and columns. I am now a little less tall and not at all slim!
We were close with other boys and we mixed with girls too. But our group regularly had addas in Modhur Canteen and the IBA canteen. We contributed for our bread, roshogollas and tea (Madhu'sCanteen) and Bombay toasts, singaras and tea (IBA Canteen). We talked mostly literature and a little bit of sports and politics. Girls we talked about very rarely and affectionately. Farhad spent the most money while I was the pivot of the adda, collecting and organizing friends and loving it the most. If there was no adda for a day, I would feel very sad indeed.
Girls I was shy about. Why? Maybe because I was from an all-boys missionary school, had two sisters 14 and 16 years younger and was more fond of fictional women than real ones. Slowly I began to talk with them and had quite a few favourite friends. Our full group didn't talk much with girls. Our talking with them increased every year. We were good students and nice souls, weren't we?
Farhad had such good health and was so good-looking but talked to girls the least. Jocularly he even told me that he was not fond of them! A few girls 'complained' to me against him. But he was witty, very well-informed, a sitarist of note and a cute bully. I used to praise my boyhood hero Kaiser Haq, a freedom fighter and the best English poet of the land, a lot and Farhad would bully me! Thirty five years later I heard Farhad praising Prof Kaiser Haq more than me! He is handsome even now with a lovely French-cut beard. Every year he is coming to Bangladesh for seeing his sister and having adda with our teachers and me.
Badrul grew up in Pakistan and his Bangla was not good. But he was a Bengalee nationalist and a great admirer of Bangabandhu. His English? Superb. Over the years he became a brilliant political commentator and his nice command over the language earned him fame. Today he is a big name in English journalism. He is a popular columnist. He used to dream about snowfall in Bangladesh in the 1970s. Snow really did fall in our Hill Tracts in the mid-1980s for a few minutes and I called him! His dream had come true.
Khairul migrated to Australia, started teaching and did his PhD. Now he teaches at the University of Sydney, is a scholar of repute and writes well. Recently he came to Bangladesh and we had adda over breakfast. He too is a devoted Bengalee nationalist. As a young man he was shy like me.
Md. Shafiqul Islam is from Tangail and was a serious student. Slowly he grew in stature as a good student. He joined the civil service and will retire soon as a senior official. Wrote quite well on Shakespeare. Is known as a Shakespeare buff.
Yours truly wrote even as a child. But stopped writing for a few years during my busy life as a banker and an airline executive. Wanted to be a teacher or a full-time writer. But was lazy and laid-back. Call me 'arampriyo' if you are affectionate. Loved literature passionately but was a little 'fnakibaj' as a student In my early twenties. Received a lot of affection from my teachers. Also from my friends. The BCS appointment letter I had received in 1982 is yellow now! I didn't join civil service. No regrets. Shall read English literature and nothing else if I am born again. And shall try to be a full-time writer. No chakri!
Rubina Khan, the girlishly beautiful lady who refuses to get old, is the present Chairperson of our department. She is pretty and energetic and we are proud of her. Well-liked by her students, she is a good friend who got closer with age. She is always in touch with us. She became a mother-in-law very recently as her older daughter got married.
Dilruba Z Ara is a noted novelist living in Sweden. She is a multi-lingual writer. Her novels sell well at home and abroad. 'Blame' is her latest novel. We met her in a coffee adda in Dhaka recently. 'Blame' is getting wonderful reviews in Dhaka. Dilruba recently lectured at DU and the private universities. She was interviewed by our press too.
Mohsena Reza writes poems and stories. She is also a social worker. She has been the President of Inner Wheel.
Liaquat Ali Lucky was a student leader and a freedom fighter. He was the cultural secretary of DUCSU. Now he is the Director General of the Shilpakala Academy. He has been a seasoned stage actor and director.
Nuzhat Shahzadi was in the UNESCO team which created 'Mina', the popular cartoon character. Recently she remembered that I was quite slim as a young man. Sigh!
Leonard Gomes is very friendly and warm. Teaches abroad and is a seasoned singer. Comes to Bangladesh often.
Ruhi Kabir was Ruhi Sekandar during her student days. Daughter of a justice and a singer of Tagore songs, Ruhi was my favourite lady classmate. Elegant and sober, always very decent and nice. Meritorious and thoughtful. Wore a saree even in her First Year. Was engaged to a handsome lecturer of Economics. Loved to talk to her. Was happy when she was my tutorial mate in the Second Year. Met her after almost thirty years in our Dhaka Club get-together in 2010. She was slim and young and I was not! She is a nice facebook friend.
I mentioned my writer friends, the teachers, the singers, the actor and the politicians only. I call my days at Dhaka University the best period of my life. I had the best teachers and the best friends of my life there. I am proud of my classmates and my affection for them knows no bounds.
'An hour with Prof Kabir Chowdhury or Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury wipes away all sorrow', I used to say as a young man. My student life ended thirty five years back. But I am still so fond of my DU days, my wise teachers and my utterly likeable friends! Born again, I shall study English literature at DU and nothing else -- let me repeat.

Junaidul Haque has been associated with the airline industry and is a leading critic, essayist and novelist












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