Polan Sarker, who spurred an innovative reading revolution in a remote locality in Rajshahi by distributing books for free among people, died on Friday.
The light of life went out at 98. He earned the Bangla name, 'Alor Ferrywala' or 'a vendor of light,' for his life-long endeavour to educate people.
He also won the Ekushey
Padak, the second highest civilian award of the country, in 2011
He had been suffering from old-age complications. Palan breathed his last at 12:30pm on Friday at his village home of Bausha village in Bagha Upazila of Rajshahi.
"My father was surrounded by his family at the time of his death," his son Haider Ali said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock and sorrow at the death of Polan Sarkar.
Polan Sarker was born in Natore's Bagatipara Upazila on September 10, 1921 but the death of his father forced her mother to move to her parents' house to Bagha of Rajshahi.
His original name was Harez Uddin but he is well known as Polan Sarkar.
Raised without a father, he could barely complete his primary education. But his thirst for knowledge was unquenchable.
He became engaged with theatre artistes of his area and began reading the scripts of folk songs and dramas he would perform. He developed a habit of buying books from local libraries and reading those regularly.
Soon he became skilled enough on the Bengali language to be hired for writing deeds of lands purchase, different business agreements and writing the minute details of different meetings and conferences.
At a certain time in the 80s, he was motivated to educate his neighbours and began walking to their doorsteps and lending them books he purchased for his own reading.
In 2008, he built a library on his own land at his village with assistance from Rajshahi Zilla Parishad. The library has now five different book distribution points at different villages.
Polan covered about 20 villages in Rajshahi. Following him inspiring people for reading books, some of the youths of his village joined him and raised a movement for reading books.
