We generally study autobiography as a subject worth studying to gain knowledge about the author and the social, political and economic milieu in which he grew up. Autobiography inspires us to emulate the men and women doing altruistic deeds to the society. The author here in a small compendium like this one offers his vast and varied experiences about men and society for us to absorb them in our mind and assimilate them into our thought. They became part and parcel of our intellectual possession. The book, thus, according to Baconian aphorism, deserves to be digested, and not to be swallowed.
SMRITIR PATA
By MD. Abdul Mazid
Published by Grantha Bitan
PP-96: Price: TK 250 only
The author sketches astoundingly lucid pictures of rural areas and many lives on a small a canvas, with the deft stroke of pen. He was uniquely gifted for this as he was born and brought up in a sleeping small hamlet far from the cacophony of the townscape.
Memory and experiences combined together gives a shape to autobiography in the truest sense of the term. This book covers a wide range of experiences of more than seventy years of the author’s life. In a refined and facile prose the author has painted the countryside, society and the contemporaneous events. The book is full of nuggets of useful information on the social, political and cultural matrix of his time. The book unpacks love, friendship, intrigues and betrayal prevailing in the society in its real perspectives. The book also depicts the author’s infancy, family life, academic life and professional life flecked with sun and shower. In writing an autobiography it is a difficult task to maintain an objective attitude, but the author has done that tough job with unbiased and unprejudiced attitude and strict temperance.
In his legal profession he was a unique personality known for his reconciliation efforts outside court among bickering parties. He participated in some important legal battles in which he showed an extraordinary acumen and brilliant legal stratagem. The new entrants in the profession will benefit by following those legal skills immensely. The author came in contact with the then brilliant political and legal luminaries. He also came into contact with the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and he had a firm faith in the Bangabandhu’s struggle for freedom.
He was involved in human kind and wanted to assuage plights of suffering people. He was a pioneer for spread of education in his area.
He set up some educational institutions in his area, mosques and Eidghas and gained popularity as a well-known social worker.
He believes in the examples rather than precepts. He set up a foundation to spread education and to help the poor but meritorious students. This is a rare kind of gesture towards the society. Today philanthropists are hard to find, and people instead of spreading education invest money for commercialization.
Above all the writer always worked for maintaining communal harmony in the society. He knew the intricacies of the social problems and he knew it was a tightrope walking to solve those problems in rural areas. But he sorted out these problems with an outstanding wit and intelligence.
However, the book is also worth reading for all as it narrates precisely the contemporary events relating to Liberation War.
