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Dwindling individual entity
Khawaza Main Uddin
“Creative questions in the exam had not been common [to guide book examples] so I could not answer them properly.” Such has been a complaint by innocent examinees that indicates not so high standard of learning. Official results of public examinations are still very bright.
The mismatch between practical quality and record on paper is getting visible at a time when oddly common are some other things - say, for example, the same words of condemnation, protest, sympathy for the family, demand for justice, plot and sometimes reported claim of responsibility or often denial termed as cross-fire, encounter and similar creative criminology jargons.
The so-called unnatural death - murder to be accurate - occurs so frequently these days that it is impossible for readers to remember how many people were killed brutally in the past one year or so. The media, watchdogs, rights groups, and the civil society, to the extent of their ‘doable’ activities, jump on events and evolving issues one after another. By the time the last piece of news is prominently covered, the old ones get somewhat erased from the public memory.
Thus, there is no stopping as suggest the latest killings of Rajshahi University teacher Rezaul Karim Siddiquee, a retired prison guard near Kashimpur jail and two more in downtown Dhaka. We no longer feel every murder is a loss of yet another life, one and only living opportunity when none is blessed with two.
Despite fearsome incidents of violence and their patterns, we seem not to be adequately shocked, as public indifference tells us. So what as long as I and my near and dear ones have not been victims of either state-sponsored terrorism or attacks by non-state actors!
The trends and muted reactions are, arguably, the consequences of the society’s collective negligence to the value of each human life. Somehow forgotten is the fact that the victim of violence or repression is not an alien and that the ones at the top are also creatures.
Have we built and valued that very individual, a micro but the most important entity on living earth, for ‘whom’ many modern revolutions took place? And the ones who could unravel creative questions in public exams, raise voice in scary situation and contribute to building an egalitarian society for all fellow citizens?
Yes, we had come across cults as sign of the rise of free citizen and importance of his/her rights and potential, during the historic movements for independence and democracy. It has also been a matter of the past that people of this country fought for a dignified life of their own in prosperous and harmonious society.
Today, we see not so many such personalities, either at the helm of the state or acting consistently against the wind of opportunism, both of whom could have been regarded as role models for the youth.
In a society which is increasingly becoming effectively apolitical through ‘nasty politicisation’ of everything, there is near absence of atmosphere where social beings could be treated with due respect by each other. We are living in an era when any person could be crucified by the other, even for a silly matter.
Whereas this society once wanted to respect important persons, the latter could have set examples for generations to follow and take inspirations in times of crises. In turn, members of the society could have earned dignity for them all including the ones who are yet to be born.
Instead, the masses helplessly witness the moral death of bigger personalities who are presiding over the ruining of various institutions and we doubt if those bankrupt men and women regret loss of their own public image. When rare ones like Mohammad Farashuddin tries to defend the government while probing $81 million heist, we lose hope, for a moment, and then recall the rumours about his possible entry into the power bloc.
We often do not care about the rare people of wisdom who have already accomplished great works and as a result newcomers in society are deprived of the knowledge of and innovations by their predecessors.
The name of a great woman - Professor Afia Dil - came almost from oblivion when this author had a chat with senior journalist Jahangir Hossain at New Age in the evening on 21 April 2016. She had already died, just two days ago, in San Diego, California, but none of us knew that until her obituary appeared in Prothom Alo the next morning.
She authored quite a number of valuable books including “Bengali Language and Culture”, and a volume (jointly with her second husband Anwar Dil) titled “Bengali Language Movement and Creation of Bangladesh”. Apart from her travelogue, Afia Dil also focussed on the children’s literature of this part of the world - Bengali Nursery Rhymes.
Our knowledge of Professor Afia was generally limited to her first marriage with Shamsul Haque, founder general secretary of the Awami League, who, too, was sent into exile of the dust of history. Are we also losing very fast the memory of our own people?
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