Last 25th October, I was at a book launching ceremony presided over by Prof. Chowdhury, popularly known as "SIC Sir" to us. I generally don't go to such events but it was a book on a person very close to me, poet Hasan Hafizur Rahman. SIC Sir and I rarely meet nowadays but once when I was a student of DU, we would often meet every day.

I grew up, studied and entered professional life in the 70s, the decade that made and to a great extent unmade Bangladesh. It was a period of turmoil and turbulence, political and social and violence too. We saw courage, commitment as well as greed and corruption. All that ails us now and has grown many times are rooted in the days of the 70s.

It was also a period of commitment and dignity, of honour and ideology, however misplaced. Universities had more intellectual courage and freedom than is thought possible now. There were partisan groups but they were not as vicious as they are now. Nowadays, it sometimes feels like the mind is put on the hold and the vitriolic emotions are told to take over. In so many ways it was a better time to grow up.

Teachers

I am sure such relationships are strong now but they were too our time. Our teachers were our mentors and role models. They had been morally upright and never bowed down to enticements. Some did but most didn't. Many like SIC were political- very Left- but that didn't interfere with their personal morality and values, even relationships. By the time the post 1975 years arrived, the teachers were divided and hostility was beginning to grow. Yet so many relationships were beyond that.

I remember a particular incident involving the doyen of the dissidents, Prof. Ahmed Shareef of the Bangla Department. He was a father figure to many and under whose large moral umbrella the Left had gathered. This example concerned a case of promotion.

The applicant for Professorship was that of Prof. Wadudur Rahman Sir of our History department who had a degree from Oxford but was not really into academic work. He was far more into administration and other work and held many such positions. He was also a supporter of the AL, and his promotion to Professorship was opposed by the Leftists group led by Prof. Shareef. It was expected that the application would be opposed and hence thrown out.

When the topic came up for discussion at the Academic council, to everyone's surprise it was Shareef sir who proposed his promotion. He said that a University teacher's promotion was not measured by academic articles only but his overall contribution and by that standard Wadudur Rahmen eminently qualified for the highest level of service. So when the leader had thrown his support for the candidate, what was there to do except accept it? In today's world it would be impossible.

SIC Sir's words

At the book launch meeting at the Press Clu auditorium, SIC Sir shuffled his legs to the lectern and began to address the audience. His legs betray the 80s he is in and I realized it's almost 4 decades since we had shared a podium together. And as he began to speak, I realized that days had gone by but the person had remained the same. There was the calm fire in his words which had made him who he is.

He discussed Hasan Hafizur Rahman and his work -both history and literature- with depth and insight. He knew the person from many angles but also as a fellow warrior of a historical epoch to which both belonged. That had wanted and worked for a socialist dream but in the end to them it was the big let down. "The bourgeois won though the Left had initiated all the movements."

It was the refrain of his time as the Left saw their influence decline and ultimately become marginalized. It had raised hopes after 1975 but soon the politics left the Left out though some joined the "bourgeois" parties. But people like Sic sir, never deviated, never compromised and just kept walking. I am sure there is hope in his eyes and his words convey the same but only history will tell if that is one made of substance or dream.

As we were parting that evening, he gave me a copy of the magazine he edited. It has been coming out for the last 22 years. If any evidence was required of the commitment, belief, sacrifice and hard work, it was all there. Thanks Sir for having been a teacher to so many of us.