Liberation war

An incident near the end of the liberation war agitates me even today, it paralyses me. I do not recall the date clearly but it was around the third week of November, 1971. I used to live in the first house on Road. 32, Dhanmondi, Dhaka. It was near 4 or 4:30 in the afternoon. I had gone to Azimpur Colony with my own plans. Two of my friends used to live there, Naser Chowdhury, who was a student of the Engineering University back then and a famous goalkeeper in those days; and Santu from the Mohammedan Football Club. We were talking about a lot of things for quite some time - the ongoing liberation war, the freedom of our country, the activities of the freedom fighters, the atrocities of the Pak army and their Bengali collaborators- the Razakars, etc.

[Note: This is a translation of the article তথ্য’বিনা মিথ্যা বোনা by Kaustubh, originally posted in Sachalayatan on 27-02-2013. While the facts were easy to translate, it is difficult to capture the essence and wit of the article in English. The translators strongly recommend reading the original article if you are can read Bengali.]

It was how it usually looked like, all quiet from the outside. Although the windows and doors of the Doulatpur Brajalal College were all shut tight, there was a peacefulness in that silence. Looking at the tall grass that had grown into a waist-high jungle, and the cattle sitting in the shades of the trees under the winter sun, one could hardly realize that the country was flooding in a blood-bath. If you listened carefully in all this silence, you could even hear the echo of the warmth of life going on from the nearby bazaar. It wasn't impossible to hear the strangely grave sounds of the rising tide inside the people, like that of the long dried up river, The Bhairab.

I used to live in the ‘Maneesha’ building of the Science Laboratories back then, with Mirpur Road on one side and Elephant Road on the other. I could hear slogans from the streets till 11PM on 25th March. At midnight I opened my doors and went outside.

Kuloda Roy
MMR Jalal

Published in Sachalayatan