Humayun Ahmed

Humayun Ahmed হুমায়ূন আহমেদ
File:Humayunahmed.jpg
Born	(1948-11-13)13 November 1948 Mohongonj, Netrokona, Bangladesh
Died	19 July 2012(2012-07-19) (aged 63) New York City, United States
Occupation	Writer, film director, professor of Chemistry
Nationality	Bangladeshi
Education	Ph. D. in polymer chemistry
Alma mater	University of Dhaka North Dakota State University
Genre	Novel, short story, drama, screenplay, autobiography, column
Subject	Magic realism, social life, nature's mystery, wish-fulfillment
Years active	1972–2012
Notable works	Jostnya O Jononeer Golpo (The Story of a Mother and a Moonlit Night)
Notable awards	Bangla Academy Award Ekushey Padak
Spouse	Gultekin Ahmed (1973–2003; divorced) Meher Afroz Shaon (2005–death)
Children	Nova, Sheela, Bipasha, Nuhash, Nishad, Ninit
Relatives	Muhammad Zafar Iqbal (brother) Ahsan Habib (brother)

Humayun Ahmed (Bengali: হুমায়ূন আহমেদ; 13 November 1948 – 19 July 2012) was a Bangladeshi author, dramatist, screenwriter, playwright and filmmaker. Ahmed emerged in the Bengali literary world in the early 1970s and over the subsequent decade became the most popular fiction writer of the country. His breakthrough occurred with the publication of his first novel, Nondito Noroké in 1972. He was a former professor of Chemistry at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Notably, as of February 2004, Ahmed continued to top the best sellers list of Bangla Academy (Bangladesh) book fair, a feat that had been maintained over the previous two decades.

In 2012 he was appointed as a special adviser to the Bangladesh Mission in the United Nations.

As a writer, Ahmed often displayed a fascination for creating stories around supernatural events; his style was characterized as magic realism. He is regarded as the the most popular writer in the Bengali language for a century and according to many, he was even more popular than Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.

Early life

Humayun Ahmed was born in Mohongonj, Netrokona, but his village home is Kutubpur, Mymensingh, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). His father, Faizur Rahman Ahmed, a police officer and writer, was killed by Pakistani military during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, and his mother is Ayesha Foyez. Humayun's younger brother, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, a university professor, is also a writer of mostly science fiction genre and a newspaper columnist. Another brother, Ahsan Habib, is a painter and the editor of Unmad, a cartoon magazine. Ahmed was married to Gultekin, granddaughter of Principal Ibrahim Khan, in 1973. Humayun has three daughters and one son with Gultekin. Humayun may be regarded as one of the world’s most successful writers, but despite his innumerable professional successes, he found it difficult to maintain a harmonious relationship with his first wife.Later he started an affair with a TV serial actress, Meher Afroz Shaon which lead to divorce of his marraige in 2003. He later married Meher Afroz Shaon in 2005. He has two sons from this marriage. Rashidul Bari, the author of Grameen Social Business Model, wrote in Daily New Age after Humayun's death:

"So pragmatic was Humayun’s approach to love, that when he realized that his 32-year marriage to Gultekin was floundering, he filed for divorce in 2005, and married Meher Afroz Shaon shortly afterwards. Many people have tried to understand Humayun’s behavior through the poems of Nazrul: “I am disorderly and lawless, I trample under my feet all rules and discipline! I dance at my own pleasure; I am the unfettered joy of life.”

Did Nazrul’s poem justify Humayun’s decision? The answer can be found in the poetry of Persian poet Rumi, who claimed that no one is a saint by saying:

"“If you are a saint, you do not belong to the human race”.

Rumi also wrote:

“Stretch your arms; And take hold the cloth of your cloths; With both hands; The cure for pain is in the pain; Good and bad are mixed. If you do not have both, You do not belong with us”

"

Rashidul Bari uses a variety of poetic forms throughout the article: People are not going to hate Humayun, because he was not a saint. In fact, they love him so much because he was so human. People love the prickly faced Humayun and his childlike search for the magic-story in the forest of Nuhash Palli—now the place of his eternal rest. This is why without Humayun, all Bangladeshis’ lives would be paler and poorer. The fact that Humayun wrote books, and made the sitcoms and films that were the background melody for millions of Bangladeshis’ childhood, gives us the basis to love our motherland. This is why it is impossible for 170 million Bangladeshis to hold back their tears, or not to wonder what might have been if he had been able to beat cancer.

Although Humayun created literary fever through his works, which spread all around Bangladesh, unfortunately he still remains as one of the great unsung heroes for those who live outside the Indian subcontinent. With that said, literature, of course, is not all about recognition. In a time when hardly any of the roles are being played correctly in Bangladesh, Humayun played his role of a writer and filmmaker remarkably well. As a result, his name has become synonymous with the greatness of Bengali literature. Hence, to a Bangladeshi, his loss is manifold. He made young people—especially students who had been bred to political passion—understand that there was something more important than politics: reading books, and appreciating the fine arts

Education and early career

Humayun Ahmed went to many schools in Sylhet, Comilla, Chittagong, Dinajpur and Bogra as his father lived in many places upon official assignment. He passed the School Certificate Examination as a student of Bogra Zilla School in 1965. He stood second in the merit list in the Rajshahi Education Board. Later he was admitted to the Dhaka College and passed the Intermediate Examination in 1967. He initially planned to study economics but suddenly changed his mind and got admitted into the Dhaka University to study Chemistry. He passed both BSc (Honours) and MSc with First Class. Subsequently he joined the Dhaka University as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. Later he went abroad to the North Dakota State University in the United States to study for Ph.D. After having studied physical chemistry for two years he was impressed by the lecture of a professor of polymer chemistry; and eventually secured a Ph.D degree in polymer chemistry. He returned to Bangladesh and resumed teaching at the Dhaka University. He retired as a teacher around mid 1990s to devote all his time to writing and production of film.In New Age, Rashidul Bari wrote:

Humayun was a custodian of the Bangladeshi literary culture whose contribution single-handedly shifted the capital of Bengali literature from Kolkata to Dhaka without any war or revolution. One of the remarkable things about Humayun's long and distinguished literary career is his influence. His writing is so influential that people not only get psychological pleasure from reading his books, but usually end up becoming fans of his fictional characters, such as Himu, Misir Ali, and Baker Bhai. His creations generate the smells, sounds, and vibrations of feelings and moods, which are more powerful than all the unused hydrogen bombs in the United States. However, in death, Humayun's celebrity seems likely to exceed his popularity, even at the height of his fame. His funeral, which was held in Dhaka on Tuesday, became a Super Bowl-like event: millions of Bengalis from all walks of life flocked to the Central Shaheed Minar yesterday to say "Hasta la vista, Humayun Sir."

Television and film

His first television drama was "Prothom Prohor" (first moment) in 1983, directed by Nawazesh Ali Khan.. However Humayun's first drama serial was Ei Shob Din Ratri (Tale of our daily lives), which achieved substantial popularity and it was followed by the comedy series Bohubrihi, the historical drama series Ayomoy, and the urban drama series Kothao Keu Nei (There is no one in anywhere). The last one featured a fictional character of an idealistic gang leader named Baker Bhai, who was wrongly convicted and executed. Baker Bhai became such a popular character that before the last episode was aired, people across the country brought out processions protesting his death sentence; public prayers and death anniversaries have been observed for this fictional character by Ahmed's fans. Nakshatrer Raat (The Night of the Stars) was a long serialized televised drama that explored many facets of modern human life and relationship.

Ahmed explored the film industry both as an author and director. He directs films based on his own stories. His first film, "Aguner Parashmoni", based on the liberation war, won the National Film Award in total eight categories, including Best Picture and Best Director. The theme of the Liberation War often comes across in his stories, often drawing upon Ahmed's in-depth memories of that war and his father's execution during the war.

Ahmed's film Shyamal Chhaya was submitted by Bangladesh for Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. This film was also based on the liberation war of 1971. It portrayed a realistic picture of the liberation war without malice and prejudice.

Ahmed also wrote songs for few of his own films and plays. Some of the notables are titled as Ami Aaj Bhejabo Chokh Somudrer Joley, Chadni Poshor Ratey and Amaaar Achey Jol.

Literary style

Until recently Bengali fiction has largely been dominated by the work and style of Bengali writers from the West Bengal. Humayun Ahmed distinguished himself with a unique simple literary diction that quickly became popular. His prose style is lucid and he resorts to dialogues rather than narration by an all-knowing story-teller. As a result his writing was compact and could be easily understood by a large audience. However, he depended heavily on a few stereotypical characters which behaved in a predictable way, but are, nevertheless, very popular, because of the romanticism they carry (for example, Himu and some other madlike characters are available in many of his works). He dealt with rural as well as urban life with equal intensity of observation. Frequently, he captured contemporary issues in his writings from a different angle. He was an optimist who was prone to focus on the positive aspects of human beings. His portrayal of a hooligan or a prostitute is usually non-judgmental. His human touch to stories hugely appeal to emotional Bengali psychology. Also, his storylines often blend reality with supernatural episodes. This blend is in some ways similar to magic realism. He avoided obscenity and revolt against religion in clever ways. In the contemporary literary world, perhaps none exists today who writes as spontaneously as Humayun Ahmed.

Tagore, Nazrul and Humayun

In assessing Humayun's importance, one should take into account that had he not lived, his books and films would never have been created at all. For this reason, some people even contend that it is Humayun, rather than Tagore or Nazrul, who should really be considered as the greatest Bengali of all time. Carried to its logical conclusion, that argument would lead one to place Humayun higher than Tagore or Nazrul. However, I am a little skeptical about accepting such logic. It is true that Bengali literature would have remained piteously incomplete, and even imperfect, without the works of Humayun. However, it is also quite apparent that without the works of Tagore or Nazrul, Bengali literature would have broken up into mutually unintelligible dialects. Hence, it is fair to place Humayun after Tagore and Nazrul. However, Humayun never compared himself to Shakespeare, and not even to Tagore and Nazrul. He did not regard himself as a great writer.

In fact, I am sure that if anyone conducted a survey to list the five greatest writers of Bengali literature, Humayun would be third, if not first or second. Furthermore, one should consider what other great people have said about Humayun. Several years ago, I asked Muhammad Yunus how he assessed Humayun's overall impact, and he replied, "Humayun's works are the most profound and most fruitful that literature has experienced since the time of Tagore and Nazrul." Al Mahmud, the poet laureate of Bangladesh, told me something similar: "One golden age of Bengali literature ended with Tagore and Nazrul and another began with Humayun." Fiction writer Imdadul Haq Milon considered him to be the almighty lord of his Bengali literature, controlling all their actions and thoughts. If so, he is a generous lord, who is great because he created immortal characters, such as Misir Ali and Himu, and they, on entering our memory, become more alive than the living. Misir Ali is basically a rational psychologist committed to unraveling the mysteries around him through logic. On the other hand, Himu, who works with anti-logic, appears to possess strong intuitive power, though he dismisses his intuitions that come true as mere coincidence. Misir Ali forces us to realize that logic is above emotion, and Himu forces us to understand within ourselves that the better side of our nature should always struggle for dominance with our subtle dark side.

Awards

• Lekhak Shibir Prize (1973)
• Bangla Academy Award (1981)
• Shishu Academy Award
• Jainul Abedin Gold Medal
• Michael Madhusudan Medal (1987)
• Bacsas Prize (1988)
• Humayun Qadir Memorial Prize (1990)
• National Film Award (Best Story 1993, Best Film 1994, Best Dialogue 1994)
• Ekushe Podok (1994)
• ShelTech Award (2007)

Death

After an eleven-month struggle against colorectal cancer, he died at Bellevue Hospital in New York City in the United States on 19 July 2012 at 11.20 PM BST. The heart of every Bangladeshi has grown heavier and heavier since his death. Humayun’s death has proven that the tragic and completely unexpected passing of an icon familiar to millions can create an emotionally unifying experience for a nation. Bangladesh does not have oil, coal, or fossil fuel, but it’s still more united than many others because it gave birth to a patriot like Humayun Ahmed, whose work was strong enough to emotionally unite all Bangladeshis upon his death. Rashidul Bari wrote in Weekly Blitz, a poem—similar to Percy Bysshe Shelley’s elegy on the death of John Keats — might be applied even more appropriately to Humayun:

Why do you weep for Humayun—thou think he is dead?
Oh, no—he lives as long as the moon lights
Why do you mourn for the Shakespeare of Bangladesh—thou think he is perished?,
Oh, no—he never died,
He wakes; he walks—and still writes for us,
Oh weep not, Oh mourn not,
Tis death is dead, not Humayun,
He lives as long as the sun shines,

Works

Films

Name of Film	Director	Story
Shonkhonil Karagar	No	Yes
Aguner proshmoni	Yes	Yes
Srabon megher din	Yes	Yes
Dui Duari	Yes	Yes
Chondrokotha	Yes	Yes
Noi no. Bipod shonket	Yes	Yes
Amar Ache Jol	Yes	Yes
Nirontor	No	Yes
Priotomeshu	No	Yes
Daruchini Dip	No	Yes
Shamol Chaya	Yes	Yes
Ghetuputra Kamola	Yes	Yes

Notable television dramas

4

Books

5

Books

In English

• 1971: A Novel. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Mowla Bros. 1993. ISBN 9789844100138.
• In Blissfull Hell. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Somoi Prokashan. 1993. ISBN 9789844580459.
• Gouripur Junction. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Anyaprokash. 2007. ISBN 9789848684382.

Further reading

• "Humayun Ahmed, 1948-". The South Asian Literary Recordings Project. The Library of Congress. October 6, 2010. Retrieved March 12, 2012.

External links

• Humayun Ahmed Bangladeshi Bangla Natok (list of television productions)
• Humayun Ahmed at IMDb