Eight o’clock in the morning. Woke up to the alarm. Immediately mother’s phone. She was shocked to hear the news at home alone on TV. Then when I went to put rice in the rice cooker, the house owner’s maid came and said, “Mama, won’t you go to the ‘michil’ ?” Procession! When I heard the word, my heart suddenly jumped! I remember Bayanno’s movement.
I have never joined any political party in my life so far. There are some students in the class who are soft-spoken, less talkative, always dressed as a good boy and don’t understand anything type, I always belong to that type. Not to seven, not to five. But when I’m scrolling the news feed on Facebook, I see a boy of my age wearing a black T-shirt standing with both hands raised to get a firm chest, a picture of a non-existent living person, I realise my calcium-filled spine straightened!
My father was not even born in Bayanno. So that history is not in my bones, I only know as much as I read books, I only imagined it until now. But the scene my eyes saw today in 2024 will remain in my bones. It’s like watching Bayanno through time travel.
Bangabandhu said, ‘I don’t want the prime ministership, we want the rights of the people of this country. And if a shot goes off, I request you, build a fort in every house.’ Maybe many rulers of this country have forgotten the first sentence of Bangabandhu. But I hope that the students will not forget the second sentence of Bangabandhu.
Yesterday, a student of class seven asked me, Sir, are you in favour of the government or the quota-protesting movement? I leaned back in the chair like a vertebrate, but could not find the spine. I asked myself, why I could not answer? The reply came: If you say that you are on the side of the government, you are unsure whether you will get a job or not, because you do not have any quota. But if you say that you are on the side of the agitator, you are sure that you will not get the job. So I’m scared. I am spineless.
When a girl raised her voice and asked in front of a few policemen standing in a row, ‘Are you the police of Quota? Are you dumb?’ If the police can’t give any answer, then somewhere in my heart, at least a little bit of courage is transmitted.
Who do I call Razakar? If I hold the spirit of the liberation war and shoot my own brother’s chest in the field to claim his rights, am I not also questionable?
My father himself eats and feeds us with his earnings. Since childhood, I have seen that he is a big fan of Bangabandhu. Although I don’t think he knows much about Bangabandhu and makes his party. He only knows that Bangabandhu made this country independent. If he is ever asked about the Awami League. I’m sure he can’t say anything but Bangabandhu and Boat.
I thought let’s ask him the question that my student asked me mentioned in the previous passage. And I asked him. Without taking any time, he said, ‘Babu, I did not go to war of ‘71, I was six or seven then. My father didn’t go either. He went to India with all our family. I acknowledge we are now enjoying freedom. But in return, no part of our hard work is going to the government. If it goes, I am against the quota. The simplest answer of my naïve father.
Thus he bears his belief in Bangabandhu and Nouka.