The dearly departed Mr. Karim

Mr. Karim had a remarkably eventful life. The Second World War generation is often dubbed as the "greatest generation" in the US. Americans fought to defeat the tyrants of the Axis power, including Hitler, in far off places. After the war, the young warriors returned to civilian life, embarked on higher education and joined the workforce. They made the US the most prosperous and the most powerful country in the history of the world.

Mr. Karim's generation was somewhat comparable in our society. They were among the first generation of educated Bangali Muslims. They struggled, strived, educated their children, and put in concerted efforts to make life better for their families, improve their surroundings, and worked for the betterment of the country. They did all this honestly, selflessly, with integrity and single-minded devotion, qualities all so very rare now.

Mr. Karim hailed from remote rural Barisal. The family was orthodox, conservative and devout. Mr. Karim was sent to a madrassah. He, however, was interested in studying English and wanted desperately to enroll in a regular school. Indian Muslims had boycotted schools as persistent protest against the injustice, oppression and unfairness of British colonial rule. This regressive, retrograde and ignorant step had set the Muslims metaphorically backward by a hundred years. Studying in British-run schools was considered to be abhorrent and sacrilegious. The religious Muslims, including the God-fearing family of Mr. Karim, would have none of it.

In the face of such adversity and hostility, Mr. Karim quit the madrassah and enrolled himself in a regular school. His religious father refused to pay for his "heretical" education. Mr. Karim waded through shallow canals to attend school and eventually stayed at a hostel. His father was resolute and unwavering and made several trips to Pirojpur, sub-divisional headquarter, to bring his son back.

Mr. Karim had diligently and passionately immersed himself in his studies which he found challenging and scintillating. With the help of doting and caring Hindu teachers, he tried to convince his father to let him continue with his education. His father was firm on showing the son the right and the righteous, pious and sacrosanct God's way and return him to the madrassah. He went yet again to Pirojpur to fetch Mr. Karim but the school was closed to celebrate Mr. Karim's success in the secondary school scholarship exam. This was a rare and lofty achievement back then. There was no turning back after that.

Mr. Karim went to BM College in Barisal after passing the equivalent of SSC exams. There was a group of excellent, erudite teachers at BM College. Among them was Jibananda Das. Interestingly, Jibananda Das was an English teacher. Mr. Karim decided to study English at the university Honours level. He was one of only two students from the greater Barisal area to be admitted to Calcutta Presidency College. In the early 1940s, Presidency College was the most sought after institution for higher learning in India. Getting admission to this college was tantamount to getting admission to Oxford and Cambridge or the current day admission to Harvard or Berkeley.

Among his batch-mates were late Justice Abu Syed Chowdhury, Siddharta Sanker Ray and Dilip Kumar Rai. The Second World War had started and Calcutta was in tumult and turmoil. An aerially dropped Japanese bomb at nearby Khidirpur had caused wholesale panic and widespread exodus. East Bangalees fled in droves to their ancestral homes in overcrowded trains from Howrah rail station.

Mr. Karim successfully appeared in the Civil Service exams and joined the Police Service in 1943. His two East Bangali batch-mates at the Sarda police academy were Mr. Lutfar Rahman, late father of the current State Home Minister, Lutfuzzaman Babar, and late Dr. MN Huda. Dr. Huda was uneasy with the rigours of officer training, horseback riding and obstacle course. He soon quit. The other two graduated from the academy and embarked on long police careers.

Mr. Karim served in high ranking positions in the police department and eventually in Special Branch (SB) and intelligence. He was scrupulously honest and efficient with the highest degree of integrity and objectivity. Among his close circle of civilian friends were Poet Ahsan Habib, Justice Ahsanuddin Ahmed, Khan Mohammad Salek (legendary Laboratory School headmaster) and principal Jalaluddin Ahmed.

Contrary to the typically aggressive and combative image of the current day police officers, Mr. Karim was into art and literature and was a connoisseur of the finer things in life. He was an avid reader and 4 to 5 hours of reading was part of his regular daily routine. Dr. Mahmudul Anam, Professor of Economics at York University (Ontario, Canada), and a family friend, eulogised Mr. Karim,: "He was a remarkable man from a glorious and, alas, now extinct generation. A patriarch in the noblest sense of the term his affection and generosity extended well beyond his immediate family. A fiercely independent, and intellectually self sufficient man, he lived life on his own uncompromising and principled terms and, in the process, left a priceless legacy."

Mr. Karim had seven children (a doctor daughter died in 1989). He and Mrs. Karim made sure that the four daughters received the same opportunities in higher education as the three sons. Two of the daughters have PhDs, one in chemistry and the other in literature, two children were doctors, the youngest son is the chief pediatric surgeon at the Children's (Sishu) Hospital, five of the children are teachers of a whole gamut of subjects, from literature and history to chemistry, from medicine to engineering. The emphasis on education was so comprehensive and remarkable that his grandchildren and their spouses now teach all over the world, from New Zealand to BUET, from DU to North America. The success of his children and their children was all possible because Mr. Karim, as a young boy, went against the norm, and family tradition, and dared to enroll in a British school in the 1930s.

When he was still in good health, Mr. Karim told his children to keep his funeral a low key affair after his death. He was a simple, unassuming, modest and unobtrusive man. He did not want a big deal after his death. He had often told his family not to lament his death because he had led a full life and his wants and desires had largely been fulfilled. He had witnessed history with all the twists and turns, he had seen incredible technological development and he had a contended life. He was in generally good health, until the last illness, because he had maintained a healthy lifestyle since the 1944 Sarda police academy days.

The family looks at his death from a religious perspective and a sense of inevitability. Some have questions though, in line with the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible. It was written 2,500 years ago during what apparently was a crisis of faith. The covenant with Abraham -- worship one God, and his people would be protected -- didn't seem to work. The good suffered and the wicked prospered; where was the promised justice? Some feel the same about the long illness and suffering of Mr. Karim.

When Mahatma Gandhi died, Nehru said in his eulogy: "The light has gone out of our lives." With the death of Mr. Karim, the light in the life of his family, and near ones, is much dimmer. The redeeming and consoling factor is Mr. Karim has now "slipped the surly bonds of Earth... put out his hand and touched the face of God (High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee, 1941)."

The author is a private university administrator and son of the deceased Mr. Karim.