A Personal Tribute to Dr CS Karim

DR Chowdhury Sajjad Karim, popularly known as Dr CS Karim, passed away on November 19, 2015 at 67 years. Karim will remain forever in the hearts of his colleagues, friends and relatives; his wisdom will surely be missed.

He was a scientist. Be it in education, profession or his day-to-day life and thoughts, he always practiced science. I realised this first during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The frightening news that the Russian atomic power plant had exploded, spreading radiation poison, reached Dhaka pretty quickly. I wanted to understand how it happened and what could be the consequences. I called Dr CS Karim, who was then a scientist at the Atomic Energy Commission. Dr Karim had studied the direction of air-currents of Earth and assured me, and probably many others, that the radiation would not travel this far. 

Many years later, when he was the Chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, I bumped into him in an airport. Dr Karim spoke about the risks of earthquakes in Bangladesh, and informed me about the ticking time-bomb called the Dauki fault line, which could be the epicentre of a disastrous tremor in Bangladesh.  

Dr Karim started his career at the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission in 1977 and retired as the Chairman of the Commission in 2006. He served in the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh and held the portfolios of the Ministry of Agriculture (2007-8); Ministries of Fisheries and Livestock, and Environment and Forests (2007); and Ministry of Water Resources (2008). Later, he worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the FAO.

His association with the caretaker government was not quite appreciated by some of his friends. However, he was never bothered about politics. He probably did not understand it or found it to be more complicated and uninteresting than nuclear physics.

I loved talking to him, not to learn science to be honest, but primarily to savour his wonderful sense of humour. Noakhali was his beloved home district and he would often crack jokes about his home district that were hilarious but inoffensive. 

However, during disasters such as cyclone Aila, he deeply mourned for the wounded in the Sundarbans. He mourned for the lands submerged in saline water. His conversations always personified nature, the flora and fauna, as if they were his personal friends.

He was also a very affectionate person and his love for his son, niece, nephews, sisters, brothers, friends and also his domestic aides has always been reciprocated. Dr CS Karim was the epitome of wisdom, love and commitment to the nation. 

The writer is Managing Director, Chittagong Stock Exchange, Bangladesh.