A major disappointment in the public life of India’s first Bengali President Pranab Mukherjee, who died on August 31, 2020, was that he could never contest and win direct elections to parliament, which would have helped him shed the tag his critics gave him: “a politician without a mass base and following.”

Imagine women entering the field of photography, historically dominated by men, during a time when they were even more strictly confined to certain socially constructed roles.

At 75, Murtaja Baseer is as agile and hyperactive as a child, with a mind as sharp and clear. In his cosy apartment in Manipuripara, Baseer eagerly shows his oil paintings stacked against the walls and explains the various phases that he has gone through as an artist and the mentors who have helped him along the way.

Major Taher Ahmed BP (Rtd), of the first Bangladesh War Course (BWC), passed away on July 4, 2020, at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Dhaka around 9 pm from a heart attack. The story of his life and legacy is intimately connected to the Liberation War of Bangladesh and as his daughter, I wanted to chronicle it here.

Every Friday, on the 13th-floor of Square Hospital, the resident medical officers, registrars and nurses waited for a call from the medical director, Dr Mirza Nazimuddin.

In the early sixties, cultural activists and student bodies with different political affiliations, led by their university faculty, played a crucial role in demanding democracy and holding the Pakistani authoritarian regime to account.

After days of mourning and sadness, I wanted to take the time to recognise the person who for 36 years played a pivotal role in helping me raise my children. Along with her team at Sunbeams, Niloufer Manzur was responsible for helping my children grow and blossom and I will forever be grateful for the impact she had on our lives.

My first encounter with Mrs Niloufer Manzur was in her office, a tiny room on the ground floor of a three-storied building on Rd 27, Dhanmondi, which housed Sunbeams, a school where I was hoping my ten-year-old daughter Tanweena would be enrolled.

Recently, Mujibor Rahman Devdas passed away. Although the state honoured him with the Ekushey Padak, he had to lead his life in isolation and remained totally unknown to many people.

While I read the memorials for Niloufer Manzur by her children around the world, I can personally connect with many of the anecdotes, as I am sure can many.

There’s something really special about the community that you built and the type of leader that you were. Since the news of your death surfaced, generations of your students have been pouring their hearts out, each story highlighting special personal connections with you.

Sunbeams will not be Sunbeams without you. The corridors will miss your steady footsteps. The students and faculty will miss your confident leadership. You gave your students a solid foundation in their life. You helped them build character. You opened up new horizons for them.

My heart is filled with sorrow as I bow in respect to you, my teacher, my mentor and my role model.

The passing of Anisuzzaman has taken from our midst one more close friend and comrade from the generation which participated in the struggle for national liberation and held steadfast to its values.

In 2007, Professor Muzibur Rahman Debdas returned to the spotlight when Liberation War Museum trustee and researcher Mofidul Hoque made a documentary on him titled "Kan Pete Roi” (The Sound of Silence). The documentary expertly presented the lone and long struggle of Prof Debdas, a Liberation War hero.

I arrived in Dhaka, some years ago, as an outsider twice removed. First, I had grown up in Kolkata; second, I was a graduate student in Chicago.

It was probably on a day in the second week of March that I last saw and heard professor Anisuzzaman—our Anisuzzaman sir—speak publicly.

It was a privilege for me to work with professor Anisuzzaman in the drafting of the Constitution. I had the extraordinary good fortune of knowing him for more than 50 years, since our school days in St Gregory’s School, Dhaka. Since then we have travelled side by side towards the independence of the country and in the struggles for democracy.

Great names are formed by great events. It’s a truism that applies as much to the leaders and revolutionaries as to the pundits and intellectuals.

Professor Jamilur Reza Choudhury, fondly called JRC by his friends, was a soft spoken but a strongly passionate man.