Saturday, March 6, 2010

The literateur and the man

Syed Abu Rushd Matinuddin, who used to abbreviate his name as SAR Matinuddin, and preferred Abu Rushd as pen name, died on 23 February 2010. He was born in December 23, 1919 in Calcuta in a characteristic family of Muslim community. The year 1919 is important for Indians under British raj as in that year the Montague-Chelmsford Reform was introduced in the country as an aftermath of World War 1 and also on the face of popular resentment against misrule.

The new-born Abu Rushd was growing up in the biggest Indian metropolis in an environment where anti-colonial movement was vibrant and an effort for intellectual and cultural refinement was at its peak. As he grew up he was consciously and also obliviously adopting the positive things around him. He has deftly narrated the situation then and his personal development in his book Jiban Kromosha or as life develops - a copy of which he gave me in mid 80s of the last century with a strong recommendation to read it and to feed him back.

That was the first book of his literary realm he gave me just to begin with and since then after a gap of four to six weeks he would give me another of his books with an intense query whether I had finished the earlier one. I generally had read his books but at times due to laziness I delayed finishing them. But that had not to be admited for good reasons, of course. About Jiban Kromosha, the maiden book of the reading process, I had informed him that I had read and enjoyed the book and also made some positive observations, which pleased him. He instantly took me as a connoisseur of his literature and laid the foundation of a relationship which had been cemented gradually in later days and years to come.

Full report here New Nation

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