Feature

And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
(''Stopping by Wood on a Snowy Evening'', Robert Frost)

Mohammad Rafiq (b. 1943)

SOME people never stop. They always have a tendency to live a life for a good cause. And this meaningful optimism always drives them to do something worthy till death. The insight and soul of these people are so rich that 'time' can't snatch away their passion and youth from them. They are always well ahead of time. Yes, I am talking about none other than Mohammad Rafiq-a Muktijoddha, a contemporary poet, and a professor of English literature, who always bears the spirit of youth inside his soul to mock the typical journey of time and space.

As an amateur writer, it sounds a bit audacious to portray the life of this personality. Since Mohammad Rafiq is my teacher, I presume it would be quite fair if I present my views about his uncompromising life and great teaching ability. As a teacher he is never late in the class. If he could not attend his due class, he informed us as quickly as possible. He is always passionate, eager, and vigorous to impart knowledge. Being a teacher of English literature, unlike other teachers, he is prone to find out the aesthetic qualities in a piece of writing. To him, a writer toils a lot to bring out a book, and we should show him due respect. But, again, he doesn't solely believe that a writer is a social servant even though most of his early writings deal with social and political issues.

Apart from his good teaching ability, he maintains a good bond with his students. To us, he is like a father; a father who never bullies his ever loved students. There is hardly any student who does not love him. The best thing I love about him, and by others too, is his boldness and humor. However, contrary to all these things, he loves to keep only few good friends. Yet again, adversely, this man has many friends and admirers around the globe simply because people cannot help resist themselves from keeping in touch with this completely gray-haired, high-spirited ever youthful man.

To me, Mohammad Rafiq is an epic teacher and more obviously a hero. He gives us lectures on Great Epics; presents us the ever thrilling journeys of heroes and legends with picturesque descriptions. His deep husky voice gives us the sense of the heroes but, to our utter surprise we find him an unsung living legend-a Muktijoddha and poet and teacher- sitting in front of us. This evergreen man participated in the '69 uprising movement, '71 Liberation War, and '90 anti-autocratic movement, only to get his dream Bangladesh where there will be no hunger, discrimination, and racial conflict. To twin his dream into reality he was arrested and jailed. He has not only actively participated in these movements, but through his poetry and other prose writings, he continues his never ending struggle against all sorts of social oddities. And for this, yes, with an utter pride, we all can say he is our living legend and a hero.

Recently, in the month of June of this year, Mohammad Rafiq has ended his long teaching career retiring from Department of English of Jahangirnagar University. We salute this man for his honesty, integrity and uncompromisingly daunting works. To me, he is a modern day Gladiator. But, in the end we can say, "Sir, we will miss you but we will always bear your spirit and teachings in us. You are our hero. Like your poem 'Khola Kobita”, you are an 'open poem' to us which we read and understand easily

(Student of Jahangirnagar University)