Campus Interactions

Meet the Author

Untara Rayeesa

BRACU Book Club (BUBC) once again makes a milestone, with its first ever 'Meet the Author' event held on October 4, 2011.

Planned and organised by the club members, and a little help from key BRACU faculty members, the event featured popular writer, Mohammed Zafar Iqbal as the guest speaker, and was attended by students and faculty members at the Indoor Games Room of BRAC University.

The programme was conceived as a platform where readers could be brought into direct contact with authors whose works they have read and admired, through an informal yet interactive and conversational setting.

Courtesy: BRACU

Chairperson of the Department of English and Humanities, Professor Firdous Azim inaugurated the programme, welcoming the guests and introducing the author to the audience, followed by a few words from the BUBC Vice President, Prama Neogi.

Guest speaker, Mohammed Zafar Iqbal began by expressing his enthusiasm in finding young adults engaging in reading. Besides sharing a few words of wisdom, he also imparted practical advice to readers and future writers or aspirants. He considers reading a superior communication medium compared to the more popular social and visual media.

His remarks segued into the interactive session, which was the centre of attraction at the event. Avid fans and readers took turns in asking questions to the distinguished author, which he graciously answered. While many of the questions encircled their favorite books by the author, a few asked him about his youth and his early days as a writer. His answers revealed that how certain characters, events and ideas in his stories had come from his own experiences in life. He cited Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer as the pervasive inspiration behind most of his works.

At the concluding session, Golam Samdani Fakir, Pro-Vice Chancellor, BRACU shared that books are a tool for youngsters to surmount their apathy and regain the verve and energy to broaden their minds and move ahead in life. He thanked Mohammed Zafar Iqbal for his time and viewpoints with the audience and presented him with a few tokens of appreciation by the BUBC faculty advisor, Rukhsana Rahim Choudhury.

At the end of the interactive session, the audience took the opportunity to take photos with the author and asked him to autograph their copies of their favourite books by him. With the success of the event, Book Club hopes to organise this event every semester, featuring different authors in subsequent semesters.