Focused and Passionate

Musician Shams Bin Quader
Talks to
Promiti Prova Chowdhury

Courtesy: Shams Bin Quader

My first school was Little Jewels in Chittagong, my birth place. I studied there till class III. With a double promotion I was admitted to class IV at International Education Centre (IEC) after coming to Dhaka.

Most of my time was spent in playing video games and reading books outside the syllabus, so the academic results were nothing up to the mark. I was bit of a geek during the primary grades at IEC! But as years passed by I became quite serious in study, my results improved and also, I was elected the Head Boy of the school. The tough time was over and I became quite popular in school. Some of my closest friends are from the same school and till today I am very much in touch with them.

After that I did SAT and TOEFL and directly got admitted to Independent University Bangladesh (IUB). There I got a culture shock in the first year as I saw so many different kinds of people from different backgrounds. IEC was a small school in terms of number of students. So I was not used to such crowd. Moreover I was only 17 year old where others came completing their HSC or A levels, and were older than me.

I got admitted at 'Computer Science and Engineering' initially and when my major was almost complete I discovered that my actual interest lies in 'Media and Communication'. As I did not do my 'A' levels, I had time in my hand. So I did another major in Media and Communication, and today I am teaching in that field.

Funny thing is, for first 1/2 year no one at IUB knew that I can sing. Though I had a band which was formed during my 'O' levels, I did not take music that seriously. I was more into study and did not perform in any programme of the university. It was during the middle of my university life when my teachers discovered that I can perform well and from then ownwards I started taking part in cultural shows and IUB got to know that I am a singer. My band 'Bohemian' was built after I came back completing my Masters from Kings College, London in 2008.

My campus life was vibrant. I had a friend circle of five - two girls and three boys including me. We used to make lot of fun during the 'Film Studies' classes, because at that time we were unable to understand the meaning of those award meaning Art films. For that we used to get rebuked as well! I remember this incident happened one night before an exam on a very intimidating subject. I never crammed before exams and my studies were all planned beforehand. But my friends were just the opposite. So there was this night when nearly 20 students without prior notice came over to my place and stayed in my room for the last night study. The incident was hilarious as everyone was freaking out and no one could sleep!

One piece of advice I would like to give to this generation is to learn 'time management' and do what you love. I see many young boys and girls with extreme potentials but because of their 'laid back' attitude they do not properly utilise them. They say that they do not have the time which cannot be acceptable. If one is active enough it is not that hard to maintain study and other interests at the same time. You just need to be a bit serious and active at what you love doing.