Soaring With the Clouds

Pilot Rashik Bin Manzur
Talks to
Naziba Basher

Courtesy: Rashik Bin Manzur

I went to Shaheen English Medium School but did my O'levels from scholastica. School days were exclusive. I loved every bit of it. Just waking up in the morning was difficult but once I was up, the day just got better. Doing classes, bunking them, never missing out on games periods, awesome lunch breaks, annoying assemblies-- I miss every bit of it. School is equal to 30-35 hours a week with the best people you can spend time with!

I did my A' Levels in 2009 privately. This period was a bit hectic for me. It was the 'more studies, less fun time!' I had to balance my time between A' Levels and Flying Club as I was trying to complete my flying hours to get my license. I, then, joined North South University. I am currently doing a double major on Finance and Accounting and International Business. University life is serious business. School life had a diverse set of activities. In university assignments and exams take up a lot of time that was mostly used for random activities during school life. A new aspect of life known as the professional career building gets introduced in this stage of life. Nonetheless, it is always fun to learn about new things everyday.

My father is my inspiration for what I am today. My father is a pilot himself. He used to be a fighter pilot in the Bangladesh Air Force and after he retired he opted to become an airline pilot. I used to watch him go for work in his uniform and I could not wait to have a uniform of my own someday. He has been a big inspiration to me in every aspect. Being a pilot has always been my dream, this was the one thing I knew I had to achieve. In addition to that, I can never forget what a huge role my mother had played in supporting me. Both my parents never stopped me from pursuing my dreams, they always encouraged me to go ahead with whatever I liked and enjoyed doing.

One of my plans is to become an entrepreneur in the future. I want to hopefully someday have my very own enterprise. The way I see it, the only way to make a difference here is to educate myself as much as I can while climbing my way up to become a commercially important person. Then, hopefully, I can help my country. I have no plans of settling elsewhere. This is where I want to be. And obviously, I want to carry on flying for as long as possible. One day I want to be inside the cockpit of a 787-Dreamliner, flying it to different places across the world! The important word for every human being is 'consistency'. People should be consistent and they should keep trying for what they want to achieve. If one method does not work, some other method will.

More importantly, we can never give up on our nation, just like we cannot give up on our parents/family. When we were born, no nation except for our own, would have allowed us to be brought up there without us giving anything in return. Since, this country accepted us without asking for anything, it is our turn to do something for the country in return!