United News of Bangladesh

He (Dr. Zafrullah) just never stopped fighting his wars even after liberation. It never probably occurred to him to make peace with his battles and move on. In so many ways, he was the closest to what we would call a permanent warrior. He passed away but his battles will go on. It began in his college days when he was already infected by idealism which met his "revolutionary zeal".  The two made a potent broth that Zafrullah bhai drank and never stopped fighting for his causes, no matter how great his opposition was.  And it's amazing when both idealism and his sense of social justice are both collectively comatose, he remained loyal to them no matter what. Zafrullah bhai stands above most of us because he dared to stand taller than most around him. In all the years that I have known him , he has not hesitated to be himself.  He followed the right wagon with as much zeal as he did the occasional wrong one’s because he was a believer in people’s rights. What separated him from the rest was that he was selfless, totally driven by the idea that health was a right that all had a right to claim. And that it was one of the biggest democratic causes of them all. And he never stopped until death finally called his name. Read More: People to pay tribute to Dr Zafrullah at Shaheed Minar tomorrow The man from Sector 2      In some way, Zafrullah bhai was the perennial man from Sector 2, 1971 war. He was the helmsman of the Bisramganj hospital that  he helped establish in that war zone, not just treating the warriors but training nurses and paramedics too.  For many who were part of the 1971 war, it never really stops and he was one of them. The war days belonged to the warriors but as soon as the war was over,  the new state generated new needs and causes and Zafar bhai became a warrior for them. Fifty years later, it’s impossible to understand the kind of impact he had on society, emerging from the ashes of the war, who needed a voice to speak as audaciously as he did.   The health establishment He took on the health establishment like none had done before and in this fight, many of his fellow fighters were his old comrades from Sector 2, led by Shahadat Chowdhury, Editor of the weekly Bichitra.  Bichitra gave him a platform to reach out and become a vanguard as Zafrullah bhai launched media campaigns, health rights volunteers and also began to mobilize supporters to begin his greatest adventure, the Gonosasthaya complex. The health treatment infrastructure was not a problem but when he began his pharmaceutical company, he faced massive opposition, both national and international. But with all his warrior instincts, he fought back and though he didn’t triumph, it was not a sweat for a lost cause. Today, many aspects of the general health sector cause dismay, but in some ways, health rights are more accessible for many than they were in the early days of Bangladesh particularly in machine availability. Read More: PM mourns death of Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury The political Zafar bhai I am not sure how committed he was to politics but I think he truly believed that health rights could not be assured unless political rights were won.  So from the early days he supported causes and campaigns, supporting candidates, causes and political platforms right from the birth days of Bangladesh. Till the last day, he was doing what he thought was the right thing to do.  Due to media exposure, many will remember him more as the political person he had become in many eyes in the last decade or so than the health rights person I saw he was most committed to as a cause. We have walked together for long though his increasing political commitments and my lack of interest in political media and talk shows made meetings less frequent. But I remember one day, when we were both being tried in the same case –contempt of court- for a petition we had both signed, and were being searched by the High Court security. His frayed trouser end and his keychain got tangled and as he bent down to separate them he laughed in his own way and said, “Sometimes, I think it would be the best if I could go back to my village and become the local doctor”. Farewell Zafrullah bhai, you always were our greatest village doctor. Read More: Home Minister mourns Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury's death

Monday marks the first death anniversary of legendary music director Alauddin Ali, and commemorating the day, his daughter Alif Alauddin, also a popular singer, anchor and songwriter, has released a remastered version of a song on Monday which her father made years ago.The song, titled "Tumi Chole Gecho", was written and composed by Alauddin Ali and originally sung by his wife and Alif’s mother Salma Sultana on BTV in 1983. However, it had never been recorded or released on any album.Alif Alauddin posted the remastered tribute edition from her Facebook page and profile on Monday. The tribute version of the song is remastered by Alif Alauddin’s husband and renowned guitarist Kazi Faisal Ahmed. Also read: Music arena mourns death of legendary Alauddin AliSharing her emotional description regarding the song, Alif wrote, "My mother Salma Sultana performed this song titled ‘Tumi Chole Gecho’ on Bangladesh Television in 1983, written and composed by my father Alauddin Ali. During my childhood, I used to hear my mother sing this track on harmonium, and I had requested her to teach me this song, and eventually learned the song from her."

So Fakir Alamgir bhai is gone and with him goes a cultural world which can never be resurrected as the world that produced it is gone. He came from a world where arts and politics lived together and both were supposed to belong to the people. They were songs of the pre-digital era and sounded best when sung to a crowd of cheering lads who wanted social change. He was into Left politics too, when some of the best were there. Today’s FB radicals wouldn’t be able to recognize that era when social change was just thought to be a few songs away. It didn’t happen of course, and for many reasons including history - but the legacy of the music stayed on. The past of a “people’s” cultural movement is now part of our memory but a strong one too. And much of that belonged to Fakir Alamgir bhai, now gone at 71. The 70s were the great years where culture flourished. There was no money, no dhandabazi - so those drawn to it were citizens genuinely interested in the arts. There was the mainstream so to speak but the sub-stream was no less strong. Often they would draw huge crowds. Part of that was because so many were part of the 'Great Dream': although none were fully sure what it was, it was a shared dream. Also read: Folk music legend Fakir Alamgir leaves the stage for the last time In the mass media era Fakir Alamgir sang all over Bangladesh but his favourite haunt was Dhaka University Arts building chattor. That’s where the young came to hear him and he sang for them. But by the end of the 70s the world had started to change in most ways and Left politics or whatever it was went into a steep decline from which it never recovered. Slowly as the economics grew mass media began to be strong. And the songs which most people will remember him by – his Sokhina songs – gained popularity on BTV reaching millions. Many of those who had heard him sing at DU were now tuning in their TV sets. We had been together in our 70s era but times were changing. I don’t know how much he knew that but there was a new crowd , new demands and a new society where many more products were competing. His original loyalists were now spread all over the world with remittance generation lovingly remembering him and spreading it on Youtube but he was never far away from the live crowd. Even as his voice aged and the lungs no longer reverberated with the pain and rage of the migrant forced to the city for survival longing for an imagined rural paradise they may never have had, the songs remained. Also read: Folk music legend Fakir Alamgir in ICU with Covid-19 The era closes In the end, he belonged and symbolized an era, one where songs contributed to social change, an active ingredient. Today’s songs are more reactive, produced by change and lifestyle. Almost everyone is a stranger here and now who belonged to his era. But he has still prevailed. That he is remembered for his songs decades after they were sung shows that the digital era actually served him, his songs and those who love him. So farewell Fakir Alamgir bhai, move on singing to another call from the crowd to sing one of their favourites again.