Moonlight, rain and croaking frogs
The great writer has bidden the world goodbye a few autumns back, but his books and films still leave us spellbound. For many Bangalees, Humayun Ahmed is not only a writer and film-maker, rather, like Rabindranath, the name of an emotion. On his birthday, his youngest brother, cartoonist and fun magazine Unmad editor Ahsan Habib, recalls the writer extraordinaire in an interview with Prothom Alo.
PA: Today is his birthday. Did your brother Humayun Ahmed care about birthdays? How did he celebrate birthdays? Your own birthday is just two days away.
Ahsan Habib: To be honest, we didn’t celebrate birthdays as children. When we were in Bogra, our older siblings were invited to a birthday party and when they returned, they decided that we would have a party too. Since I was the youngest, they planned to celebrate my birthday. We did not have a typical cake, but we six brothers and sisters had a blast with nuts and local cakes made by our mother. There were no gifts, but we did have a great time celebrating the first 'birthday party' of the family.
Later our sisters-in-law took initiative to celebrate the birthdays in the family. But Boro Bhai [Humayun Ahmed] did not bother about birthdays much. In fact, it would irk him a bit in the beginning. But things changed and he used to have fun on the birthdays of the younger ones.
When our eldest niece turned 13, he handed her 13 taka and asked, "Happy?" She got mad! But she got a nice expensive gift.
Our eldest sister was born on 9 November and we used to celebrate the day in style. Boro Bhai would come as well. On the 13th, all of us -- his fans, publishers and the family -- celebrated his birthday. Mine was on the 15th, and by that time everyone would get tired. How many birthday parties can you stand in such a short time? So, very few turned up to celebrate my birthday!
PA: 'Unmad' was a pioneer in Bangladesh's comics and humourous magazines. How close was he involved with it?
AH: I used to get him write a series named ‘Elebele’ for 'Unmad'. In the beginning he did not need any reminder, but later we had to keep reminding him. I had to tell my mother or the sister-in-law to persuade him to write for ‘Unmad’. They would ask him, "Why do you keep Shaheen in waiting?" He would then submit right at the last moment. Once the compositor made a mistake in setting the paragraphs in order and that was it. I did not have the courage to ask him to write for Unmad anymore.
PA: Which of his works you like the most? Did he let the family read his manuscripts?
AH: I love all his writings, especially his science fiction. They had a human touch that appealed to me the most. When we used to live together, he would make us read his manuscripts. But he could not stand criticism and would get angry if one said it was not good enough. Only our eldest sister had the courage to critique his writings. She was a Bangla teacher after all.
PA: Do have childhood memories that make you nostalgic?
AH: He is no longer here among us and so everything about him makes us nostalgic. I have a lot of fun memories. I remember one afternoon he came along and asked if I wanted a cigarette. I think I was in grade nine or ten at the time. I nodded, yes, I did want a smoke. He sent me to the kitchen to get the matches. I rushed off and brought the marches. We went behind the house and he took two cigarettes out of his pocket. But these were actually candy cigarettes which he pretended to light up with the matches. He gave me one and took one himself. We stood there serious smoking, I mean, sucking the ‘cigarettes’!
PA: Did you two ever argue? Were you ever angry with him?
AH: He would get angry easily, especially regarding our studies. At times he would ask me or my elder sister Shikhu something from our maths or English syllabus. We both pretty bad in maths and English at the time, so you can imagine our condition then. But his anger was short-lived, so we could never stay angry with him for long. And he was the eldest brother, so it was out of the question that we would argue with him.
PA: Is there anything else you would like to share about him?
AH: I miss him a lot. When there is a big full moon in the sky, I think of him. He loved the silver moonlight so much. And when in ours down with rain in the monsoons and the frogs croak all around... oh, how he would love the rain! Actually we can’t really enjoy these beautiful elements of nature like before. They were so much a part of him.