My mother taught me everything
Niloufer Manzur, founder principal of Sunbeams School, died from coronavirus at 3am Tuesday morning at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH). This piece, written by her son on Mother’s Day a year ago, is reproduced here in her memory.
All my life I have seen my mother working. My mother is Niloufer Manzur, principal of Sunbeams School. I am 50 years old now and in all these years I haven’t for a single day seen my mother not working. This is very normal for me and my sister Munize Manzur. Yet it is normal to many others for their mothers not to work.
My wife Samia Huq is a working mother. We have three daughters and a son. They study in Sunbeams and I hope they all work too, that it never comes to a situation where they won’t work.
She considers the 900 students of Sunbeams School her own children. When she says ‘my children’, she doesn’t mean me and my sister. She means the children of her school.
I am sensitive towards working women because my mother was a working woman. A woman in Bangladesh has to balance many things when she works. There is the household, children falling sick, all sorts of family problems. A woman has to wade through all of this when she comes to work and make sure none of this affects her work.
Whatever I learnt from my mother about being sensitive, I try to apply in our company as much as I can. Another thing that we try in Apex is to break out from stereotypes of ‘this is a man’s job and that is a women’s job’. Women have been appointed in the sections of our factory where previously only men would work. And they are doing well.
I think my mother has a lot of contribution to creating our gender-balanced mindset at the workplace. She never let us think that any work is exclusively for a man or for a woman. She never said that and never practiced that.
My mother has an uncommon talent. She can very easily tell the names and batches of each and every student who has passed out from Sunbeams. She never makes a mistake. I am amazed. She is over 70 now, but works relentlessly.
Another quality of my mother is that she thinks of others and wants to make everyone happy. That is not always possible. She has a way of understanding people’s feelings, good and bad. She always tries to ease people’s sufferings. In trying to make everyone happy, she is sometimes hurt by others. As a son, I feel sad when I see my mother hurt. But I am also very proud of this quality of my mother.
She considers the 900 students of Sunbeams School her own children. When she says ‘my children’, she doesn’t mean me and my sister. She means the children of her school.
She is always concerned about them, always thinks about them. She is never very impressed by anything material. Only good manners can win my mother over. My mother and my grandfather (her father) were very close. My grandfather would always say live your life in such a way that you can behave the same way in any situation. Do not distinguish between people’s positions. My mother always followed these words of my grandfather. I have always tried to learn from my mother to mix with everybody, behave well with everybody. I can never remember my mother feeding me. This has made me self-reliant.
No matter what pressure she has faced, my mother has never compromised to injustice.
I studied in my mother’s school where she was the principal. She was my mother till the moment our car reached the school gates. The moment she entered the gates, she was principal Mrs Manzur. I would call her Mrs Manzur in school. I was used to that and so are my children. My father Manzur Elahi has many identities, but in many places he is known through my mother.
My mother has an uncommon talent. She can very easily tell the names and batches of each and every student who has passed out from Sunbeams. She never makes a mistake. I am amazed. She is over 70 now, but works relentlessly.
My mother has another liking and that is for paper. When she receives a gift, she is more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift itself. She would even collect these. She has kept our school report cards, the wrapping paper of our birthday presents, even wrapping paper of my wedding gifts!
If I have to give credit to any one person for where I stand today, I would say that is my mother. To say she is a huge source of inspiration for us, would not be saying enough. It is not just for Mothers Day. I recognise her contribution every single day.
Nasim Manzur is the managing director of Apex Footwear Limited