Mahmud Shah Qureshi

During the middle of the past century, two Frenchmen were known and admired around the world. They were General de Gaulle and André Malraux.

In 1954, when  I was admitted into the Dhaka University Bengali honours course after an interview with Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, a host of talented fellows were to be my friends in the next four years.

It is well-known that Bangla literature took a new turn in the 1940s. Following the revolutionary work of Kazi Nazrul Islam, we got four powerful poets among Bangalee Muslims: Farrukh Ahmad,

As the vice-chancellor of three universities, professor in three other universities, chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), and an education minister, Syed Ali Ahsan influenced his contemporaries with his unparalleled speech and writings.

During a lifespan of more than 80 years, I have had the opportunity to experience a lot of extraordinary events. But there cannot be a parallel to what I saw and felt, sometimes I acted and reacted, in 1971. This was the year of our War of Liberation.

EVEN the school children at the primary school level today would tell us that the very first Bangla grammar and dictionary was written