Honouring the Mentor

Ahmed Sofa was a renowned poet, novelist, writer, critic and thinker well known for his intellectual righteousness and uncompromising personality.  He was the mentor of most of the contemporary literary personalities of Bangladesh. We remember this great personality on his 13th death anniversary.

Ahmed Sofa

Ahmed Sofa was born on June 30 1943 at Gachbaria in Chittagong
He was born to a peasant family and struggled for his education
He often worked as a bus conductor to bear his own expenses
Sofa's career as a writer began in the 1960s

Sofa embarked on his career as a novelist with “Shurjo Tumi Shathi” published in 1967
The religious conflict of Bangladeshi society was vividly painted in the book
The work achieved extremely favourable response from the Bangladeshi readers
In one of his books Ahmed Sofa says, “I come from a family of farmers. It is very hard to overlook this fact. I do not want to exaggerate anything. My forefathers had been directly involved with agriculture. I feel proud to be a part of them.”

His 24 – page novella ‘Onkar’ depicted his individual quality as a novelist in the context of form of content
In his book ‘Ali Kenan’ Sofa vividly portrayed the political scenes from Ayub Khan to Sheikh Mujib
He had a historic approach to the social dynamics and politics of Bangladesh
Ahmed Sofa's outspoken personality and bold expression brought him into the limelight

Ahmed Sofa lived a solitary and ordinary life
He never married and kept himself far away from worldly fame and gains
Sofa authored 9 novels, a short story, 3 poems and several nonfiction prose
His essays mostly revolved around Bengali Muslims, their politics and culture
Sofa helped to establish “Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir” to build a platform for progressive writers
On July 28 2001, Ahmed Sofa died in a hospital in Dhaka. He was buried in the Martyred Intellectuals' Graveyard