Salma Chowdhury 1994-07-15
Cinematographer: Naeem Mohaiemen
Duration: 00:06:42; Aspect Ratio: 1.364:1; Hue: 3.681; Saturation: 0.081; Lightness: 0.355; Volume: 0.252; Cuts per Minute: 0.447; Words per Minute: 85.500
Milan of Barishal was a teacher's son. He was very popular. He died.
He was an ordinary student.
If he could become a leader... If a literacy campaign could be started then, Bangladesh would have been free from illiteracy within a year.
We were very excited. We were prepared to give our life for the country.
Abul Hashem, Kamal Hossein, all were alive then.
All had that consciousness. We heard, we saw...
I saw how Kamal Hossein worked. I learnt...
He used to say, "In our country, the field comes before the office."
"No need for files. The field is everything."
Now when I go to work in the poor neighbourhoods and see a tables and chairs set up,
I know that no work is done there.
And where I'm taken straight to the slum -- no, poor neighbourhoods, the word slum isn't used now --
I've learnt a lot while working. I'm now erasing the word slum from all literature,
from my writings, too.
We now use the term, 'welfare area'.
We've noticed that those who are a little conscious are offended by the word slum.
Our houses aren't called slums, so why should we call theirs?
I myself had designed a literacy programme for Dhaka's 'slum' areas.
But when we began work we saw that this term caused a jerk.
Conscious people didn't like it.
When they were asked their address, they were not saying the word slum.
So we started writing the name of the neighbourhood.
Then we thought of discarding the word altogether.
This learning is a good thing.
Many people were killed unfairly.
Say, one was targeted in a procession and killed.
People were pointed out and shot.
They were killed to provoke agitations so that alibi could be found for more killings.
Like in the college, if students are provoked they become unruly and then it's shut down saying students are unruly.
I saw these things and felt sad.
Classes were going on smoothly and some teacher deliberately said something to provoke them.
Like when exams were round the corner, a teacher might point out to the students that some other college wasn't having exams.
So here, too, they refused to sit for the exam.
Now, the college was closed on this ground.
What I've seen in my college, I've seen in the whole country.
This happened rights from the days of the language movement in 1952.
Some sane people started agitating for a cause and a few deaths took place.
Then these deaths were projected in such a systematic manner that we got independence in 1971.
They didn't agitate for the language only, they wanted economic freedom, social freedom and to change the structure of the state.
There should be a parliamentary system like all welfare states.
They can't do injustice to their citizens.
They could do that in South Africa, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Arabian countries.
The French did it in Indo-China.
But our teacher said, international treaties like SEATO aren't good for us.
An ordinary teacher of Sylhet told us that UNO was a game in the hands of big powers.
It's a ploy to decieve us, so that the former colonies didn't assert themselves.
If they had any grievance, they could go to UNO, they're told.
We could have tried to make progress through the cooperative system and local governments.
Why do we have to write to the World Bank and UNO for everything?
This is a process to make us beggers.
I've told you about Dr T. Ali, who'd created all facilities for medical treatment in his village.
And the village didn't have any problem.
Nabinagar, my in-laws' village, doesn't have any problem too.
If two persons can make two villages self-sufficient in health care...
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