Shahid Quaderi, an eminent poet of Bangla literature passed away this morning, Sunday, August 28, 2016, in New York, USA. Poet Quaderi was not only "the poet of his time" but also a prolific writer, speaker, but also, above all, a free thinker. His deep liberal thinking had no boundaries.
Shahid Quaderi lived away from Bangladesh, first in Europe then in the United States, particularly in Massachusetts for many years and finally in New York, where he breathed his last this morning. Many of us became very close to poet Quaderi during his stay in Boston, we often spent hours listening to him speak about literature, secular thought, and human equality. In one hand, his writings enlightened Bengali speaking people all over the world on the other hand at a very personal level Shahid Quaderi touched many of our lives in many different ways. We will cherish those moments of celebrating Bengali New Year or Pohela Boishak together, having him speak at public events, celebrating his birthdays together, or just a brief chat for few minutes during one of his unannounced trips to Boston from New York.
As we mourn his departure, we must not forget how deeply he touched many, especially those who had the privilege of getting close to him. Every time we saw him, he talked about an abundance of topics, but not so much about his own poetry-although he loved to talk about the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Shelley, Yeates, and his contemporary Poet Shamshur Rahman. Although he was much younger than Shamshur Rahman.
Shahid Quaderi's writings were full of patriotism, but often had a sense of loneliness, but never traditional. He saw the modern urban life very closely - which was often reflected in his writings. His idealism had no boundaries - which he best described in number of his poems. He was so modern in his thoughts that it might take many generations of Bengali poets to catch up with his modernity. One such writing goes, "have no fear darling, I'll have it all arranged. The army will carry rose bunches on their shoulders..." I still remember him reciting this poem during a private gathering. He jokingly justified his writing by saying that he was much younger back then.
We always thought Shahid Quaderi will write again, and he did after a long silence of almost three decades while living in New York.
Poet Shahid Quaderi has become silent again, this time with no such hope of breaking it after a long pause. He has left us. Although we have become silent at this moment, but we must rise up and speak our minds - just like Shahid Quaderi did even during his long poetic hiatus. We salute you, Shahid Quaderi!
Mahfuzur Rahman
Massachusetts, USA
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