A BROTHER’S TEARFUL OBITUARY TO HIS BROTHER by S.M Habibul Haque

What if it were a cheerful occasion for a brother to write about some happy moments he spent with his brother! But it becomes a terrible emotional burden of grief for the brother when he embarks upon writing an account on the life and works, even though very briefly, of his brother whom he lost in the hands of destiny. The burden becomes still more terrible when the brother writing the account happens to be an elder brother. In fact, such a burden is no less massive than the burden of a son’s coffin on the shoulder of a father.  Yes, I am heavy in my heart and yet I am daring to write about my brother Syed Nizamul Haque who was 12 years younger than I am. His pet name was Jamal and he is still better known with that name in our native village, Kacharihat in the Golaghat district and also among the relatives living in Guwahati and other places. He was also Jamal to his friends. But as he was my first brother after my three younger sisters, Bilkis, Mafida and Rashida I used to lovingly call him Bhaiti, younger brother, and not by name. That love is still there in my heart and so I will refer to him as Bhaiti wherever necessary in this sketchy tribute of mine to him.  My parents, Syed Muhibbul Haque and Syeda Hamida Khatun, had eight children among whom Bhaiti was fifth as a sibling and second as a son. Bhaiti was not yet born when I left home after seven days of my schooling in Class VII in January 1957 to study at a far off place from home. Nobody of my family could foresee that my leaving home at that point of time, though for educational purpose, was to be my final exit from home. Consequently, I was deprived of the sweet moments of living together with my parents and the siblings and they from my company. We all felt the pang but none could help as it was destined. This was the reason that Bhaiti as well as the three other brothers after him, Jamil, Amil and Adil, were all born when I was far away from home.  I became an officer in the education department with my headquarters in Shillong in 1973. A year later I had to shift my office to Guwahati following the shifting of the capital of Assam from Shillong. In the same year Bhaiti passed the Matriculation examination from the famous Dergaon High School where our father was a successful and popular teacher. Father sent Bhaiti to me for higher education as Guwahati was a wider and better place for higher education. He was quite happy to be with me in Guwahati; more so for having opportunities to travel to places with me whenever I would be touring throughout the length and breadth of Assam on official duty. His coming to me also filled my heart with unexplainable joy because I was living alone in the government-provided residence with only an orthaly who used to cook for me, take care of the house and accompany me on my official tours. I got Bhaiti admitted into the Cotton Collegiate School, Guwahati from where he passed the Higher Secondary examination in 1976. Then he got admitted into the B. Sc.first-yearr class in the Aryabidyapith College just to leave it a few months later due to irregular and inconvenient bus service. He was nevertheless a meritorious student and a good reader and therefore he did not lose heart after he was forced to leave the college. So he had tried to avail a chance to pursue the B.Sc. course as a private candidate anywhere. But he could not be accommodated in the science stream of the undergraduate course in any college because attending practical classes, as a regular student was compulsory. Consequently, Bhaiti had no engagement, which was not a healthy sign for youths of his age. So I became serious about getting him engaged in some purposeful activity.  Sometime in the early part of 197,5 I was to appoint about a dozen of employees to certain posts under the government. I intended to appoint Bhaiti in one of those posts and I knew he would come out inflying colorss in the selection process. I had had my father’s permission for it. But when I proposed it to Bhaiti he instantly but politely disagreed. He had some business in his mind. But that needed sufficient capital which neither our father nor I could provide. It was however easy for me to make him start the only white color business with ‘black impressions’ with a small capital; a printing press. I could think of this small project just becauseluck favoredd me with a suitable sum of money of which one part was from the Assam State Textbook Production and Publication Corporation Limited as one time royalty for all the six text books I wrote for the schools and Madrassas of Assam at the request of the Corporation and the other part was also the royalty for the two textbooks of Arabic Grammar in Bengali medium I wrote for the schools of West Bengal at the request of a publisher from Calcutta. Sometime in the early part of 1976 I went to Calcutta and bought a small letterpress-printing machine with all its accessories. Now Bhaiti and I needed a house to start the press. My sister Bilkis and her husband Mosleh offered a piece of their land beside the Ganeshguri-Kahilipara Road near the DPI Bus Stop. As for building materials, I bought the Haryana Pavillion that was on auction after the 1976 Congress session was over in Jawahar Nagar  in Guwahati. The pavilion gave me both building materials and the labor costs. We erected a two-storied Assam-type house. In the meantime, the trade license was obtained for the press and also got it registered with the Small Industries Department in Bhaiti’s name. The tiny press thus got started under the name and style of Oriental