Sunday, April 07, 2013

The brother I never had...

In our country, 40 is the age when the youth is gone. 40 is the age when you finally start to look old and weary. It's been 42 years Bangladesh got her freedom and now it seems she has grown... Old... and weary... 
It was a bit dark and crowded. The whole place was shadowy as the sky was covered by some big trees. The kerosene lamp was not helping much to improve the situation. But, it was not a least bit scary though. Its was more like a cheerful environment. Some of the people from online world gathered there just for a very informal meeting to plan for a dinner party. 

That's where I first saw him. 

In the shadow of the trees, somehow he managed to sit somewhere with enough light. And he was shining brightly. Not just because of the light, he was shining with Life. A very thin line of silver hair was expressing the fact that, the ageing had fought well but lost. It couldn't touch his mind and youthfulness. He was shining with youthfulness and light. His face looked very familiar and his smile even more. My wife asked me, "Who is he?" Suddenly I figured out and answered her, "He is Biplob Da". 

Anyway, we were among the people mostly unknown to us. I could find only two person I know. One of them introduced us with him. He just acknowledged our presence and went back to his discussion. We managed to seat near him and started small chit-chat. That day was a special day.

After few days, we met again. Remember the dinner party? At there. We were the second batch to arrive, he was the first. So we had more time to get to know each other. Yes, being the host for the party he was busy. Still managed to get some time to talk to us in privet. We lived in the same area, just few blocks apart. He invited us there. After that party few days passed. He gave us knock online. We had group chat. And after few days of chatting, we decided to meet at his place. And that was the start.

We started to meet regularly. Then one day we heard he is getting married. We started to know Shondha Didi. It seemed like, she was the missing piece of the equation. And thus it started. Everyday, we used to meed and chat. The subjects varied from our daily life to existence of alien lifeforms, from politics to the latest movies. We became more of a family. It felt like he was the Big brother that I never had. He seemed to understand it. Maybe he felt the same way. Whenever I needed, I went to him for help, advice, consolation, anything I feel like. He also discussed different matters with me, us whenever he needed. He took care of us like a family and he and didi was part of our family. 

I never felt that, we met form our online activities. In fact, he never had that much activity online. He used to say, he was not a non-believer, he just hated the war criminals and the people sympathetic to them. He just didn't like those who were against our freedom during the Liberation War in 1971. That was his first identity. He said, not atheism, he was online for finding out those people who were sympathetic to the war-criminals. He called himself a "Chagu Fighter". He told us to keep fighting those Jamat-Shibir and similar groups.  He was an atheist but hardly wrote anything on it. I was a blogger in Nagorik blog. He was also (and a very old one). But, he had only 2 post there. Both were on politics. On other blogs, the number was a little more than 2. But, mostly against Jamat-Shibir and similar groups. 

He also believed in super naturals. We were puzzled by the fact. But he said, he was not anti-religious. He believed, there might be some power beyond our comprehension. But he denied the current sketch of that power as GOD or Allah or anything else in the known religions.

For the last few days, I have been watching the Facebook, Blogs were full of the news & discussions on the Arrest of the Bloggers. Everyone wrote something about them. Some wrote about Russel Parvez, Some about Subrata Shuvo. But what about my Brother? Well, what to say about him? Has he done anything? He don't write that much. In fact, he is not even a proper blogger. All he did was being against the Jamat-Shibir and similar groups. That's the reason now Police is saying that he has been writing against Islam and their Prophet, criticizing him for 5-6 years!!! That's the reason he was arrested!!! He was a nobody and nobody cares about a nobody. So, the police can easily do the eye-wash by arresting him.

His Birthday was on 5th April, 1971. Yes, he was born with this country. He was very young and youthful. A heart patient and has Gastric problems, he lived on medications, still looked full of life. But Now, he is very sick. His eyes are clouded, his hands legs looks like they are filled with water.  Now he looks old. He looks like he has lost the fight. And for the past few days, somehow, it feels like this country is also very tired and sick, as if she also has lost the fight. 

I'm avoiding the mirror theses days. I don't have the courage even to face my own-self. I also lost the fight. My loved ones snatched away by the government to save their own ass. 

And in this process, I lost a friend, lost a mentor, and lost a brother whom I never had...