Celebration
The mind shapers
Bishwo Shahitto Kendro celebrates its silver jubilee
Sadya Afreen Mallick and Harun ur Rashid
It was mid-day when we entered through the gates of Bishwo Shahitto Kendro, situated at Bangla Motor, when a cool breeze swept across. The huge building being freshly painted, the hedges trimmed, Anjon Dutt's songs played from the music system filled the air with contentment. We waited upstairs from where a partial view of the building was visible. Dia (earthen lamps) were placed all along the railing and high walls to be lit in the evening. Outside, the hustle and bustle of the city life was going on in full swing but nothing seemed to disturb the peace inside the campus. Sipping from a steaming cup of tea, we watched the entire scenario, a huge library for students, well stocked with books, the auditorium downstairs, the sprouting greenery all around. It was like a picture out of a book.Bishwo Shahitto Kendro (BSK) celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary today, the 19th of December, 2003. 'What was the main philosophy behind your building an organisation to enlighten the young minds?' we asked. 'We want to make well rounded persons' said Abdullah A Sayeed, chairman of the trustee board of the BSK. 'We want to develop the children into a disciplined force, to uphold the moral values, and instill the quality of a good human being with faith, honesty, integrity and patriotism in the young minds.' The other members of the trustee board are Luthfur Rahman Sharkar, Mehboob Jamil, M Fariduddin, AKM Rafiuddin and Dr. Atiur Rahman. Quoting from Rabindranath Tagore, Abu Sayeed said 'Amar Eyy Poth Cholatei Ananda.' 'It was after our independence, that it had occurred to me that the children, who would be our driving force, need to be nurtured into worthy citizens. They needed extra care.' 'The main objective of the BSK is to create an environment throughout the country, conducive to foster enlightened young minds to become worthy citizens. After our initial success in the capital, we planned to reach out to the whole country.' The enlightenment programme begins with a well-stocked library in Dhaka amounting to about a lac of books and setting up of mobile library units. By providing book reading facilities to over a 1000 schools and relating to other cultural activities it aims at providing the school and college students with literature to enrich their intellectual faculties. The mobile library units provide book-lending services to 180 spots in Dhaka, Chittagong and the Khulna metropolis, catering to hundred thousand students of schools and colleges. Eventually the mobile library units propelled by 4000-5000 volunteers, will be extended to all the district towns covering all the upozillas, small townships and market places covering 4000 spots catering to three hundred thousand readers. A small library stocked with classics and chosen books is being built in each of the 500 branches of the nation wide enrichment programme. The weekly programme held in schools facilitates the young readers and gradually encourages the reading habit. Children from different schools gather together and are offered about 16 books a year, suitable for their age. If they require more, an additional 9 more books are provided. Every Friday they take the books home and return it next week in exchange for another book. At the end of an academic year the children who get to read the most number of books are rewarded from the Kendro. Every year BSK presents books worth taka 15 to 20 Lacs among its participants at the school level. Study circle is another important endeavour of the Kendro that holds lectures and seminars on subjects including philosophy politics, history, fine arts, music, film etc. Eminent personalities in these fields are often invited to conduct these sessions. The audiovisual programme enriches the aesthetic sensibilities. By becoming members at a nominal charge one can listen to the world's greatest collections of concerts, supplied with music cassettes, and an arrangement is made for 10 listeners to listen to music simultaneously. The Kendro has initiated a monumental project in publishing. This vast project will produce the 'thoughts of the Bangali' in the last two centuries covering various fields. 'When the project will ends next June, there will be about 250 volumes covering the thoughts of the Bangali on politics, philosophy, sociology, literature, music and many other subjects. Surely the work of encyclopaedic volume will be a milestone in our history. Sayeed is also one of our remarkable writers. Asked how much he can do of it, he says,' An organiser doesn't have much scope for writing.' Jokingly he adds. 'Politicians write books only when they go to jail. I'm also trying...!' But the jokes apart, Sayeed has written five books in last 19 years and considers it as an achievement. Regarding the development of the country Sayeed opines that we have developed materialistically beyond imagination, but deteriorated in our values by the same proportion. 'Now that we are rich, we have to bring back the values,' he sarcastically adds. Asked if he wants to interact with the English medium schools, Sayeed informs that once he was invited by two or three of them. 'But the endeavour didn't last long!' Sayeed, however, has schemes for introducing English in the nationwide project soon. 10 books in English have already been prepared. In the year 2500 BC, the great philosopher Socrates was often seen in broad daylight running about the streets of Athens with a lantern in his hand. People could hear him shouting out aloud, 'Come back in the path of light'. The great scholar had used the lantern as a symbol to bring mankind away from the darkness of ignorance to the path of knowledge. Bangladesh may not be able to boast of a Socrates in its midst, but if we look back, our region has had its share of torch-bearers pushing the limits of education and culture to new heights. What is heartening is the role of a number of a handful of enlightened personalities , who did not fail to leave a powerful footprint in the realm of knowledge.
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