A general, a friend
I had been looking at my mobile phone for a while now. Major General Shakil had two phone numbers, which were in my list of contacts. I was wondering if I should delete those numbers. My heart says one thing, my brain another. The heart says the phone will suddenly start ringing with his caller id brightly lit, but the tragic reality is that I will never receive calls from those numbers again.
When Major General Shakil Ahmed received his transfer orders to the BDR he was on duty in Rangpur. He called me and said that, as BDR was a very old organisation with a rich tradition, he wanted books written and documentaries made about the history of the organisation. This is how he felt about BDR when he got his transfer order.
After joining the BDR, Major General Shakil may have taken the initiative to follow through his dream of preserving this history in books and documentaries, but neither he nor his friends ever thought that he himself would become a part of this history so cruelly.
General Shakil was an extremely affable man, and had many friends outside the military It was often the case that General Shakil was at the side of his friends, not only in the good times but also in their times of need. But it was not only his friends that got to see this side of General Shakil -- his empathy and affection for the soldiers was remarkable.
He had visited the fair-price stores that the BDR ran the "dal-bhat" program. He had tried to alleviate the troubles of the soldiers as much as he could. At a minute's notice he would go over to border positions of the BDR to uphold the best interests of his nation. He was never interested in TV coverage of these activities. His only interest was the progress of his soldiers and their wellbeing.
72 hours before his death, in the last interview he was to give, he talked to Channel I about the development of the BDR and the problems they were facing. On arriving at the offices of Channel I, General Shakil had said that the honourable prime minister would be visiting the BDR HQ on the 24th, and many were expecting that there would be talk of the problems faced by the soldiers. He said that he would find out the troubles and worries of the soldiers and then present them to the honourable prime minister.
General Shakil would often say: "I am a son of a soldier. I do not expect any officer to understand the soldiers better than myself." Apart from his deep empathy with his soldiers, and the affection he had for them, General Shakil had one other quality about him.
After his transfer from Rangpur to Dhaka, he asked me to visit him at his office one day, when it looked like it would rain. It started to rain heavily on the way to his office.
His room had an entire wall made of glass, and I could see the rain in all its glory.
"Will you be able to see the rain like this anywhere else in Dhaka?" he asked.
It is hard to find a man amidst the hustle and bustle of the city who makes the time to sit back and appreciate these simple pleasures, who enjoys watching the rain, listening to it. And who enjoys Rabindra Sangeet.
He had started a beautification project in BDR Pilkhana, and planted a variety of flower plants all over the compound. To make sure that these flowers reached the public as well, he had set up a florist in Rifles Square.
He preferred a simple lifestyle. On Eid day or on special occasions he would visit his friends and close ones in a simple panjabi and without a security detail. When he had to travel outside Dhaka on government business, he would travel by plane like any ordinary passenger.
General Shakil treated the junior officers that worked with him like friends. Three months ago his ADC, Captain Majher, got married. At that time he told his friends: "I will be a little busy the next few days. My son is getting married." True to his words, on the day of the reception, General Shakil was hosting the guests at the BDR Darbar Hall, not as the chief of the BDR but as a father. Hundred days onward, at that very spot, when the BDR jawans was about to shoot, Captain Majher stood up not to protect a general but a father.
Captain Majher's stance was fatal.
Usually, friendships are formed at an early age. Once a certain age threshold is crossed, it is difficult to find new friends. In my professional life I had found two very dear friends. Today one of them belongs to another world. The other is carrying out his important duties diligently. Like all my friends, he knows, people leave, and they leave behind only their contributions and memories.
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