Feature

A Tribute to My Favorite Mentor:
Comrade Hena Das

Lutfa Khan

I still remember my school days and our angel, “boro apa”, (head teacher), who was a real sparkle in the gloomy world of English for me. She always gave me a vision for learning English and tought me how to face the real world. She did not teache from the book, she tought us with her personal, social, political experiences, and with her love, and informed me about peoples' lives and sufferings so that I could become a good human being.

Comrade Hena Das was born in Sylhet, February 12, 1924. She was influenced by the anti-British movement when she was in class seven. She got involved with Chhatra Federation, a progressive student organization, in 1938, and became a member of the Communist Party in 1942 after she passed her intermediate level in first division, and married a communist leader, Rohinee Das, in 1948. She served as headmaster of a non-government school. She joined the Liberation War and distributed relief among the refugees who took shelter in India.

She took charge during the Nankar Movement in 1948-49 and worked with the female tea garden workers for trade union to realise their rights. She got involved to the Teachers' Association in 1978 and was the elected general secretary and vice president for 14 long years. She was one of the members of the first education commission headed by Dr Qudrat-e-Khuda and won many awards. She received the national award - Begum Rokeya Padak in 2001. She authored a number of books which include Amar Shikkha O Shikkhokota Jibon, Sritimoy Dingulo, Smritimoy Ekattor, Pancham Purush and Char Purusher Kahini. She was the vice president of the first committee of Mahila Parishad and served as its president for long eight years. She was nominated for the Nobel Piece Prize in 2005. A legendary leader of feminist movement, she passed way on 20 July at the age of 85.

The significant fact is that there are so many teachers around us, but few of them are mentors whose influence is not easy to measure by years served on graded papers. Rather, it is measured in the heart of a student. I am overcome with gratitude for my angelic teacher. Through her inspiration, I started to read Russian literature and enlightened my world. Today I realized the depth of Leo Tolstoy, Pushkin, Lermentov, Gogol, and Dostoevsky.

No doubt a true teaching from the heart extends through time. Great teachers and mentors live on long after their careers, or their lives. After her retirement, her influence lives on in me. Once she told me, “you are passing a difficult time because you don't know who your enemy is.” I understood after the bomb attacks at Udichi cultural program in Jessore and Ramna Batamool in Dhaka.

My salute to Boro apa who made me a human being like herself. My greatest of thanks to a selfless mentor who truly deserves to be called my second parent.