He is an icon for education and quest for knowledge, recognised as a National Professor for statistics. He was well known for mathematics and playing chess, not to forget mentioning that he pioneered in opening the statistics department at Dhaka University. He was a dedicated educationist by profession.

Though from a simple, not-so-affluent family, he used to play tennis and was good in it. He even became a champion in the university tournament. This I mention for a reason. In those days, this game was well outside the reach of middle to lower-class people. But he proved that where there is will, there is a way.

He always gave due importance to time. I found him doing things by the clock. Very seldom he'd miss out on any program. He liked walking, and in those days Dhaka was pretty to walk around. His sense of time was so good that he would attend meetings by walking down, distance was never a factor, and he would time his start in such a way that he would invariably reach five minutes before any function/meeting.

Once he was caught off-guard when he thought the gate of Carzon Hall would be open but he found it closed. Realising that he would be late for the meeting, he climbed over, disregarding what the people would say and reached the meeting on time. This was at the age of sixty-plus! He also utilised time in as many ways as his intelligence permitted. He would demonstrate using time properly in various ways, but would seldom impose on others and I found it a good way of teaching others.

It would not be right on my part to write on a person of his caliber. But what I can do is to write the little that I know about him from my own experience and observations. My mother use to talk, amongst other qualities, about his ability to solve any type of mathematical questions and to play chess. He was then a world-class chess player and was also all-India champion. I never fancied anything that demanded brain work, particularly a game of chess. That alone was the main reason for my scrounging in studies.

Today, at this age I have been able to identify why I never liked to tax my brain. Actually, in my mind I was awfully disorganised and my vocabulary pitiful. Dr. Hossain was just the opposite; he was very methodical about all his actions, always planned out things in his mind, never lost track of the process and never compromised with standard.

If he got interested in any subject he would systematically study it without leaving out any bit unscrutinised. This I found out when my mother goaded me to go to him and get help for my matriculation exams in mathematics. I would go helter-skelter with sums of different types. It did not take him long to establish that I was not good enough for class seven, leave aside matriculation. I was at a tremendous loss, in a sense, that he was now trying his best to take me from class seven to matriculation. I went a few more times to him and then stopped going. Withered with time, he must have set his own rules, never pestered me for not going. Seeing no enthusiasm in me, he possibly just dropped the subject.

Like most of the people when they are young, I had formed opinion about him and other elders. I thought he was too bookish, whiling away time in a silly game of chess, not concerned about the doings of the family, not humorous, didn't have enough love (after all, how much love can one give to thirteen children?), etc.

It was only later on I found out that I was so way out of line. He was just the opposite. One or two examples should suffice to prove how wrong I was. My aunty, his second daughter, became a widow at a very early age. She hadn't pursued studies as should have been done. He went to her house, brought her home, and got her admitted to pursue education. With that boost in her life she lived a very respectable life and raised four daughters.

I had never seen him engaged in husband-wife talks with my grandmother, so I thought he didn't much care. My grandmother was a shy type but a very progressive-minded woman who believed very strongly in performing duties. She looked after my grandfather very well. When she passed to the other world, the loss overwhelmed him with sorrow which knew no bounds. His love for her shone through.