Ekushey Padak awardee Polan Sarker passes away

Polan Sarker, who rose to prominence for his life-long endeavour to educate people of his locality by walking to village after villages and lending books to promote the habit of reading, has passed away at the age of 98.

Sarker who was awarded the prestigious Ekushey Padak in 2011 for his dedication toward social welfare, breathed his last at his home in Bagha upazila’s Bausa village around 12:30pm today.

He was suffering from old age complications for last few days, said his son Haider Ali.

His original name is Harez Uddin, but he is well known as Polan Sarker.

Polan Sarker was born in Natore’s Bagatipara upazila on September 10, 1921, but the death of his father forced her mother to move to her parents’ house in Bagha of Rajshahi. Raised without a father, he could barely complete his primary education. But his thirst for knowledge was unquenchable.

He became engaged with theatre artistes of his area and began reading the scripts of folk songs and dramas he would perform. He developed a habit of buying books from local libraries and reading those regularly.

Soon he became skilled enough on the Bengali language to be hired for writing deeds of lands purchase, different business agreements and writing the minute details of different meetings and conferences.

At certain time in the 80s, he was motivated to educate his neighbours and began walking to their doorsteps and lending them the books he purchased for his own reading.

In 2008, he built a library on his own land at his village with assistance from Rajshahi Zilla Parishad. The library has now five different book distribution points at different villages.

Following him inspiring people for reading books, some of the youths of his village joined him and raised a movement for reading books.

The news of his death shrouded the villagers with grief and people who loved him began thronging at his home.