Sulaiman -- my loving friend

Sulaiman Chaudhury

I am not used to writing anything without proper thinking. It is only on a rare occasion that I do this. The last time was when my good friend S.M. Ali, the noted journalist and founder editor of The Daily Star, expired. I am doing the same thing once again on the demise of Sulaiman Chaudhury, an eminent banker.
I first met Sulaiman on January 4, 1949. On that day, perhaps ten of us were waiting in the State Bank office to meet the manager. Each one of us was holding a letter of selection for Bank Officials Training Scheme.
I found that I knew them from university days, except one handsome young person wearing a suit and oxford shoes. I asked him who he was and whether he was also a student of Dhaka University. He said that he had studied in Calcutta and after his M.A., had worked in a bank for more than a year. This came to me as a surprise, since none of us had ever visited a bank or had a bank account until then. I left the place very impressed after talking to him -- a person with banking experience. For me, this was a strange experience.
The next day, when I reported to Central Bank of India office at Sadarghat where I was assigned for the first phase of training, I met him there to my surprise. He told me that he had also been placed at the same bank for training. From that day on our friendship started, developed, and ended on his demise the other day.
During this long period of 60 years he built up a banking career, which could be a matter of pride for any successful banker in our country. As far as I can remember, after leaving training in the middle, he joined as an officer in the then Imperial Bank of India, and then the State Bank of Pakistan.
He then served in Eastern Mercantile Bank, the first regional bank in East Pakistan, and as a senior official in the newly found Agricultural Bank of Pakistan. In the later part of the '60s, he became chief manager of Industrial Bank, and ultimately became head of that institution. He also served as managing director of Shilpa Rin Sangstha, Rupali Bank and Janata Bank after the emergence of Bangladesh.
In each of these positions, he earned a reputation as an excellent, honest and very efficient officer. While we were moving in different trajectories in our professional careers, we never lost touch with each other. On the contrary, our friendship grew deeper and our family members became closer to each other.
With his many qualities, and with his magnificent and magnetic personality, he was very popular in the social circle of Dhaka. Almost from the beginning of his official career, he became a Rotarian, not only in name but also in deed, and was associated with many charitable works. By nature he was an extrovert and fond of talking on diverse interests.
Unlike many of us, position, power and prestige never hung heavily on his shoulders. Only when our friendship deepened did I come to know that he was from a respected family from Sylhet and that Syed Mujtaba Ali saheb was his maternal uncle and S.M. Ali was his first cousin. He was the only son of his father, who was an eminent scholar in Islamic Studies, who expired when Sulaiman was very young.
I watched with great admiration how he gallantly shouldered the responsibility of looking after his mother and his young sisters without a single murmur of complaint. Later on, he did the same thing with his sons and daughters, of whom two are PhDs and two are eminent doctors -- all well placed in Dhaka and abroad.
I will remember him as a great friend who always stood by me, sharing my joys and sorrows, and provided all the help and advice that I stood in need of. I never thought he would predecease me. When I last met him last March at Dhaka, I had no idea that his end was near. If I could, then, I would have told my loving friend the following lines:

My latest sun is sinking fast
My race is nearly run
My strongest friends now past
My triumph is begun
I know I am nearing the holy ranks
Of friend and kindred dear
I brush the dews of Jordan's banks
The crossing must be near
Adieu, my loving friend, your triumph is begun.

Mr. A.K.N. Ahmed is a former Governor of Bangladesh Bank.