In Memorium of Obaidul Huq Kaka (1911-2007)

A depression hung over the low-slung land
Of deltaic Bangladesh, intermittent
Drizzle and snorting gusts of wind
Spreading misery in the hearts
Of millions keeping the last fast
Before the day of gargantuan feasts.
Amidst clips showing
The clamorous exodus of Eid holidayers
Came the sombre news:
You had quietly given us the slip.
Perfect weather for the last exit,
One might have impersonally quipped
But the thoughts that drifted
In a slow rewind through my mind
Were altogether personal,
Even intimate, Kaka --
Something so primal
In the repeated syllable! --
Taking me back to my first
Unsure experiments with literacy
And that kind, encouraging gaze
From eyes now forever shut,
Or closer in time,
The desultory chats over snacks and tea
When you heroically overcame your chronic torment
To offer me glimpses through the lenses
Of compassionate remembrance
Of the terrible lesions of history --
The ones I knew only from textbooks.
Yet you wouldn't set it all out in print
For experience had taught you
That unadorned reality is for too many
Simply too much to bear
And now that your
words can only
Fade and become garbled in memory
One can only sigh and say
Death is inexorable diminution.

Obaidul Huq was a veteran journalist, media personality and ex-editor of The Bangladesh Observer. Kaiser Haq is professor of English at Dhaka University.