Rose Bu

THE passing away of Mrs. Shamsunnahar Rahman, everybody's "Rose Bu," is like a quiet but shining star suddenly disappearing from sight.
The many who knew her personally will mourn her demise as a very personal loss, for she was "Rose Bu" to all of them, with everything this affectionate term implies. But she was also "Rose Bu" to the nation, in whose moment of struggle against its greatest adversary -- the Pak military -- she was a quietly relentless worker in association with her husband Mukhlesur Rahman Sidhu Bhai, constantly working to assist the resistance in so many ways.
She helped thousands of people cross the border, at the same time carrying messages to and from the Mujibnagar government -- journeying on foot, by bus, rickshaws and boats back and forth from Dhaka to Mujibnagar and Kolkata.
In my own memoirs on 1971, published by the Liberation War Museum, I have reproduced my diary and that of my wife, narrating how Rose Bu personally accompanied my wife and two minor daughters all the way to help them cross the border through hazardous routes when my wife was unsure how to make it otherwise. And she did this for many others while remaining constantly busy in helping the liberation struggle in many other ways. But she did not for a moment think of taking any public credit for her quiet but invaluable contribution to our liberation struggle. Such was the true greatness of this lady, before whose completely selfless dedication so many of us who knew her intimately always had our heads bowed in the greatest reverence.
Rose Bu had many other contributions to the advancement of our society, by way of constant social and cultural service before and after our independence, including being a Founder Member of Chhayanaut as a cultural movement and as a school of music.
For me, she was a tower of support and encouragement in my pursuit of Rabindra sangeet as an art, holding innumerable soirees in her house over several years and inviting persons of taste to listen to whatever I was capable of delivering -- in a sense hers has been one of the two houses in Dhaka which have "nursed" my singing life, for whatever this has been worth, out of a deep love for the beauty of Tagore songs.
As I and my wife Dora mourn the physical loss of Rose Bu, along with hundreds of those who had come close to her and had been blessed with her affection and support in dire need or otherwise, we know at the same time that persons like Rose Bu are immortal as they keep shining in the memory of the nation, never to fade.

Md. Anisur Rahman is ex-Professor of Economics, University of Dhaka.