Stories of lands and people

Everything in life can be written about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and by publishing Around Half the World in Sixty Years Abdul Matin has displayed his guts. He may not be a writer by profession but has blended simplicity and reflections quite honestly. Around Half the World in Sixty Years is a collection of nineteen travel anecdotes based on the author's roving experiences around half the globe. Since his first trip as a scout to participate in the first National Scout Jamboree in 1952 Abdul Matin has undergone a number of journeys which eventually opened his eyes for exploring more. His interactions with different cultures, peoples and their ways of life are described with historical and geographical information of the places he has been to. Truly travelling broadens the mind.
Pleasantly notable ones among the stories are 'The Land of the Midnight Sun', 'Moscow: During the Cold War', 'Mohenjo-Daro: An Ancient City', 'four capitals in Europe', 'Rome wasn't Built in a Day' and 'Kashmir: A Paradise on Earth'.
For this reviewer it was enjoyable to go through the stories as all of them came with a nostalgic kick of the Cold War era, since all of them have been presented with the political and economic realities of those days. For instance, few in today's Bangladesh know that the first feasibility study for building a power plant at Rooppur dates back as early as 1969 when then the Soviet government played an important role. It needs to be noted that the generation Abdul Matin represents was largely of a conservative mindset. A generation that had undertaken excursion trips for the sake of rejuvenation in more conventional tourist places. The writer in this regard is off the track. The more he travels the more he discovers. He becomes mature enough to draw the comparisons of times and people.
When he travelled as a student he explored Europe from the lenses of a romantic adventure. When travelled to Europe in later years as a professional, Matin's descriptions of the continent seem more constrained and formal. However, it is never boring as most of the stories can be taken seriously to be a form of record keeping.
You may want to ask about the 'need for recording them'.
Well, the answer is simple: some of his stories shed light on various important facts and events related to the history of our Atomic Energy Commission since it came into being as the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1956 and later, in 1973, came to be known as the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) in 1973. The writer till his retirement saw the transformation, growth, achievements and limitations of this government institute.
With a touch of rectitude, imagination and skill some of the stories could easily gain wider recognition.
As a nuclear reactor engineer Matin does not restrict his thoughts and wanderings within his professional boundaries but goes much beyond. He writes it. Apart from being the writer of the book he is also a regular contributor to the Daily Star's Op-ed section  (seeking respite in writing of late)
Last but never the least is: professionals in our country after retiring from service tend to be more relaxed and lethargic. But Abdul Matin ran the extra mile to write about the sixty years of his life that he lived across half the globe.

Shahriar Feroze is with The Daily Star