A Long Way To Go: A Travelling Story (2015)

Chapter 2

“Oh I am interested” said I.

“Well, Mr. Poet do you like to see my hubby?” asked Maisha.

“Yup, I haven’t seen him for a long time since graduation” said Saiful.

 After that, we took him to her apartment. Saiful controlled his excitement when he saw Iliyas whose grumpy looks scared him.  Saiful stood up from the chair as he got scared. Iliyas smiled at him.

“Good old poet, look at you. You became muscular but still short!” exclaimed Iliyas.

“My man! I thought you were changed after graduation” said Saiful.

Both embraced each other.

“My man, I have been a cruel lawyer since that time, Haroon left us. What a horrible day it was!” said Iliyas.

“My man, it’s a really long time. Anyways, how is your case going?” asked Saiful.

“Aah, the case is good! How are the others? Ali and Sameen?” said Iliyas.

“I have been in contact with Sameen few days ago. He’s a film director who creates films which are really unique and different but trademarks are always there such as some stereotype stories” said Saiful.

“Oh! The famous director Avid Omar, is he our Sameen? My God! I watched his films. They are great” said Iliyas.

“There is only one missing. Haroon, what a man he was” said Saiful.

“We were wrong about him. If he was there, I could have embraced him tightly” said Iliyas.

I had a little sympathy with both of them. I really loved the way that Bengali friendships are presented. After all of them slept, I switched on my laptop to talk to the whisperer. I talked about how did I met Maisha, the brooding Iliyas and the charming poet Saiful. How did they reunite? The whisperer mentioned that there was one more person left- it was Sameen. He also mentioned if Haroon was there, everything would have been worse in the first day of reunion. He also said that they could recover themselves if all three friends were reunited. I agreed all his conditions.

After I went to sleep, I had a dream at midnight. It was the three men, Maisha and the other women, probably Sameen’s wife plus probably Saiful’s wife were enjoying something green and cloudy. I woke up as I have felt something good would be going.  After that, when Maisha and I had breakfast, Maisha said “Hey Debra, let’s go to the book fair. I know it’s crowded but you could get to see Saiful and his wife Adreeta, you know autographs and everything”.

“Ok then, we could go, surely” said I.

At the time we went to the book fair, we saw the crowds overloaded with lines but we broke the lines to persuade the guards. When we went inside, we saw lots of publishers decorated their own stores with some colorful apparel. Their books were selling so brilliantly that I have photographed some of the authors autographing their books.   Suddenly, I saw Saiful and his wife waving their hands around us in the store. We came near them. He was autographing in various forms: - towards children ‘love’, towards young adults ‘best of luck’ and towards adults ‘rocking’.

I enjoyed his autographs and the way people photographed him. I also saw other authors such as Muhammad Zafor Iqbal, Ahsanul Haque and everyone in the book fair. Most people were gossiping around. Some of the street boys wanted me to take some pictures of them. And yes I did click. I danced with them with a Bangla song.  Some of the songs were so funny reminds me of one of the superstars of Bangladesh’s films. You know what I mean ‘The Pom Gana guy’. Then in the car I heard a popular song. It was so romantic ‘Ek Paye Nupur’ (A bangle in the feet). It was so crowded that we left the car.

“Let us see the Shahid Minar. It’s actually called a Martyrs Memorandum” said Maisha.

“Ah yes, it’s important. Let us see” said I. 

We went to the Shahid Minar. It was almost like a seminar that people were giving flowers there. It was made of bricks that the sun sign was sealed in the middle corner. Along with us, Saiful and his wife were there.

Saiful said “ Do you know Debra, this Memorandum is important. In 21st February 1952 most students protested the language to be back into their national language from Urdu to Bengali. Most students died of the shot by the Pakistanis such as Salam, Barkat, Jabbar and other protesters. This is one of the causes where the war started before the 1971 Liberation”.

After the sun set, we put on the candles by placing them in the centre of the memorandum. I felt proud to be a Bengali even I am American. The history was so important to me that I felt that I would upload these important photos in the social networking websites.

When we had dinner, Iliyas started to talk to us in a free minded manner. Suddenly a vibration of his phone was vibrating his pocket. When he picked up, he heard a familiar voice, while he said “Oh my God! Sameen! Is that you?”