Selim Al Deen laid to rest

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The road to Jahangirnagar University Muktamancha (amphitheatre) remained calm and the centre of all cultural activities froze to a condoling silence as a pensive crowd walked beside the coffin carrying the dead body of eminent playwright Selim Al Deen for burial.

Hundreds of teachers, students, cultural and social activists, friends and well-wishers paid their last homage to Selim Al Deen, one of the most important theatre icons in the subcontinent.

Students in tears carried the coffin to the grave near the university central mosque.

Selim Al Deen was laid to rest at 5:57pm.

Before the coffin was lowered into the grave, many gathered to have a last look at the creator of many brilliant pieces of drama, which have contributed to keeping Bangla theatre ever alive.

Earlier in the morning, thousands of people paid tribute to Selim, placing floral wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar where the body was kept.

The professor of drama and dramatics department at JU breathed his last around 2:00pm on Monday at city’s Labaid Cardiac Hospital at the age of 58.

“Selim is the best humanitarian artist. One requires to have a good understanding of world history, literature and Bangla theatre to understand him and his work,” said prominent theatre personality and Selim’s friend Nasiruddin Yousuff Bachchu.

“I am not feeling well. I had so many things to write but I will not write. Selim, my friend, sleep in peace,” wrote JU Vice-Chancellor Khandaker Mustahidur Rahman in the condolence book kept at the drama and dramatics department.

The body of Selim was brought to campus by an ambulance at 2:39pm.

Hundreds of students, teachers, university officers and employees lined up on both sides of the road in front of the old arts faculty building as the ambulance went towards the drama and dramatics department, which Selim had founded.

Writers, dramatists, actors, theatre activists, teachers and students from across the country thronged JU to pay their last homage to the person who brought back the year-old Bangla drama to modern theatre and popularised it.

The body was then taken to Selim’s residence on the campus.

At the department, teachers and students observed silence for five minutes as a respect to Selim.

Then in a procession they carried the dead body to the amphitheatre ground for people to pay homage.

After burial, students brought out a candle procession from the grave at 7:00pm and paraded the streets on the campus.

“What makes Selim different from any other dramatist is that he felt the presence of other life forces, such as the rivers that makes Bangladesh a delta, and everything appears in its own characteristics in Selim’s works,” said Bachchu.

“In the structure of work, theme and intellect, all the works of Selim themselves are distinct and different from each other. As he had a different new thought about everything, many found it difficult to understand his works,” said Dr Biplab Bala.

Eminent actor Asaduzzaman Noor said Selim died at an age when he began to think more critically on the basis of his vast experience.

Selim endeavoured to show the power of Bangla theatre. He spent his life showing both in theory and practice that beyond the colonial structure of drama the East has its own thousands-year-old powerful structure and form of drama.

Selim’s plays such as Kittonkhola, Keramatmangal, Hat Hadai, Chaka, Joiboti Konyar Mon, Banpangshul and Nimojjan have left an indelible impression on the minds of his audience.

TRIBUTES

Selim’s body was kept on the National Museum premises around 9:15am. Then a procession carried the coffin to the Central Shaheed Minar at 10:00am.

Later, his body taken to DU central mosque for janaza.

Primary and Mass Education Adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury, Awami League leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Abdur Razzaq and Syed Ashraful Islam, poet Syed Shamsul Haq and Syed Anwara Haq, Workers’ Party President Rashed Khan Menon and placed wreaths at Shaheed Minar.

Prof Anisuzzaman, Prof Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, Prof AK Azad Chowdhury, Prof SMA Faiz, artist Qayyum Chowdhury, Shahriar Kabir, Prof Muntasir Mamoon and Prof Mansur Musa also paid tribute to Selim at the Shaheed Minar.

Dhaka Theatre, people from Selim’s village Shenerkhil, Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Islami University, Chhatra Maitree, Bangabandhu Parishad, Udichi, music and theatre department of Dhaka University, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Bangaldesher Samajtantrik Dal, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Gono Forum, Bangladesh Chhatra League, Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Bangladesh Chhatra Front, Dhaka Padatik, Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Mirmul Committee, Kanthoshilon, DU Teacher-Student Centre, Mohila Awami League, Bangladesh Pathonatya Parishad, Bangladesh Abritti Samonnoy Parishad and Prajonmo paid tribute to Selim.

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