Nuhash Palli was very close to his heart and so Humayun Ahmed was laid to rest there after his death, a year back.
Keeping with the wishes of Humayun, his wife Meher Afroz Shawon on Thursday gave the graveyard a facelift, ahead of the first death anniversary of the deceased playwright and filmmaker on Friday.
A white marble tombstone now adorns the grave. The pyramid-shaped grave is draped in green grass and a transparent glass wall encloses it.
Actress and a student of architecture, Shawon told bdnews24.com: “A white marble tombstone was put on his grave on a surface of grass, just the way he wrote about it in his book ‘Kath Pencil’. I did the symmetric design.”
“This is not just anyone’s grave. That’s why it is specially designed. Anyone entering through the gate will walk on a corridor leading to his grave. There is a walk-space surrounding the grave.”
There are two entrances to Humayun Ahmed’s tomb. The entrance at the western end is for the common people to come and pay their respects to the late writer. The east gate is only for the family members.
Names of all his creations – novel, plays, films and other works – will be written on the glass wall surrounding the grave, Shawon said.
The most-popular fiction writer of Bangladesh had died on July 19, 2012, at a New York hospital after a nine-month battle against colon cancer, bringing the curtain down on a nearly four-decade long illustrious career.
The following four days were passed anxiously as Shawon and other kins of Humayun failed to reach a consensus on his last resting place.
On July 24, he was buried at his favourite place at Gazipur, named after his eldest son, Nuhash, as per the wish of Shawon, his second wife.
So how was the last one year at Nuhash Palli without Humayun?
Shawon said, “Nuhash Palli’s progress has been stranded by his death. He was always planning something new for its development. His dreams beautified it. He would have made Nuhash Palli more beautiful had he been alive.”
“But he’s not. Everything here has stopped.”
Humayun Ahmed wanted to build another cottage named ‘House Kabbala’ at Nuhash Palli, just like the one he named “Voot Bilas’.
Shawon says she wants to fulfil that dream.
Every year at least for two or three days, Humayun used to have Iftar here, during Ramadan, along with the staff of his retreat, production house unit and friends and neighbours.
Shawon said there would be no programmes, other than Iftar and special prayers on his first death anniversary.
“Dates were must at Iftar, which he liked to have along with everyone. After Iftar, he wanted to have Tehari. We have made arrangement for these.”
All members of Humayun’s family, including his ageing mother Ayesha Fayez, have been invited, she said.
Nuhash Palli’s caretaker Saiful Islam Bulbul said Shawon arrived there with her two sons, Nishad and Ninit, on Wednesday night. Humayun’s three children from his first wife – Shila Ahmed, Nova Ahmed and Nuhash Humayun – also visited and offered prayers at their father’s grave.
Shawon said she has started working as an architect besides directing plays, thus taking the helm of the family after Humayun’s death.
She along with three friends opened an architecture firm named Dots Limited at Gulshan in Dhaka, around nine months ago. She with two other friends is also going to open a restaurant ‘Central Park’ in the capital. It is likely to be inaugurated on July 25.
Shawon is also on the verge of completing two plays named ‘Angul’ and ‘Binar Ashukh’. These would go on air this Eid-ul-Fitr.
She continued, “Humayun Ahmed loved to watch the old plays and films he directed, and liked to read his own books. When we were in New York, after watching his own directed drama ‘Nimful’, he had wished to work in it again and release it on his return to Dhaka.”
“He’s no more, so I have recast Nimful. It won’t be the same, I know.”
The recast play, directed by her, will be telecast on private TV station Channel i on Friday, to mark the death anniversary of the legendary playwright, who had won The Ekushey Padak and The Bangla Academy award.
Shawon, in her 30s, the second wife of the author of more than 300 bestsellers, is still mourning the absence of Humayun, despite living in his memories and works.
“Everything is just the same at Nuhash Palli. Only he is gone. His place is empty…. and this emptiness will never be filled.”
Source: Bd news24