These two young children were being helped by Barrister Shajahan’s project for street children in Dhaka. I do not remember the exact name of the project, but he once told me how, to win the trust of the street children, he would dress up scruffy and hang around on the streets where the street children usually congregated. And that it took him a while before some street children started to trust him and joined his project. I took these photos in the mid-1990s.
In addition to a range of support and life-skills development provided, the children were also taught how to draw and encouraged to depict their street life experiences and observations through painting. In these two pictures, if you look carefully at the drawings, you will see how young children are easily brutalized by their life living in the streets.
Barrister Shajahan, while at the canteen of the Montefiore Centre, East London, in 1984 or 85, told me that he feels very positive about the future of the Bangladeshi community in the UK. This was, as he told me, after observing the rising movement of Bangladeshis since the murder of Altab Ali and the creation of the Federation of Bangladeshi Youth Organisations (FBYO). He thought this kind of organized, non-political-party-based, positive spirited movement was the first among the Bangladeshis anywhere. He knew most of the emerging young leaders in East London at that time, some of whom he directly supported and mentored and inspired before his move back to Bangladesh.
I will write a full blog article about my interactions with Barrister Shajahan and his long lectures to us, during any opportunity, with a view to inspiring and energising us to love and serve our motherland.
The last time I met him was at Dhaka airport, probably in 1999 when I landed there. He also just arrived in Dhaka from somewhere I did not know. He did not look well, told me that he was having some health issues and then invited me to come for dinner. We spoke on the phone and he invited me to come for lunch at his apartment in Dhanmondi. It was a lovely lunch and a nice conversation. The same evening I took a gentle 30 hours boat-cruise to Khulan with about six stops on the way.