Sudhin Das - End of an Era

Nazrul Academy was established by the renowned poet and Nazrul devotee Talim Hossain right after the emergence of Bangladesh. Artist Sudhin Das had taken refuge in poet Talim Hossain's home during the liberation war. Poet Talim Hossain and his wife Mafruha Hossain gave refuge to many families, including that of Artist Ajit Ray. 

Guru Sudhin Das hailed from Comilla, he became one of the trainers in Nazrul Academy and gradually moved to Dhaka. During those times he appeared often on TV, singing Tagore songs, Nazrul songs and modern songs. His wife, the beautiful lady, always with a sweet 'newbride'–like look, sang some eminent numbers from Nazrul 'baka churir moton'. As a student, I often watched them on TV.

I heard from my friends Sadya Mullick and Dahlia Nausheen that they learned from him, I always wanted to, but my academic routine had me bonded in twenty four hour slots. After completing my Masters degree, in 1982, I became a student of Guru Sudhin Das. Even then, I could not attend the regular classes offered at the Nazrul Academy, I was already a 'Lecturer' at the Dhaka University, Dada arranged to teach me, according to my schedule. Good that he did, as I got to know him personally through one to one lessons at the Nazrul Academy, when the usual classes were over and with the lamp akin to that of Abraham Lincoln, he waited for me to arrive, when everyone else had finished classes and left.

As I learned later, he did that for many other students, it was his mission to propagate the songs of poet Kazi Nazrul Islam among the next generation. He did that as a mission he received no payment from me, or others that I know of. He was a representative of the genre of selfless Gurus, about whom we have heard from our forefathers, 'Mastermoshai' of a pathshala where they had studied, in the current generation we had encountered Sudhin Das as the same. At 'Shilpa Kala Academy' he shared his pan with Ustad Omar Faruk and often they would ask me about the ragas that I had learned from my classical trainer Ustad Akhter Shadmani. One day he brought me a short lose paper, he had written some taans in raga chayanaut because I was learning this raga. During this time, he was also working on the notation of the Nazrul Islam songs which were not readily available. Later, he told me, he was given the task of making notations of the original records (of Nazrul) lying in the collection of Brahma Mohan Tagore (West Bengal). This mission aroused a new interest in him, in not only providing notation of the available songs, but also to hunt for old records. Like an archivist, he went to remote areas of Bangladesh,walking sometimes for miles at a stretch, getting tipped off that some home in the nearby area has a collection of old 78 rpm records. He sometimes forced his entry to unknown homes and sat through huge collection of old records just in search of one Nazrul album!

After publishing seven volumes of authentic notations from Nazrul Academy, he was absorbed in the newly formed Nazrul Institute (during mid 80s). During this time he started teaching at the Abbasuddin Shongeet Academy established by my aunt Ferdausi Rahman and once again, I got an opportunity to learn from him.

Here too, I learned after the office hours, when I had finished teaching at the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). Sometimes, the rented premises in Banani would close their classrooms and Dada would teach me sitting in the grass. His voice resonates in my mind 'Zareen horofe lekha, Rinik jhinik jhini, He namazi amar ghore'. Even to the last days of his life, whenever I went to the Nazrul Institute, I found him teaching the Nazrul songs, 'phulero jalshay neerob keno kobi'.

And today he is silent himself. Almost four thousand song notations have been published by the Nazrul Institute under the able leadership and guidance of Sudhin Das. His eyes gave way, but he used the magnifying glass to see and feel the words, he went from one eye doctor to another. He wanted his vision back, only to complete his task. What Sudhin Das has given to us is not only contextual to Bangladesh, it is a global gift as these songs have now become immortal and with that Sudhin Das is synonymous.