Humayun Ahmed

 

Humayun Ahmed (Bengali: হুমায়ূন আহমেদ; 13 November 1948 – 19 July 2012) was a Bangladeshi author, dramatist, screenwriter, playwright and filmmaker.[2] Ahmed emerged in the Bengali literary world in the early 1970s and over the subsequent decade became the most popular fiction writer of the country. According to Times of India,[3] largest circulation among all English-language newspapers in the world, "Humayun was a custodian of the Bangladeshi literary culture whose contribution single-handedly shifted the capital of Bengali literature from Kolkata to Dhaka without any war or revolution[3] ". His breakthrough occurred with the publication of his first novel, Nondito Noroké in 1972.[4] He was a former professor of Chemistry at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Early Life​
umayun Ahmed was born in Mohongonj, Netrokona, but his village home is Kutubpur, Mymensingh,[10] Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). His father, Faizur Rahman Ahmed, a police officer and writer, was killed by Pakistani military during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, and his mother is Ayesha Foyez. Humayun's younger brother, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, a university professor, is also a writer of mostly science fiction genre and a newspaper columnist.[11] Another brother, Ahsan Habib, is a painter and the editor of Unmad, a cartoon magazine.
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Education and early career​

Humayun Ahmed went to many schools in Sylhet, Comilla, Chittagong, Dinajpur and Bogra as his father lived in many places upon official assignment. He passed the School Certificate Examination as a student of Bogra Zilla School in 1965. He stood second in the merit list in the Rajshahi Education Board. Later he was admitted to the Dhaka College and passed the Intermediate Examination in 1967. He initially planned to study economics but suddenly changed his mind[citation needed] and got admitted into the Dhaka University to study Chemistry. He passed both BSc (Honours) and MSc with First Class. Subsequently he joined the Dhaka University as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. Later he went abroad to the North Dakota State University in the United States to study for Ph.D. After having studied physical chemistry for two years he was impressed by the lecture of a professor of polymer chemistry; and eventually secured a Ph.D degree in polymer chemistry. He returned to Bangladesh and resumed teaching at the Dhaka University. He retired as a teacher around mid 1990s to devote all his time to writing and production of film.
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Marriage​

Ahmed was married to Gultekin, granddaughter of Principal Ibrahim Khan[citation needed], in 1973. Humayun has three daughters and one son with Gultekin. He may be regarded as one of the world’s most successful writers, but despite his innumerable professional successes, he found it difficult to maintain a harmonious relationship with his first wife.Later he started an affair with a TV serial actress, Meher Afroz Shaon which lead to divorce of his marraige in 2003. He later married Meher Afroz Shaon in 2005. He has two sons from this marriage.​

 

Death​

Humayun Ahmed died on 19 July 2012 at 11.20 PM BST at Bellevue Hospital in New York City in the United States after an eleven-month struggle against colorectal cancer.[1] Humayun’s death has proven that the tragic and completely unexpected passing of an icon familiar to millions can create an emotionally unifying experience for a nation.[12]

Rashidul Bari, the author of Grameen Social Business Model,[13] wrote in Daily New Age[14] after Humayun's death:

​"So pragmatic was Humayun’s approach to love, that when he realized that his 32-year marriage to Gultekin was floundering, he filed for divorce in 2005, and married Meher Afroz Shaon shortly afterwards. Many people have tried to understand Humayun’s behavior through the poems of Nazrul: “I am disorderly and lawless, I trample under my feet all rules and discipline! I dance at my own pleasure; I am the unfettered joy of life.”

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