1971: Memories, Facts and Words Overheard

It was hot and muggy on 25 March 1971, with nothing to suggest that the day would turn into an ghastly night. The usual no-work gang were lounging around; my brother was washing the family car and the rest were just doing nothing. This included my banker-father who had been transferred to Karachi on the ground that he had given unsecured loans—small ones—to the wretchedly poor, affected by the cyclone of 1970. He had refused to go and taken leave instead. Like so many of Dhaka’s provincial elite, he was hoping that the matter would be settled peacefully, and he would get an even better job under a new central government with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League (AL) at the helm.