Dr Zafrullah died undefeated

He sported a big white moustache on his weather-beaten rugged face with his trademark shoulder-length white hair dangling behind. His piercing eyes were set deep in his face but those eyes could hold anybody’s attention with their burning intensity. He could be ignored but his works couldn’t be denied. He was workaholic and at the center of his works were human beings and their welfare. He was never tired. He was undaunted even at the dawn of 81. He was none other than Dr Zafrullah, also known as people’s doctor.

Dr Zarfullah was sick, a kidney patient, and had to go through kidney dialysis three times a week. But those who had no knowledge of this sickness could never realize that he was an ailing man. He was old only in age but there was nothing old about him. Probably because of the burden of age the only problem, I think, he had that he couldn’t turn his tongue around well for which his voice very often seemed inaudible. Otherwise, everything about him was flamboyant.

One can easily realize it from his dawn-to-dusk active life even after being a kidney patient. How many of us can be as busy as him after three-day kidney dialysis. It is unimaginable and unbelievable. I call it an epic struggle against old age. During the corona pandemic he was down with the corona virus. Many of us thought this time he couldn’t make it but he came back to us victorious putting aside the cold hands of death to do some more works for his people.

Yes, it was people that always fascinated him and made him worried about their predicament. It was the people that inspired him to join the freedom struggle of the country. When our Liberation War broke out in 1971 he had been studying his FRCS in London. A 30-year-young man had a bright prospect of his carrier but he didn’t even flinch for a moment from his decision to jump into the whirlwind of the liberation struggle. Before he took a flight from London to land in Delhi he tore his passport into pieces in April 1971 at a rally at the Hyde Park in London.

Tearing his passport into pieces doesn’t now seem something of any importance but back then it was a seditious act for which he could have been punished if East Pakistan had not been liberated. It was a great risk he had taken at that time. Not only that, it also made him a man without any land. If the country couldn’t have become independent he would have been citizen of no country. Without being an avid and passionate nationalist one can’t go to this length.

After he landed in India first he set up a hospital ‘Bangladesh Field Hospital’ at Agartala to train a group of volunteers to prepare them as paramedics to help freedom fighters and refugees. He was so dedicated to his hospital that it later became his passion. After independence he basically turned this hospital into Gonoshasthaya Kendra to help the health sector to serve poor people in the war-ravaged country. It was this passionate patriotism of his that drove him to establish Gonoshasthaya Kendra in the independent country.

Through the Gonoshasthaya Kendra and Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospitals he continued his endeavor to contribute to the pharmaceutical sector of the country. It was for this contribution that he held the position of the chief advisor of the expert committee for Bangladesh National Medical Policy in 1982. It was this committee that was instrumental in putting a ban on seventeen hundred dangerous and unnecessary drugs through the formation of the Essential Drugs Act.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra’s motto is ‘Go to village, build village’ that conveys the clear message of his focus. His sole aim was to serve poor people living in remote villages. His sympathy and empathy for poor people is the key to his project and works. He felt for them and he tried to get closer to them to help when they were in need of help. He not only trained volunteers but also indoctrinated them to go door to door of poor people to help them get their basic healthcare.

He tried to bring medical treatment within affordable cost for the poor. Dialysis for kidney patient is costly. A patient is charged in between Tk 4, 000 and Tk 5, 500 but his kidney dialysis center provided free treatment to 20 per cent patients while others have to pay from Tk 800 to 2,500 depending on the financial condition of a patient. It was this kind, compassionate and humanistic approach that has confirmed his place in the hearts of millions of people.

Dr Zafrullah was also a writer. Many of his articles were published in national and international journals. He might be remembered as a writer for his research book titled ‘A Method of Colonization’ which was translated into Bangla, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish and many Indian languages. He had had many national and international awards to his credit. He received the highest civilian honour of the Bangladesh Government, the Independence Award in 1977.

The time we are passing through is a time when evil is reigning supreme and good is in exile. It is a dark time when people no more value social values, when people don’t do anything for others, when greed avarice and corruption are all pervasive. What is rare is a man like Zarfrullah who placed social values and honesty above everything. Being a man from a well-off background and with the social links he had, he could easily earn enviable amount of money but Zafrullah didn’t tread that way. He rather dedicated his life for the downtrodden and toiling masses.

Zafrullah was a valiant freedom fighter, a physician, a public health activist, a political observer and what not. To the last day of his life Dr Zafrullah was a man of integrity, honesty and hard work. We will remember him as one of the greatest heroes of our time. His death and his struggle remind us of the character Santiago in ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ written by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago believes that even during old age a man has something to do. Man can’t live like a parasite. He also believes man can be destroyed but not defeated. Dr Zafrullah defied old age and his sickness like Santiago. He was active till his death. The word ‘impossible’ wasn’t in his dictionary. He also defied death and he is still undefeated in his death.

The writer is journalist.

He can be contacted at maksud.i.rahman@gmail.com