Founding Principal of Sunbeams school, Niloufer Manzur, fondly known as Mrs Manzur to us who had the privilege to be her students, passed away on Tuesday, May 26 from complications related to Covid-19. Her untimely demise has shocked and brought together her Sunbeams children from across the world, in sharing memories and tributes for a woman who left an indelible mark in all our lives.
She founded the school in 1974, when Bangladesh was just 3-years-old and the sense of hope was everywhere. Mrs Manzur’s children were toddlers at the time when she decided her contribution to the new country would be to build a strong foundation and so begins the Sunbeam’s journey.
She secured a Tk10,000 loan from Janata Bank and with the support of her husband Syed Manzur Elahi, chairman Apex Group and her friends, invested in ten desks and benches and painted them red (they are still the same color to this day). On January 15, 1974, at 8:00 am, she wrote “Sunbeams” on a blackboard and rang the bell outside her small home at 2 Indira Road.
Every morning, after her husband left for work, Mrs Manzur and her colleagues Ms Farida Taher and Ms Mustari Khan would push aside the living room furniture and set up classes. They taught fifteen children, ranging from four to eight years of age in two rooms. End of the classes, they would reset the rooms back for their original purposes, says the school’s website.
Recalling his memories of those days, Managing Director at United Finance Limited, Kaiser Tamiz Amin said: “I belong to the first batch of Sunbeams along with Nabila Murshed and Sabera Zareen and others. Just a rented house with a few dedicated teachers, rudimentary desks and blackboards - no uniforms! My mother the late Dr Razia Khan Amin taught us English literature there briefly.
“Those days are long gone but I can clearly see Mrs Manzur’s quintessential smile and smooth demeanour which I now know merely belied her smoldering resolve to transform Sunbeams into the institution that it is today.
“My and my family’s relationship with her family cuts across several levels. Suffice it to say that her dear husband Mr Syed Manzur Elahi, her daughter Munize Manzur and son Syed Nasim Manzur and their families are all close to our hearts and we stand with them in silent prayer.
“Though Mrs Manzur’s demise could not have come at a worse time, could not have been more poignant, more heart rending there is little point in grieving for a person who has transitioned to a higher, better plane unseen by us. We must leave her in the care of the Almighty and celebrate the wonderful human being that she was and her epoch making role in redefining primary education in Bangladesh.”
Years later when Sunbeams found a more permanent home in Dhanmondi road 16, where I myself spent my formative years, Saquib Chowdhury who now lives in London shared how Mrs Manzur always treated everyone like her own children. “As my fellow Sunbeamers can relate, as our principal and teacher, describing her as an extraordinary human being would be an understatement. The lady who easily and immediately recognized all the students, past and present, without having to remind her. The lady who helped so many students through turbulent times throughout her illustrious career. On a personal level, I can never forget what she did for me. When my mother was severely ill and on life support back in 95, I vividly remember those days when I had regular breakdowns and would not even eat during Tiffin break. On regular occasions, Mrs Manzur would have me sit in her office, calm me down, eat and even brought food just for me from her home.
“She even went with me to visit my mother after she recovered and was discharged. That was an intense time for us. Mrs Manzur displayed similar acts of immense kindness and care with other students as well over the years.
“She never singled out anyone, treating every student equally and like her own children, no matter where their family stood in the social ladder. She was not just a principal, a teacher, a guidance. Mrs Manzur was and forever will be an institution. A league of her own, an example. May her beautiful soul rest in peace.”
Another Sunbeams alumni Saquib’s friend, Dr C Rashaad Shabab, senior lecturer in Economics at the University of Sussex in a Facebook status said: “This is an extremely sad day for me, and for all of us whose lives have been illuminated by Mrs. Manzur's Sunbeams school. Most of my primary and secondary education was under her care. She just passed away from Coronavirus. I find myself overcome by a series of emotions and images from my childhood, and a desire to reach out to those I grew up with, some of who I've not seen in decades.
“She had decided to call her school Sunbeams because she wanted it to be like a ray of light in the lives of the children who were under her care. Looking through my Facebook feed today, I think it's fair to say she succeeded.”
Facebook indeed is flooded with warm tributes and tearful goodbyes to a woman whose contribution to our lives is immeasurable. Farah Huq, research associate at Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) summed it up succulently. “Every student that has gone to Sunbeams has felt the love, warmth and kindness of Mrs Manzur. She has been inspiring. She has been like family. She is Sunbeams and everything that it stands for.
“I recently met her at a family gathering and the genuine interest and warmth with which she engaged with my daughter was touching. I don’t feel like I ever got the chance to truly thank her - for my years at Sunbeams, and starting me on the journey to who I’ve become. But I hope she knows.
“Rest in Peace, Mrs Manzur.”
Perhaps the best way to understand the kind of person Mrs Manzur was, the values she instilled in us all is in her own words. On Sunbeams 45th anniversary she wrote: “How will I remember you? Sensible, self-assured, you make your way upwards, class to class, year by year, almost noiselessly. There is a quiet confidence about you that always shows through. But if I were to single about one single attribute, it would be your sense of communion. You are a community bonded together with a genuine sense of compassion, fellow feeling and empathy. You are strong and strength-giving. You are pliable but not fragile. You know how to lean on each other and how to lend a shoulder. Yours is the world to see and create.
“Through the year we hover over you, least you stumble, least you fall. We cocoon you from discomfort, from disappointment, from dejection. We help you believe in your power to be, to do, to succeed.
“Be warned, there will be occasions in your life when you will do everything in your power and still be disappointed. And such moments will come when you least expect them. You many stumble, you may fall. That is reality. That is life. You will not be able to control everything in your life but you will have the power to stand up again, dust off the remnants of dashed hopes, and move forward, with courage and conviction. This is the Bengali spirit. This is the spirit of never giving up nor giving in, that you must keep alive and take forward.
“So as you prepare of the wider world, the open book of life awaits. Be creative. Be adventurous. Be original. And above all else, be young. For your youth is your greatest weapon, your greatest tool. Use it wisely.
“On the 45th anniversary of our school, this is my wish for you, my Sunbeams child.”
Mrs Manzur is the kind of person who comes around once in a lifetime and the last time I met her, was at my friend Nabil Sharif’s funeral on February 27. She still asked how my writing was going. I had once panicked and said: “I’m going to be writer!” and she believed in me enough to keep encouraging that dream, 20 years on.
It always surprised me that even after some 20 odd years, she would remember all our names, all our mischief, all our hopes and dreams and still ask after them. But it shouldn’t. That is the kind of person she was, she was the matriarch of a large blended family that she nurtured and believed in, especially when we didn’t even believe in ourselves. She quietly, in her steadfast resolve has shown us how to be kind, respectful, positive and a force for good in the world.
Let her untimely, unnecessary death remind us that this Covid-19 does not care about race, religion, class or borders. It can infect anyone and this is the time to really come together as a society, to respect the vulnerabilities of others, to understand our actions have dire and deadly consequences.
Esha Aurora is an Assistant News Editor at Dhaka Tribune
