The journey of our beloved Md Imamul Kabir Shanto came to a sad and sorrowful end on May 30, 2020. This valiant freedom fighter was a dynamic person with a very diverse personality and vision. We need the world to know who he was and what he stood for.
He had interests in many areas, and at the same time, he felt the need to contribute in many ways than one. We experienced a unique exposure working very closely with him. On one hand, he was a smart businessman, but on the other hand, he was a visionary with a roadmap to quietly develop Bangladesh and the underprivileged of the country in ways that very few understood or envisioned in his generation.
He was continuously extending his hands in providing necessary support to the country. He was emancipated with the fact that he was able to serve the poor in many ways. He even felt that with the massive network he created, with his vision, development, and structure, he would help reach the masses in a concrete manner so that we could be bettered as a nation.
Being the pioneer of courier and parcel services in Bangladesh -- having established Sundarban Courier Service (Pvt) Ltd, the largest courier and parcel company in Bangladesh -- he saw and paved the way whereby which reach, service, diversity, and exposure would intermingle using the same platform and thus he decided to focus upon ways on which the masses could be serviced.
These included enhancements in the form of educational exposure, and facilities as the extended arms of the set platform. He attempted many tasks over the last three decades. These included the online education using distant learning.
As a brilliant visionary, he was always able to conceptualize ten steps ahead in everything. This helped him a lot, but the sad truth is the world was not up to his pace in Bangladesh. He felt that by developing the people with skills, the small and medium enterprises (SME) were developing in Bangladesh, and thus this being also a vision of the government of Bangladesh, he found support in his plans.
By helping the SME with more diverse exposure such as skill-sets, associating with technology-based services, reach, and availability, the country would be more uniformly developing rather than limiting development at the major hubs.
This was the reason why he felt that grassroots reach was so important besides reverse exposure from rural to urban. In academia, he also took a unique path by making his university -- Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology -- into a creative hub where skills which the nation needs would be emphasized.
He felt fashion design, apparel manufacturing and management, graphic design, and product design-related courses should be encouraged and availed by the students. Accordingly, these students made the Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology into a centre for creativity with graduates catering to the garments industry in a very diverse way.
Even the underprivileged have availed these skills so that they are bettered. Shanto gave ample scholarship opportunities to those with financial need. Shanto also took the initiative to make available employment for these persons within the umbrella of Shanto-Mariam Foundation concerns.
Since the demand in the market was there for these graduates, a big portion of students were and are getting employment there as their first choice. He did not discriminate with individual capabilities, as for him, every student was a child of Shanto- Mariam Foundation, and individual merit would not be evaluated.
He wanted to give the opportunity which was his mission, whereby which these students would be able to touch upon a specific road to a career. He also felt that cultural education also helped a lot in unifying mentalities.
He encouraged cultural programs and that saw diverse mindsets doing cultural programs together. Shanto-Mariam Foundation was derived on his vision that the cultural education would also help the country unify in initiatives which he saw continuously failing in this affluent country. This was something others in this country did not see. Shanto saw that the countries where people derived synergy in approach were unified in mentality.
That was the secret of development success and growth. In the midst of his busy and active life, he always set aside time for remembrance. The Liberation War was always something he made sure that the next generation and respective guests of Bangladesh understood. He made sure that the annual functions of Victory Day (December 16) and specifically the day subsequent to that (December 17) were observed in a dedicated manner by him each and every year as Shahid Muktijoddha Dibosh (Martyred Freedom Fighters Day).
The saddest truth we are all faced with now is that he passed away from Covid-19 while working on ways whereby which he could facilitate the set-up of an isolation centre, his project, Shanto-Nibash, where he was taking necessary steps to service the underprivileged people exposed to this deadly virus. This was the last project in his hand.
For whatever he did, he never availed investments from others, ever. In the midst of this last initiative, he was sadly taken away from his family in Shanto-Mariam Foundation -- leaving us without a paternal figure, and directionless. We will now have to find ways to get back on track and onto the path whereby which we are assured of the defined destination set by Shanto.
I would like to also say that amongst the 6,000+ persons working under the Shanto-Mariam Foundation umbrella, I consider myself as one of the many who he was able to attract with his roadmap vision and thus not turn our heads elsewhere.
His vision always encompassed the parameters of development, and what should be, and into the minds of those who have had the privilege of the exposure he gave to them.
We all pray that someone, or some team, will pick up where he left off so that continuity is assured, and at the same time, we are able to achieve the destination model down the road, envisioned by Shanto for the furtherance of development and progress in the country of ours that we love. He will then find peace, wherever he is, which he had been longing for, for many years.
Waleed Morshed is Consultant to Shanto- Mariam Foundation and all its concerns, focusing mainly on IT automation, projects, development, financial management, and public relations.
