ARTICLE: Daily Star (27 Mar. 2012)

BIMAN MULLICK

Biman Mullick, a Bangla-speaking Indian citizen now living in the United Kingdom, designed some postal stamps in 1971 at the request of the Bangladesh government-in-exile which no other countries had recognised yet.

“They asked me whether I’m ready to design the stamps. Actually, the question was hardly necessary; I surely wanted to do the work if I got the chance,” he said.

“It was an important job. So I’ve done this,” Biman told The Daily Star on Sunday, “I’ve designed eight stamps and tried to represent Bangladesh through them,”

He did the job without any representation.

According to the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, the stamps became the ambassador of the new nation, he said. The designs were spread across the world.

Of the eight stamps, one carried the map of Bangladesh, one the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, while another read “Dacca University”.

In 1969, Biman also designed a stamp on Mahatma Gandhi issued by the British government.

About his trip to Bangladesh after 41 years of independence, Biman said, “I’m very happy to be here. I’m very much pleased with the hospitality provided by Bangladesh,”

Asked about the ongoing war crimes trial, he said it is a complex issue to him as he is not a lawyer, “If I commit any crime then I have to get punishment as per the law of the land. So the existing law will settle the matter. I have nothing to say in this regard,”

“But I also like to forgive,” he said, adding judges will decide whether it is possible or not.

Biman Mullick is now in Dhaka to receive the Friends of Liberation War Honour today.

In 1971, he was a teacher of an educational institution, “I heard of the killings of Dhaka University students and it shook me up a lot as I empathised with them wondering if such terrible things ever happened to my students. This also encouraged me to design the stamps,” he said.

Above all, the country has to remember those who had sacrificed their lives for its independence, he said, “My contribution is nothing compared to theirs; I salute them,”

(Interview taken by Shariful Islam and Tuhin Shubhru Ahikury)