It was just another day, another goodbye. But Mishuk Munier did not know it was one of his final few moments with his son in a quiet hospital room.
“He did not tell me anything special before leaving. He just kissed me goodbye, waved and left,” Shuhrid Sebastian Munier said, after his father Mishuk Munier died, along with award-winning filmmaker Tareque Masud in a fatal road crash in Manikganj yesterday.
“I came from Toronto to see him [Mishuk] but he was very busy. But when I was in hospital for a viral infection, Baba gave me a lot more time there,” said 19-year-old Shuhrid, his voice thick with emotions.
“He stayed with me all night in the hospital,” Shuhrid said. When dawn was breaking, Mishuk left his son in Apollo Hospital for Manikganj in search of a shooting spot.
Shuhrid was released from the hospital yesterday only to deal with the most shocking news in his life that his father was no more. Shuhrid secluded himself to mourn. So did his mother and grandmother Lily Chowdhury, widow of martyred intellectual Prof Munier Chowdhury. Only their loved ones visited them.
Ashfaque Munier Mishuk, more popular as Mishuk Munier, moved back to Dhaka and joined ATN News as chief executive officer in November 2010. He had migrated to Canada after Ekushey TV channel shut down in 2002. He had been a key figure in the channel. Mishuk had worked in Toronto as operations manager of realnews.com, a daily video news and documentary service.
Shuhrid, a second-year student of mass communication in York University, Canada, and his mother Kazi Monjuly, came to Dhaka from Toronto last month to spend time with Mishuk.
“Father had never pushed me for anything. He wanted me to do what I wanted to do,” said Shuhrid when asked if he wanted to be a journalist like his father. “He let me be myself.”
Shuhrid recalled that his father cried when he talked about Professor Munier Chowdhury, a name etched in the memory of their family.
Mishuk was only 12 years old during the Liberation War when Prof Munier Chowdhury was abducted and killed. “Mother struggled a lot but raised us well,” said Asif Munier Chowdhury Tanmay, younger brother of Mishuk.
Mishuk’s mother Lily Chowdhury, a theater activist, wished to be buried, after her death, next to her mother in the Banani Graveyard. Now her son is taking her spot. “I had received all documents from my mother on the grave of my grandmother,” said Asif, the youngest son of Lily.
Mishuk became a famous cinematographer, journalist and photographer and was a teacher of Dhaka University before he died at the age of 52.
A glimpse into the shocked family takes one down the memory lane. A shelf in the living room of their Banani home showcases crests given to the family on different occasions in honour of Professor Munier Chowdhury.
Some framed photographs hang on the walls: wedding photos of Munier Chowdhury and Lily, and their three sons Ahmed Munier Chowdhury Bhason, Mishuk and Asif.
Another photo shows all five members of the family sitting on lawn. “Mishuk bhai is in the middle,” Asif said as he was interrupted with a phone call from the USA.
It was a call from Arpan, his niece and daughter of Ahmed Munier. She and her brother Srijon would fly in today. Ahmed Munier will arrive on Tuesday.
The body of Mishuk would be kept in the Square Hospital mortuary until Tuesday, Asif said.
“He was a significant part of my childhood and boyhood. I spent a lot of time with him in early life,” said Asif, who is eight years behind Mishuk.
“We grew older and communication was less frequent. He always cared for me,” Asif said.
“He travelled across continents for his work, took risks in war-ravaged Afghanistan and Libya, and faced many ordeals. But it is hard to accept that he had to die here this way,” said Asif.
Tareque Masud and Mishuk were close friends. “He had come from Canada many times to work on his [Tareque’s] film. He worked on his every movie — from his first documentary film Adam Surat to the unfinished last, Kakojer Phool (Paper Flower).
“They also died together.”
-With The Daily Star input
