I .a, b<>rn in < hltiagoiiy In a village of Hathiuart thana, not ivry for /mm the city My parents ilutn l have much education Mt/ mother Miulied no to the fourth grade, my fa ther up to the etgnlh My father got Involved in bustru-vs. in the footsteps of nig grand father He starterl wtth a ting business of fowetlery by selling fowellery from one market plan' to an other But gradually he found himself a little shoo in Chittagong town and established him self as a fowellery businessman This uas arounrl 1928 His was the first Muslim Jew eOeru shop tn the whole of Bengal al that time Muslims were not interested In the Jewellery busiru-ss al that time it was a typically Hindu business But he dared to go into it as a yowigman He berarne very famous He is nou 87 aid very active, runs his own business

Anyway I was born tn the village We are severi brothers artB sisters I am the second broitu r the third child.

I started mg primary education in my uillarp Bathiui tn Halhqfort Thana. I soon moved to the Chttlagong city and enrolled In tfu- Bailor Dighi Free Primary School where I studkvi up to Grade IV I did Grades I and VT al the Middle English School located near the Chlttaaonq College I stood first tn the Grade W Scholarship examination I completed Grades VIII to X from Chittagong College School and stood 1st In Mairic exam tn 1955

Before entering college: I formed part of the Pakiafan team to attend the 1955 Scout .jamborer tn Canada After tt finished those af us from Pakistan, we decided to travel by road back home We got the money for our air ticket, look a ship to UK. Then we bought three Votkwagon micro bu.ses and traveled through Europe to West Pakistan ft took us six months We had an accident In Yugoslavtal Zagreb) and were stuck there for a month. Later we traveled through Greece. Turkey. ■Jordan. Syria, Iraq From Basra we took a ship and tame to Pakistan, ^fter that the three of us from East Pakistan, came home through India

on train. I missed a lot of classes in college, and had to study haul to make up

I studied tn the Chittagong College from 1955 to 57 During this time I joined student politics and became a member of United Students Progressive Party US^P In college I used (o bring our a 2 page newsletter called

I hi Pitta / Tiro Pages) I also edited the college magazine entitled Annrsha' In '57 I entered Dhaka University's Economics Department with mathematics and statistics as subsidiaries. During mu days tn DU I was a resident of Saltmullah Muslim Hall fSM Hall for short] and used to bring out a magazine called I naran. Jointly edited by Enamul Huq. the former DG of Dhaka Museum. 1 completed by BA Honours and MA in I960 and 61. respectively. Then I joined the economics department at DU as a research assistant and worked with Prof Rehman Sobhan and Prof Nurul Islam. Later I joined the Chittagong CoUege as a lecturer In 1965 I got a Fulbright scholarship and Joined Vanderbeit University tn Nashville Tennesse While studying far mu Ph D 1 taught at the State Untoersitu there, and also at Colorado University tn Boulder, during summer In 1970 I completed by Ph D and was about to return home when the liberation war started

I took active part In the pro-Bangladesh activities tn the US It started with forming Bangladesh Citizens Committee unth 8 of us who mere there at Nashville. I took part in the first big demonstration in Washington, at the Capitol Hill an March 27th 1970. There were about 500 of us coming from the nearby states On 28th. I along with Shamsul Bari, now with UNHCR in Neii Delhi, started visiting the carious embassies asking them to rvcogntt* Rangkuiesh. Everybody said unless we have a government. qut stHvi of recognition does not arise During this time iw collected UM 6000 to buy a mobile radio transmitter to be used by the kfufcii Bnhlnt for war propaganda purposes.

fti April a few of us firmed the fkuigiadesh Information Centre with the purpose of fording the I® media u'ith naw about^our u>qf. of Itbrrntkm. and also to lobby for support We had three basic slogans Stop GcngCidc. Free Mu/tb and Recognise Bangladesh, tn .hine or lulu we formed fhux/laifosh Defense League icith Dr F R Khan ax President and Shamsul Ban as General Nnvi iuru I i«i» tn charge qf communication Wr tried to reach all over the IIS ivith ow aciinitirs , ,

A/ier ihr uw. I returned to Bangladesh to June 72 Prof Nurul Islam /netted me tq foin the Planning Commissfon. which I did. and then left after tu« mantos. Prt^ Innas AU. Own Vice Chancellor of Chittagong University. .

idea al doing something directly for the people inspired me to start the Grameen experiment