How to Create Happiness

by Shoumi Mustafa

How do you create happiness, include a little taste of language, history, music and culture, and let children be children? Zahid Hossain had found the answer. A Bangladeshi IT professional, Zahid was planning to settle down in the Midwest in the late 1990s. Between the two competing places, Columbus, Ohio won over Chicago, and Zahid and his young family put down their roots in Columbus for the following two decades.

Zahid missed Bangladesh. He could also see that his children, like the children of other immigrants would soon be overwhelmed into accepting the mainstream American culture without the slightest notion of the proud history of their forefathers. Cultural activities of Columbus- based Bangladeshis, at the turn of the century, comprised of weekend get- togethers, endless chats, a grand celebration of the Bangla new year, and formal programs commemorating the Independence Day and the Victory Day. Not bad for a fast-growing diaspora that could fit in a small clubhouse only a few years ago! While others were content with the social scene, Zahid felt keenly the need for a regular event, a gathering, a place where children would learn and practice their parents’ culture. He was thinking of a school.

Zahid did start a school to address his inner demand. He started with his own very young children, and coopted the children of a couple of friends. Two important features distinguished Zahid’s school from similar institutions set up by immigrants in the US. First, Zahid did not solicit students; as a result, his school did not expand at all in the first few years. Second, he did not impose a curriculum on the teaching. His entire notion was the creation of an institution that grew by itself. The children were taught one-to-one. This highly inefficient system somehow managed to survive. His students did not learn a great deal of Bangla – reading or writing – but they did breathe in the culture; they learned of their forefathers’ land, the people back home, the struggles, music, dance, and the joy of exploring a culture that was so close but also very distant.

Spreading the joy was perhaps Zahid’s major goal, and his wife, Nupur, stepped in with the inspiration to arrange events after each school day – watching movies, telling stories, kite flying, cooking, picnics! The joy reached a different dimension when the school started preparing for the annual grand event – the commemoration of the language movement on February 21. Zahid had chosen the language day as the beacon of the

Bengali culture to showcase what it meant to be a Bengali.

The planning phase would begin in late fall; suddenly, Joysree Barua or Joya di, the quintessential cultural icon of Columbus, would make her entrance. She would start with the children, organize them, teach them to take part in dances and fashion shows. Then will come the parents, and the new enthusiasts who had never ever set foot on a stage. Music, dance, recitations, and food – a wonderful collage of memories would be created every weekend. Braving the bleak Columbus winter weather, children and their families would pile up in cars and show up for rehearsals.

While Zahid did not actively look for students, he did spread the word about the grand Ekushe program. Participants will flock to the venue – they will be coming from Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. They will sing, dance, and recite. Then, there will be performances by the students themselves. Interestingly, the school did not have a name for a while, even when it was hosting perhaps the grandest Bangla culture-oriented program in Columbus. Only when the students of the school were old enough, the school got a name. The name – Bengali American Liberal Arts (BALA) – was chosen by the students themselves; it is not the grandest of names. It does not even convey very clearly what the school does. But it bears the quintessential mark of the spirit Zahid had practiced: an organic growth.

​BALA school is now ten years old. Officially. The unofficial little school had begun its wonderful existence much earlier. We express our heartfelt felicitations to Zahid, the children, their parents, and anyone with a kind word for the school or a satisfied smile from the children’s activities.