Prof SerajulSerajul Islam. File photoRenowned academic, author, critic and columnist Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury stepped into 81 on Thursday amid greetings and good wishes from his admirers and students, says news agency UNB.
On this day in 1937, he was born at Baroikhali village under Sreenagar in Munshiganj district.
A celebrated personality with rare qualities and identities in the socio-cultural arena of Bangladesh, Prof Serajul Islam is a progressive social thinker and a high graded scholar of Bangla and English literatures of the country.
Well-wishers, admirers, students and relatives wished him a happy birthday visiting his house or over telephone since the morning, family members said.
The veteran educationist along with his two daughters Sharmin Choudhury and Raunaq Ara Choudhury, grandsons and granddaughters and others cut a cake in the evening to mark the birthday through a simple ceremony.
Prof Serajul Islam completed his post graduation in English literature from Dhaka University in 1956 and obtained PhD in the same subject from the University of Licester, UK in 1968.
He joined the Department of English of Dhaka University as a lecturer in 1957.
Popular among his students as SIC sir, Prof Choudhury has long been active either in writing or raising awareness against injustice, discrepancy, intolerance, autocracy, imperialism, land grabbing, river pollution and tree felling.
Currently professor emeritus of Dhaka University, Serajul Islam was recognised with numerous awards, including Ekushey Padak, Bangla Academy Award, Dhaka University Research Gold Medal and Mercantile Bank Award, for his contributions to language and literature.
He wrote over 20 books.
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