The Foreign Service Journal, December 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | DECEMBER 2012 35 A Joyous Reunion By 1991, 30 years after we had last seen Nitun, we had retired from the Foreign Service and were living in Annandale, Va. One day Bangladeshi friends of ours—Wahed Hossaini and his wife, Arzina, who lived in nearby Springfield—told us that the artist was scheduled to travel through Washington, D.C., with his fam- ily. He was on his way to Syracuse University to enroll his daugh- ter before continuing to London on business. Would we care to attend a small informal gathering to greet and meet Kundu, his wife and daughter? Meeting Kundu at the reception was a true pleasure. We talked about his career and what he had been doing since we last saw him. His accomplishments were extraordinary. Kundu talked about the work habits he developed while working for the embassy and how he had applied this knowledge and the art of dealing with foreigners to his endeavors in the commercial and business world. It was this focus that had most contributed to his success, he told us. In 1971, after serving 12 years with USIS, Kundu had left to take part in East Pakistan’s war of liberation. This was the inspi- ration for his most famous work, “Shabash Bangladesh” (“Bravo, Bangladesh”), the largest sculpture anywhere in the country. Kundu refused to accept any remuneration for the work, which is installed on the campus of Rajshahi University, the country’s second-largest university. Over the next quarter-century Kundu won many prestigious national awards for his art, including the Ekushey Padak (for which he received the very gold medal he had designed to be conferred on its recipients), the National Film Award, the Presi- dent Gold Cup and the Natun Kuri Award (given by Bangladesh Television). As if his creative endeavors were not impressive enough, in 1975 Kundu launched a highly successful commercial venture, Inspired by the 1971 Liberation War, “Shabash Bangladesh” is Nitun Kundu’s most famous work. The structure at Rajshahi University, a tribute to the fallen freedom fighters of the Mukti Bahini, is the largest sculpture in Bangladesh. STORY