What will happen to Dulal’s collectibles worth crores?

Although the living room is no less than 16 feet long, there is little space for any sitting arrangement because it is full of old collectables. When guests come, they sit at the dining table. 

Owner of the collectables, Rafiqul Islam Dulal, has been living in this house in Wyre Road, Wari, for more than two decades now. He was, however, born in Banagram Lane. 

He studied at the Graduates' High School on Tipu Sultan Road. His classes were held in Bhajahari Lodge, a beautiful two-storied mansion. At the beginning of the last century, it was built primarily as a residence by a businessman named  Bhajahari Saha. It is now a protected heritage site. 

This building played an integral role in establishing Dulal's love for heritage.

He passed his matriculation examination in 1970. Being a part of the school scouting team, he saw Queen Elizabeth in person and shook hands with Chinese revolutionary Li Shao Chi. 

His father MA Hakim was an engineer at Pakistan Archeology Department. There he participated in the excavation works of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. 

As a child, Dulal saw many antiquities stored in his father's office at the Lalbagh Fort. While in school, he became associated with political figures such as Maulana Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish, the leader of the Salanga Rebellion and the central president of the Awami League in the 1950s who lived near Dulal's residence. Dulal also saw Bangabandhu in that house. 

He got the companionship of Awami League leader Abdur Razzak. He also actively participated in the Liberation War. When the country became independent, he became a freelance journalist.

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Dulal graduated from Jagannath College in 1975. The same year, when Bangabandhu and his family members were killed, he sought political asylum in Germany. 

He moved there after a year. He completed a diploma in photography and travelled to many cities in Germany, Spain, Italy and France, with a special interest in seeing ancient cities. 

11 years later, after returning home in 1987, Dulal organised an exhibition at the Alliance Française de Dhaka with his photographs captured in Europe. He worked at the advertising company Bitopi for a while. Shortly afterwards, he got a permanent appointment as a cameraman (class-one officer) for BTV.

Dulal had the opportunity to travel across the country while taking pictures for two programmes called 'Dekha hoy nai chokkhu melia' and 'Zilla porichiti'. 

He visited some districts more than once. These visits gave him the scope to collect antiques from all over the country.

In Jashore, he became acquainted with a descendant of King Pratapaditya from whom he collected a letterbox of the king in 1989. A letterbox is usually a metal tube made of copper or zinc, the inside of which is empty to contain wrapped letters. In this way, the royal decrees were sent to faraway areas. 

It is to be noted that Pratapaditya (1561-1611) was an independent leader of Jashore. In the letterbox collected by Dulal, Bangalee fonts of the old period are scribed, of which only the Bangla alphabets 'bo' and 'mo' are recognisable. 

Dulal's grandfather's house is in Daudkandi, Cumilla. His grandfather Osman Gani Sarkar became a zamindar after purchasing Sundalpur from Tripura's Queen Amrita Sundari. From his grandfather, Dulal got a napkin holder from the 1940s which was once used by Amrita Sundari.  

His father MA Hakim retired in 1967. Apart from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, he was also involved in excavations of archaeological sites of Paharpur, Mahasthangarh, etc. 

From his father, Dulal obtained a few potteries, which were at least 4,000 years old. His collection also contains clay tablets of floral designs and miniature statues of deities from the archaeological sites.

These antiques are arranged on a centre table in his living room. Dulal himself started collecting after returning to the country in the late 1980s. One of his first collections was a 'security number plate'. This plate was assigned to the guards of Raja Rajendra Narayan Roy Chowdhury of Bhawal. Perhaps the guards had to wear these with their uniforms. 

In the north-east corner of his living room there is a magnificent gramophone owned by Utpala Sen (a leading singer of the mid-20th century). She lived in Armanitola in the late 1940s. 

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

However, before Utpala, the gramophone belonged to King Rajendra Narayan and later his daughter-in-law Bibhabati. 

After her husband's death, Bibhabati came to Dhaka with her brother. At some point Utpala may have received it as a gift from Bibhabati, or bought it. Dulal brought it to his collection in 1987 and the instrument still operates.

There are a few more antiques in his collection related to music: trumpet, flute, drum etc to name a few. 

Dulal showed us the ultimate of his collectibles much later. It is a dotara [a musical instrument] used by Baul Musician Shah Abdul Karim. The decayed dotara had no strings; only the shell survived. Dulal collected the item in Sunamganj when he went to shoot a programme for BTV.

He also collected some more interesting items from the Malnichara Tea Garden in Sylhet. These are bows, arrows and axes of the garden workers; the metal blades of the arrows still shine. With these tools, garden workers could hunt large rabbits or birds. 

We also saw a collection of five knives (small swords) with attractive holsters and handles. All these knives were rich in intricate designs – one's shaft was wrapped in leather, another's handle was wooden and the other one's shaft and the handle were both metal. 

Seeing another collection reminded us of the film Pirates of the Caribbean. Dulal has a telescope just like the film's Captain Jack Sparrow. 

Then we saw some fountain pens, including one used by  Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath came to Dhaka in 1926 and he was impressed by the Camellia House in Baldha Garden. He wrote blessing words to Narendranarayan Roy Chowdhury, the zamindar of Baldha, and his family. The pen with which it was written is one of the pens in Dulal's collection. 

A wall clock made of wood with a big pendulum has 'Made in occupied Japan' written on it. This reminded us of the period between 1945 to 1951 when Japan was occupied by the West. There is also a pocket watch in Dulal's collection.

In addition, he has a collection of fossils of some marine animals including snails, oysters and corals. There is also a ship's searchlight, which runs with kerosene oil. 

He possesses a tin box from the Girish Bank in Kolkata. The box, according to him, was given to a customer as a gift from the bank. Then there were some candle lamps – some narrow and others thick. 

Pointing at one, he said it was from Ahsan Manzil. One of Nawab Salimullah's sisters was married to the grandson of Pir Saheb of Paribagh. Pir Saheb's family received the lamp as a gift. 

Dulal has collected it from a descendant of that family. He also showed us a few jewellery boxes wrapped in leather. They were collected from the Nawab family of Cumilla.

Items made of glass included a flower vase, perfume case, betel leaf pot, etc. Some of them are colourful. 

Photo: Noor-A-Alam

Dulal also has some old cameras in his collection; one of the prominent ones is a folding camera. There are three coins which date back to the reign of King Chandragupta Maurya and are 2,300 years old. 

Dulal has also collected some things that were widely used by our previous generations, such as betel nut cutters, iron seals, hurricanes, compasses, etc. 

He has worked at BTV for 27 years and has two sons. All of his children live abroad. He will be moving to the US with his family in the coming months; paperwork is almost completed. 

But Dulal is worried about his priceless collections. To whom will he leave all these behind? Should he sell them? If these antiques do not go to the right caretaker, they could be destroyed. 

He said, "These are worth crores. Though not all of them are associated with history, at least they have antique value. I really do not know who will take care of them."