Bringing a taste of freedom to the barefoot slum child
Fifty-five years have passed since independence. I still remember a slogan I raised in 1972, right after independence: "We will bring the taste of freedom to the barefoot slum child." Now, standing in 2025, I must admit—we failed. But we did make the country independent. How? Back then, there wasn’t a single sponge sandal factory in this country. Bengalis didn’t even know what indenting business was. Today, we manufacture everything, from shoes to construction materials. Despite having no iron ore of our own, we are now building and exporting massive ships worldwide. A boy from my village has even built and flown a helicopter! Isn’t that something to be proud of? This is how far we have come as a nation.