Farrukh Ahmad's Home, Majhailমাঝাইলে ফররুখ আহমদের বাড়ি

Syed Farrukh Ahmad was born here, in the Syed family of Majhail, on 10 June 1918; his father was a police inspector. He went to school in Khulna and college in Calcutta, worked for years at Dhaka radio, and died in Dhaka on 19 October 1974. He is remembered as the 'poet of the Muslim renaissance' and wrote more sonnets than anyone else in Bangla; Sat Sagorer Majhi, 'the boatman of the seven seas', is his best-known book.

His honours run from the Bangla Academy award in 1960 to the Ekushey Padak in 1977 and the Independence Award in 1980, both after his death. The district lists his family home and its graveyard in Majhail among the places literature lovers come to see. In 2018 The Daily Star found the ancestral home, a two-room tin house about 60 by 30 feet, close to collapse; his younger brother still lived in the village and had asked the government to restore it, and the upazila's executive officer promised to act. A memorial plaque to the poet stands in the village. It is a village home, not a museum, so come quietly and ask the family or neighbours before going in.

Getting there: Majhail is in Sreepur upazila, north of Magura town: take a bus to Sreepur and ask for a van to Majhail.