“What an extraordinary achievement and labor of love. It is more than a biography - it is a work of history with great literary merit,” – Dr. Gowher Rizvi, International Affairs adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Inspired by Bangabandhu during the Liberation War, Muslehuddin Ahmad defected from Pakistan, and opened the embassy of Bangladesh in Paris. Soon, Bangabandhu appointed him as the first Chairman of Bangladesh Biman Airlines. For Ahmad, Bangabandhu and Bangladesh were inseparable. He saw Bangabandhu’s assassination in 1975 as an attempt to destroy Bangladesh’s identity as a nation. On the day Bangabandhu was so tragically killed, Muslehuddin Ahmad made a pledge to serve Bangladesh to keep the dream of the Father of the Nation alive.

He kept his promise to Bangabandhu and to Bangladesh, even against the tides of betrayal that were a constant theme in his life. In 1992, after a storied career as a diplomat and freedom fighter, Muslehuddin Ahmad founded North South University, the first private university in Bangladesh. In Bridge Over Troubled Waters, his daughter Seema Ahmad weaves her own recollections with those of friends and family to present a unique account of the history of North South University and the man who shepherded its formation to become the “father of the private university movement in Bangladesh.”

This book takes us through Muslehuddin Ahmad’s early years, his time in the diplomatic service, his role during the 1971 Liberation War, and his crowning achievement forming North South University. His daughter offers new insight into the devotion to country, family, and education that fueled her father’s work and shares the guiding force he left to serve as a beacon for others.