Mother tongue is the language of freedom. In this digital age, one can either write in his mother tongue with a pen on a piece of paper or on a computer with a keyboard. Now, writing on a gadget is more convenient than writing on a notebook. But can a computer understand any language except English? Many Bengalis were suffering from this indecisiveness. Avro freed the Bengalis from this thought. Instantly after pressing few keys, Bengali letters- অ, আ, ক, খ- appeared on the computer screen. What a relief it was! Many people thought, who is the man who has done this impossible task? The answer came from the bank of the Padma river. Medical student Mehdi Hasan Khan developed this software called Avro. But how many of us tried to know about this creator of Avro that brought Bengali scripts on digital platforms? Let us remember the story of Mehdi Hasan Khan, one of the proudest people of Bengal.
Mehdi Hasan Khan, a Bangladeshi boy, was a medical student of Mymensingh Medical College. While studying in medical college, the thought of writing Bengali letters on the computer came to his mind. After a lot of brainstorming, he finally got his ‘Eureka’ moment in Archimedes’ style and quickly started implementing the idea. He wanted to innovate a technology that will allow people to type Bengali with an English keyboard. They will type Bengali words in English script. Accordingly, he started developing the software. At that time, people around Mehdi did not stop mocking him after seeing his ‘madness’.
He was told to quit studying medicine from the medical college. But this talented man with an innovative mindset did not pay heed to this. We got the result of his long hard work and research. From ordinary people to office workers and officers, everyone can type easily with Avro. Mehdi did not stop giving software as a gift. He made a catch line- ‘Let language be free’. The biggest advantage of it is that any language can recognize Avro. For this reason, its acceptance and popularity are the most.
Amar Ekushey (The immortal 21st February) is in our heart and soul. Today, thanks to Avro, you can express your thoughts to your Bengali beloved from Tanzania to Russia, sitting anywhere in the world by writing in pure Bengali. Mehdi Hasan Khan erased this distance. The father of Avro, Mehdi Hasan Khan, holding whose hand the Bengali language has been spread in digital platforms all over the world, is almost forgotten today. The inventor of Avro has neither international recognition nor special recognition. Doctor Mehdi Hasan Khan leads a very simple life. Watching the fruits of his labor spreading everywhere gives him great peace of mind. For this reason, Mehdi Hasan deserves credit on International Mother Language Day.
Avro’s phonetic keyboard is the most popular and widely used keyboard among all the keyboard layouts used by Bangladeshi internet users for writing Bengali. The main reason for its popularity is that one does not have to memorize the layout like other Bengali keyboard layouts available in the market. For example, if you type ‘Ami bhat khai’, it will be written ‘আমি ভাত খাই’. Therefore, with Avro, anyone can become skilled in Bengali typing at any time by practicing for a couple of minutes. Without Avro, it would not have been possible to write Bengali so easily and in such a short time. With Avro, it is possible to type in Bengali with equal efficiency both online and offline. Another great aspect is that it is absolutely free. You will not have to spend any money.
Avro Keyboard is a UNICODE and ANSI supported free and open source Bengali writing software with graphical layout modifier for Microsoft Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu and Linux. With this software, we can write Bengali very easily on the computer. On March 26, 2003, Avro Keyboard software was launched for writing Bengali based on Unicode in Windows.
The literal meaning of Avro is ‘Sky’. Flipping through the pages of dictionary, Mehdi Hasan Khan, who was then an 18-year-old young man, chose this word to name his dream. It will be a free software which everyone will use. This idea motivated him to choose this name.
You must remember that before the launch of
Avro Keyboard, Bijoy was the only medium of writing Bengali on the computer. But
with the change of technology, the scenario has changed a lot. At present, Avro
has occupied the place of Bijoy. Let’s see how long Avro can keep their
dominance over Bijoy.
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