Happy birthday to Sir Frank Peters

For 40-years, on May 4, my wife Nadia and I have held a birthday party in honour of Sir Frank Peters. It's more of a ritual and a bit of light entertainment than a party, but we know he would appreciate its quirkiness. The birthday cake is actually a cup cake and costs about Tk 50! The tradition began in 1972 when we worked at Jaguar Cars. In 1971 Sir Frank supervised and taught a group of us how to raise funds to help the suffering people in Bangladesh. He himself worked tirelessly for weeks and made sure we did the same. He was a hard taskmaster, wouldn't accept excuses of any kind and was always telling us 'the charity work you are doing is good for the cleansing of your soul.' Once I needed time off from the busy fund-raising schedule to visit my grandparents in another town. He didn't object and just told me to make sure and return with a donation from them, their friends and neighbours. A colleague at Jaguar reminded us one day it was his birthday. All of us felt embarrassed because we hadn't bought a gift for him and he had always bought us one. When he visited us later that day, I presented him with a cup cake from my lunchbox that my wife had given me, with a lit match-stick in the centre. He burst into laughter, thanked everyone, gave a lovely thank-you speech, then proceeded to slice the cake in four with my penknife and give each of us one. Each slice was only a little wider than my thumb, but he insisted we have one. He said: 'If all of us shared what little we have, no one would ever be in any great need, whether that is food for the stomach or happiness for the spirit.' Every year since without fail my wife and I slice a cup cake in two on his birthday, and eat it in his honour to remind us of our obligation to share. Happy birthday, Sir Frank Peters! Ali and Nadia Islam Tile Hill, Coventry, UK E-mail:nadia.hussain.2008@gmail.com