We Are All Mad (Paperback)

We are all mad every one of us. Not in the way society mockingly labels the stranger talking to himself on a crowded street, but in quieter, more acceptable forms. Some chase wealth until sleep, love, and conscience become distant memories. Some cage others in the name of love, mistaking possession for devotion. Some kneel before power until they fall in love with their own reflection, deaf to all truth. And some, in the sacred name of faith, plant seeds of division instead of compassion. Society crowns the tidy madness of ambition as success, while the unkempt madness of the broken is dismissed. Yet beneath every tailored suit and polished smile, a secret storm rages.
The tragedy is not that madness exists, but that we refuse to name it. We teach children to bury their wonder beneath layers of social rules, calling this burial maturity. We craft masks for family, for work, for virtual screens, until we forget our own faces. The loneliest place on earth is not a desert; it is the human heart hiding behind its own performance of sanity. There, in that silent chamber, dwell questions no dictionary can answer: Who am I? Why am I running? Why does accomplishment leave such a hollow echo?
Time, the great silent teacher, eventually strips away every mask. It wrinkles the proud face, weakens the powerful hand, and turns grand titles to dust. At the final hour, no one regrets not earning more money; they regret love unexpressed, forgiveness withheld, and moments lost to the illusion of "one day." Death, the universe's most neutral judge, does not check identity cards before knocking. It visits the palace and the hut alike, teaching that the only wealth left behind is the memory of our kindness.
What, then, does it mean to be truly human? It is not the absence of error, but the courage to face one's own darkness and rise again. To recognize the greed, pride, and fear nesting in one's own chest, and still choose compassion. To forgive not because the other deserves it, but because one's own heart deserves liberation from the prison of hatred. To trade the endless race of comparison for a quiet gratitude for the present's small gifts: a child's laughter, a cup of tea, a twilight sky.
Love, the divine force that can be both refuge and cage, teaches its hardest lesson only when we release our clenched grip. True love, like a free-flowing river, does not chain; it allows the beloved to leave and, if they return, welcomes them without ownership. Dreams, too, can be sacred or destructive depending on whether they enlarge the heart or shrink it with pride. And humility, the quietest virtue, is the soil in which all lasting wisdom grows. At day's end, the most beautiful madness of all is the lifelong striving to become a genuine human being. Not a flawless angel, but a soul that falls, learns, and keeps rising. The world will forget our bank balances and titles. It will remember whether we wiped a tear, lit a lamp of hope in someone's darkness, or sat beside a grieving heart in silence. Our primal restlessness the madness we all carry is not our shame. It is the raw material of our becoming. When we finally look in the mirror and confess, without flinching, "I am broken, I am learning, I am trying," we discover life's true victory: to depart, leaving behind a softer, more compassionate world, and to be remembered as a person who, in the end, was truly human.

Rajuan Ahmed writes quietly. His stories don't shout. They build from small moments, the kind most people overlook. Ordinary lives supply his material; he turns their everyday struggles into lasting fiction.

He started in the early nineties. His first short story, "Abhagi" (The Unfortunate Woman), was written in 1991, during his college years. During university, he turned to the visual medium. Screenwriting pulled him in. "Marriage Station," his debut television drama, took off unexpectedly and made his name in television. More dramas followed across multiple channels, and audiences embraced them.

He finished his Master's in 1999 and joined a corporation. The day job did not kill his writing. Through those years, he continued publishing short stories, essays, and columns in national dailies, earning a steady readership.

He also writes songs. His lyrics carry a distinct rhythm, and they have found a wide audience. National awards have recognized his contributions to both literature and music.

His range spans short stories, novels, poetry, television dramas, songs, and essays. He works in all of them with a distinct voice, understated but sharp, leaning on small psychological turns rather than grand declarations. His notable books include Ek Mutho Golpo, Sondeher Chhaya, Mayabi Muhurto, Shonkher Shopoth, Shobde Tumi, Alokkchhaya, Shopner Chakri, Shesh Surjer Alo, The Days of Gaza, Love of the Forest Bird, Death Break, The Shadow of War, Opekkhhar Chhaya, and O-Jol Nirbashon.

He avoids publicity. Art, he believes, holds its own weight. So he writes in silence, tracking what people leave unsaid and how time presses on the human mind.