[5] The violence of the war impacted him, "having seen dead bodies rotting with gaping holes and the charred remains of abandoned homes, [for] having walked the streets of Dhaka city, clasping the clip of an unpinned grenade in [his] trousers pocket.

[5] In 1975, Ahmed received a scholarship from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and dropped out of English Literature BA (Hons) programme at the University of Dhaka to join the National School of Drama in New Delhi.

[2] After his return from the National School of Drama to Bangladesh in 1979, Ahmed began working as a stage and light designer, achieving critical acclaim for plays such as Achalayantan (the Immovable), Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders) and Chitrangada by Rabindranath Tagore in Calcutta, India.

[10]: xvi  Upon his return home, he engaged with a left-leaning landless farmers’ political party, and then with international and national Non-Governmental Organizations working in Bangladesh.

The second award took him to City College of San Francisco in 2005, as a visiting specialist under the programme "Direct Access to the Muslim World".

[14] From 1993 to 1997, he embarked on "voyages" to distant rural pockets of Bangladesh and attended numerous performances of the indigenous theatre in situ.

[16] Kamala Ranir Sagar Dighi (based on the indigenous form of narrative performance Pala Gan) in 1997 in Dhaka, Ek Hazar Aur Ek Thi Rate (based on The Thousand and One Nights) in 1998 in Karachi, Behular Bhasan (an adaptation of the Padma Puran) 2004 in Dhaka, Pahiye (Hindi translation of Chaka) at the National School of Drama in New Delhi in 2006, and Shong Bhong Chong (based on the indigenous theatre form of Shong Jatra), in Dhaka in 2009 all were influenced by his time in rural Bangladesh.