Renowned journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury left us on this day (November 29) three years ago in a tragic road accident near Sonargaon hotel while on way to take part in a television talk show. As he was trying to disembark from the bus he was riding near Karwan Bazar, the bus sped up and he fell on the road with serious head injury and later succumbed to death in a hospital near Panthapath.
I came to know Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury in 1973, when I joined the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), the national news agency, as a sub-editor/reporter. But before that I had met him at the Dhaka University's Political Science department where we both studied. He was senior to me by two years.
It is almost 35 years that we worked together as colleagues until he left BSS. I have very fond memories with him both as a colleague and a friend. We grew up in a society where a person senior even by one year commands respect. But he used to shun all these senior-junior formalities and treated me as his friend. Temperamentally, he was a restless person and never sat in one place for long. He used to move from one desk to another talking to colleagues exchanging greetings. He later confided that people having diabetics cannot stick to one place. It was his way of explaining things.
As opposed to me he was a great food lover. Often before leaving office, he would invite me to accompany him to a restaurant. He used to visit typical Dhaka eateries to look for foods no matter how far those were from our office. Visiting kitchen markets was his passion and very often he would instruct his cook to prepare particular dishes of his choice. On such occasions, he would leave office for home around noon to enjoy the lunch that he had asked his cook to prepare.
He was a keen sports lover and would always keep track of all important sports events, particularly cricket. We often discussed about world cricket and he would mention important events with dates and results. He also covered big sports events like SAF Games in Dhaka, the ninth Asian Games in Delhi and important cricket matches with me. I began my reporting through sports and hence got a chance to cover the 9th Asian Games in New Delhi along with some other colleagues. Our journey to Delhi was very eventful as we took our flight to Kolkata (then Calcutta) and then took a train to Delhi. It was great fun for us as we traveled by train but for the host it was not so. Bangladesh was the only team that availed railway to reach the Indian capital of New Delhi while others flew in there. As our train reached New Delhi railway station, the ever smiling Zaglulbhai was at the platform to greet us. It was early winter morning and quite cold. He did not have a transport and took a bus to reach the railway station.
There were some 20 journalists from Bangladesh who had gone to Delhi to cover the Asian Games. He invited all of us to a dinner at his Panchsheel Park residence. He also arranged transports for us so that we could return to our respective destinations after dinner.
Zahlul Chowdhury became the Chief Editor and Managing Director of BSS in 2006. During the weekly meetings with the reporters he would speak in English throughout the proceedings and would encourage us to do so. He used to come to office both in the morning and in the evening. In the evening, he would see the reporter's copies and read each report from beginning to the end and mark the errors with red ink. In a lighter vein we used to refer to his exercise as "red ink terrorism." I don't know whether this system (reading reporters' copies) still persists in BSS.
As a foreign office correspondent, he knew each and every official of the foreign ministry. He was equally known to the diplomatic circle in Dhaka. Later, I was also assigned to cover foreign office with him. I remember in 1988 there was SAARC Foreign Ministers' meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal. And he suggested the foreign office to include my name to cover that meeting. I was surprised since he was senior to me and it was obvious he would cover that event. I was overwhelmed at his gesture but he pointed out that young reporters should cover such important events to gain experience. Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury was associated with students' politics in Dhaka University. Later, he was the youngest Assistant Secretary General of the undivided Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ). But when there was a spilt in the DUJ and BFUJ, he stayed away from union activities and had his name struck off from either of the factions.
Zaglul Ahmed used to take part in talk shows in different TV stations. He never participated in talk shows on politics. His favourite subject was SAARC, South Asian cooperation and other related subjects. I had watched him talk in ATN News on November 28 for the last time. He was in the company of two others including former Ambassador Mohammad Zamir.
He took up writing soon after his return from Delhi where he was posted as BSS Bureau Chief. A prolific writer, he used to write both in English and Bangla. He mostly wrote on contemporary SAARC and South Asian issues which were of interest to the readers. He always kept himself updated with the happenings in and around South Asia. He often gave lectures on regional issues and in one occasion at the Asian Society, I covered a function where he presented a key-note paper on the situation in Nepal following the Palace killings.
Later on, I too was posted in New Delhi in 2009, and whenever I came across a senior Indian journalist, he would enquire about Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury. I was surprised how journalists in Delhi still remembered Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, who had served there in the early eighties.
While posted in Delhi, he knew all important officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (foreign ministry) and had regular contact with them. During my two-year stint in the Indian Capital, I met a number of Indian diplomats who had served in Bangladesh. They too would enquire about Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury.
It is three years now he had left, but the bus driver whose reckless driving caused his death has not yet been apprehended and put to justice. Zaglul Chowdhury's untimely departure is a serious blow to journalism. He left a long list of followers who definitely miss him every now and then. As for myself, I lost a good friend whom I respected as a professional journalist and a writer. May his soul rest in peace.
The writer is a senior journalist and former BSS Bureau Chief in New Delhi, India.
M.S.KARIM@cgiar.org