A transitional stint

Illustration: Manan Morshed

On a bright winter day in February, I walked into the editor's room with a churn of emotions ranging from trepidation to butterflies in my stomach. As an aspiring journalist, I had for so long admired this person from a distance and now here I was to be interviewed by Mr S.M. Ali.

My life and my country were both on the precipice of a transition – while I was trying to switch jobs, my country was gearing up to embrace democracy once again after eight years of autocratic rule. For both, there was a promise of a bright future. The new English daily, The Daily Star had been launched with the aim of using the new-found press freedom for the good of the country. Undoubtedly, it was a dream for a young, up-and-coming journalist, brimming with ideas.

I was hired as a feature writer. So onward we marched, my country and I, into our respective new chapters.  Riding high on the tide of transition, The Daily Star brought about a wave of change to the otherwise rigid and monotonous work culture prevalent in the existing dailies - be it English or Bengali.

Our job was to churn out features for the daily column of page 3, Dhaka-Day-by-Day and also contribute to the weekend section. With an amazing camaraderie between the colleagues, work turned out to be fun and we enjoyed every moment.

Our training was hands-on, and it was more than any formal training that institutes in our region could have offered. The privilege of being directly coached by Mr. S.M. Ali, whose journalistic skills can be matched by few, helped us greatly to understand the nuances of the job. The mood, moreover, was festive with the whole political change woven into the excitement of this newly launched newspaper.

We would begin the day in office by browsing through the newspapers, reading whatever caught our fancy, and then as the day progressed toward noon, begin our lunch, which continued till the day ended at around 6:30 pm.

In between, we – the feature writers, discussed issues – social and personal – with endless debates on how to tackle those hiccups in relationships. Once in a while did pull up our socks and put our heart and soul into a story.

One such incident that comes to mind right now was our exhaustive coverage after a crack-down on a major red-light area in Narayanganj. We set off on a bus approached local journalists for a better foothold in the area and interviewed sex workers, the ultimate victims of this eviction. We visited their squalid living quarters, had lunch with them and realized how difficult their lives were. We met with one of the pimps and with the group of men who were trying to evict the sex workers. And everything was done in total secrecy from our families as it was unlikely that they would have allowed us to go had they known. The full-page coverage with credits to us was worth all the trouble.

S.M. Ali seemed to recognise the zeal in me and had a lot of hope for me to make a mark in mainstream reporting. He would in fact regularly give me professional tips so that I could get better. One very important tip that he had given and that comes to mind right now as I pen this is that, to avoid writing in the first person. He put it – “You are no one, so put aside the word 'I' and tell the story.” Ironically, that is exactly what I am doing today, while I write about him.

However, my editor's hopes about me could not materialise due to various social issues and professional hang-ups, but another avenue opened up for me. Soon daily feature pages were introduced and I was made in-charge of the page dedicated to women's rights. I tried my best to do justice to my new role and also to those who had invested their faith in me. Our stories and relentless fight through them for women's rights did make a mark as none other. It was indeed a very satisfying role.

When we had begun working for The Daily Star, it was almost a struggle to write for the page 3 Dhaka Day-by-Day. It was like a weekly class test – never a respite – always struggling to think of a topic and then actually setting off to do the story. But despite all our endeavours we enjoyed and delivered at the end. The office initially was in the middle of an old commercial area. And we still found joy in racking our brains for a story topic amid sweltering heat in the old building with high-ceiling from which fans that dangled more for show than to provide any relief.

There came a time when I had do make a choice and take a decision and it came quite suddenly. I ended up choosing the difficult path, leaving behind my comfort zone. My tenure, like the old office, came to an abrupt end. But I cherish my memories of that momentous year and a half.

The writer is a producer for BBC Africa, a part of BBC World Service.