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In My View

Remembering Raushan uz Zaman, my best friend and a fine journalist

Published : Friday, 28 April, 2023 at 12:00 AM  Count : 728
Syed Badiuzzaman
April is a sad month for me because on the 8th day of this month in 2020, I lost my best friend journalist Raushan uz Zaman. My friendship with him dated back to the mid-1970s. During that time he used to work at the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) and I used to work at the nation's first privately owned Eastern News Agency (ENA).

The two national news agencies were not very far from each other. So, we often used to visit each other's office for professional discussions, socialization and sometimes just for gossips -- and of course over our most favorite beverage of those days, hot tea. Both Raushan and I went on the same assignments many times representing our respective news organizations.

Beyond assignments and our offices of the two national news agencies, BSS and ENA, we had a third common place where both Raushan and I frequented not just once but multiple times every single day. And that common place was none other than the Jatiya or National Press Club we lovingly call our "second home." Here we mostly had fun, a lot of laughs and more gossips.

Raushan visited many countries including Britain and France on professional assignments and journalism fellowships. And on his return, he used to share his memorable experiences with us. Soon after returning from Paris, once he told us that France had more than 100 varieties of cheese. He said the French loved cheese and we all just listened to Raushan's story with great amazement at our National Press Club.

He also said the French people were very friendly. Narrating his experience of one night's dinner at a restaurant in Paris, he said: "We just ordered our food and noticing us wait for it an elderly couple sitting at the next table invited us to taste theirs. So we smartly tasted their food and when our food came we also invited them to taste ours. And they reciprocated without hesitation."  

In 1984, I went to the UK representing Bangladesh with a Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) fellowship and found my friend Raushan already known to a veteran British journalist. During a lunch in Central London one day which was attended by all CPU fellows, Commonwealth officials and editors of top-ranking London newspapers and news agencies, I was suddenly asked about my friend Raushan.
"Hi Syed, my name is Derek Ingram. I am the founding editor of Gemini News Service. Do you know Raushanuz Zaman? He is a Bangladeshi journalist. He writes for us from Dhaka," Ingram asked me. "Yes, of course, he is a friend of mine," I replied. It gave me a great pleasure as he was enquiring about a Bangladeshi journalist who was a very good friend of mine. But I was also a bit surprised as he was enquiring about none but Raushan among so many journalists of Bangladesh.   

After that incident in London, my respect for Raushan further increased for his professional efficiency and reputation as a fine journalist abroad. And on my return to Dhaka from the UK, it was my turn to tell Raushan my memorable experiences during my three-month stay in England, Scotland and Wales. Raushan was not only a good story teller; he was also a good story listener. I found him extremely interested in knowing my experience with the British people and their culture.

Then in 1988, I came to the U.S. on another journalism fellowship with a longer duration but by that time Raushan had already left BSS and moved to a newly launched another private sector news agency with an executive position. At the end of my U.S. fellowship, I enrolled at an American university for a master's degree in journalism. After obtaining that degree I stayed back in the U.S. for several years. During this time we were still in contact with each other.

I returned to Bangladesh after 14 years in 2002 and found myself in a different country. Dhaka changed in a big way with significant improvement in the city's skyline. Building after building filled many empty spots in the city. The streets were much wider and cleaner and they too were filled with many more motor vehicles. After such a long time, changes were visible in virtually everything and everybody. But I didn't find any change in my longtime friend Raushan.

He was still my good old friend. He was a little restless, a little edgy at times but he was still the same nice man with a nice smile always on his face. As usually he was knowledgeable about the world but at the same time he was also curious to know more about it. He was smart, intelligent and very much eager to enjoy life. Sometimes, I found him as a little bit fast talker but he also gave others chances to talk and remained a silent listener.  

Subsequently, I came to Bangladesh a number of times and most of the times Raushan took responsibility not only for my stay but also the stay for my family at Uttara Club. A longtime member of the club, he nicely arranged everything for us. All I needed to do was just to make a phone call to my friend Raushan giving him the information of our arrival date in Dhaka and the rest would be taken care of by Raushan who would also come to the Dhaka airport by as early as 6 in the morning to receive us.   

To escape from the monotony of living 24 years in the U.S. and Canada, we came to Bangladesh back in 2012 with the purpose of staying several years. Accordingly, I notified my best friend Raushan and told him details about our plan. He was extremely excited to hear that and advised me to leave everything over to him. He said: "I will make arrangement for your stay at Uttara Club first for about a month and in the meantime I will help you move to a nice apartment in Uttara."

The day we arrived in Dhaka in 2012 for a much longer continuous stay, Raushan was as usually present at the airport so early in the morning for us. And since we came with lots of luggage this time, he came to the airport not only with his own vehicle but also brought another one with driver borrowing from a journalist who was our common friend. Raushan was involved in every step of our resettlement process in Dhaka from opening our bank account to purchasing draperies for our rented Uttara apartment.

On his way to work at New Age newspaper office, Raushan sometimes used to pick me up from Uttara Club. First he got off his vehicle at his office for several hours of work and then asked me to take his vehicle and driver with me to the Jatiya Press Club which was my regular destination and keep the vehicle until he finished his work around 9 p.m. Meanwhile, after spending several hours at the press club socializing and having gossips with my journalist friends, I used to go back to Raushan's New Age office to pick him up and then we both headed back home to Uttara.

When Raushan was admitted to Uttara's Crescent Hospital about two months before he passed away, I was in Toronto. I came to know about his illness and hospitalization through Facebook and immediately called him on his cell phone but there wasn't any response. So, I thought Raushan was probably seriously ill and that's why his phone was kept away from him. Then I got bad news about him again on social media: "Both of his lungs are irreversibly damaged and only 15 to 20 percent of one of his lungs is functional."

Then I came to Bangladesh and my first thing was to visit my ailing friend. So, I went to Crescent Hospital but found that Raushan was released from the hospital just a day before. So, I went straight to his Uttara residence. He was lying on his bed, still wearing oxygen mask but speaking normally. I enquired about his illness. He told me he was having breathing problem. I spent some time with him and then we shook hands and said goodbye to each other. But I promised him that I would come to see him again but sadly that did not happen due to corona virus restrictions.

My friend Raushan uz Zaman was undoubtedly one of the brilliant journalists of Bangladesh. He was widely known within the journalist community in the country. He also made his mark as an efficient journalist abroad. But it was a shame that Bangladesh media -- both print and broadcast -- barely covered his death. This is primarily because the new generation journalists of our country belonging to both branches -- let alone online -- are poorly informed about their own predecessors.

Passing away of journalist Raushan uz Zaman created a void in the field of journalism in Bangladesh.

 At his death, our country lost a highly professional, an extremely knowledgeable and a totally dedicated journalist and I lost a great friend and a lively, brilliant and intelligent colleague. Rest in Peace my friend!

The writer is a Toronto-based journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist



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