I remember the time they moved in their home after a long stay abroad. I had heard from my mother that he was in different foreign countries for a very long time in various appointments and had decided to settle in Bangladesh for now.

I guess as they decided to come back to their house, renovations were being done. A big lush-green lawn was built, the path to the front door was redesigned even a new front gate replaced the old one. And then the family moved in.

From then on lot of new events took place in our neighbourhood. We saw security guards-dressed in police uniform taking their positions in the newly built wooden roofed shelters, a flag pole was placed in front of the lawn which bore the national flag and the number of cars and flow of people increased in our residential lane. Slowly with time, I got to know the identity of the man and his family. And it turned out that he was a personality in his own line of work. It was entertaining having a big name in the neighbourhood because there was always something new to see, something new to talk about during the daily afternoon chats with neighbours. The enjoyable part was that I didn't have to go through a newspaper or a weekly to pick up the latest. Standing for a while in the front balcony of my home gave me plenty of tidbits for the day or when I left home early in the morning for school or while returning home.

On some days I could see a whole contingent of posh cars or flag bearing cars entering the gates, on other days there were people from different walks of life just going in or coming out through those gates. It was a guessing game trying to identify the cause of the influx of all the new foreign elements in our neighbourhood. On other days it was simply children playing in the lawn guessing these were his grand children and the man himself with his wife sitting on the balcony or walking in the lawn.

But one thing was sure that neither the man nor his family interacted within the neighborhood. They had their own community. That gave him and his family an evermore-distinct identity within our neighborhood and thus being the subject of most neighborhood discussions.

My point of interests changed while I was getting older. Moreover, my new residential address prevented me from knowing the noticeable changes and events in my neighbour's daily life. So here I was, shocked to see the man next door in the Internet edition of a daily English newspaper in the most unexpected condition imaginable. For a very long and silent moment I felt very heartbroken and hurt knowing that security and protection of an individual's life still lacked so much in our country. Nevertheless for now, all I can express is my condolence to the family of the man next door- May his soul rest in peace.