‘An unmatched columnist’
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan will live forever in the hearts of readers through his unmatched columns, speakers said yesterday at a memorial meeting.
Friends, admirers and colleagues of late Mohammad Badrul Ahsan organised the gathering at a city club.
Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, managing director of Robi; Zahida Ispahani, director of Ispahani; MA Noor, a senior lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court; Mamun Rashid, managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers; Bashir Ahmed, managing editor of now defunct weekly First News; Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star; columnist Syed Badrul Ahsan; MA Monem, former managing director and CEO of Biman Bangladesh Airlines; Mahrukh Mohiuddin, managing director of University Press Limited; and Muneer Ahmed Khan, managing director and creative chief of Unitrend Limited, shared their memories with Mohammad Badrul Ahsan, among others.
Mahtab Uddin said on a personal level, Badrul Ahsan was very social; he loved to engage in conversation.
"He was a real patriot who left behind a posh life in Dubai and USA and came back to his motherland," Mahtab added.
Zahida Ispahani said 14 lakh people got light in their eyes so far because of a dream of Mohammad Badrul Ahsan, as he helped to build an eye hospital.
Mahfuz Anam said, "When he first sent me his writing, I was spellbound... Without any hesitation, I can say that in my 29 years in The Daily Star, I published columns of many writers and columnists and I will publish many in future, but he was really extraordinary, unparalleled in the way he wrote." MA Noor said he always cared for others and never thought of his own interests. "Badrul had a lucrative job in Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai, and later returned home to pursue his passion for writing."
MA Momen said "I was honestly fascinated by his wisdom, his sharpness of intellect and the exalted quality of the writings displayed in his columns. The style of his writing was powerful."
Mohammad Badrul Ahsan, a popular columnist for The Daily Star and former publisher and editor of now-defunct weekly First News, passed away on February 6 at the age of 60.
Badrul was a senior official of Standard Chartered Bank and was stationed in Dubai for a long time. He started writing his column "Crosstalk" in The Daily Star in 2000.
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