Remembering Mahbub bhai
Shahnoor Wahid
It was in early part of 1996 that I first met Mahbubul Alam, Editor of The Independent newspaper, in the Motijheel office. I was working at Morning Sun at that time but as the newspaper was about to be closed down by the management, I sent a message to him about my interest in working for The Independent if there was an opening.
He immediately gave me an appointment and the following day I walked into his office. He greeted me with a smile and wanted to know what my responsibilities were at Morning Sun. After talking for about fifteen minutes and without much ado he told me to join as soon as possible. I joined on the first of the following month as an Assistant Editor with responsibilities to write editorials, post editorials and feature stories for the Weekend magazine. I was also asked to write cover stories for the Weekend magazine from time to time. Senior journalist N.M. Harun was in charge of the magazine besides his responsibility to write editorials.
Mahbubul Alam, whom we called Mahbub bhai, used to come to office at 10:30 on the dot and upon arrival would call all seniors for a meeting in his room. It was mainly regarding previous days newspaper and policy related and administrative matters.
Sharp at 11:30 , he would sit at the big semi-circular table outside with all the available reporters and desk hands of the morning shift to go through the previous days paper, identify errors, lapses, praise good reports and give instruction for the days work. He would go over each major report and discuss thoroughly with the reporter concerned, suggesting what more points could be incorporated in the report.
As a media person himself with years of experience as a top level correspondent in international media, he had that sixth sense about news. Instinctively he could understand which news item was to be first lead and which to be second and third in that order. He also could sense what political implication a certain report may have and accordingly he could take decision without losing much time.
In most cases his predictions came true. Besides reports, he used to go through all the photographs of the day and select the right ones to go with respective stories.
When it came to editorials, every morning around 12:45 he used to sit with us associate editor, senior assistant editor and assistant editors to select possible topics for editorials. We used to finish writing by 4pm and when he came to office around that time the editorials were on his table. He never took more than a minute or two to edit an editorial. He would read it once and simply changed a word or a sentence to improve it to the amazement of the writer. Occasionally he himself
wrote one and it turned out to be a masterpiece.
As a colleague he would never overdo in expressing his emotions. He did not have to raise his voice to express his dissatisfaction regarding someones negligence. He spoke mildly yet firmly to drive the point home. With only a few words he would appreciate a good work.
Reporters and editorial writers learned a lot from Mahbub bhai as he himself was a reporter once and he also had great grip over the English language. I would always cherish the moments I worked beside him as a colleague. Bangladesh did not produce many media personalities of his stature. Unfortunately, some journalists who took great advantages from him as colleague, do not hesitate to undermine his contribution to this profession. Thank God they are small in number.
The writer is a senior journalist now working in The Daily Star
