Forty years have passed since my friend Enayet - Enayetullah Khan to his colleagues and admirers- proposed publishing an English weekly. This proposal was made to Hasan Ferdous and yours truly. We were then working - part time- for an English monthly called Bangladesh Today that has now gone defunct.

Hasan Ferdous and I

Hasan Ferdous or Saadi to his friends was always the "boss man", the one who liked to decide everything for others. But they were usually good decisions so everyone accepted them and moved on. He was then working for the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) and I was with the Documents of the 1971 History project. His career was set up and he later retired from the UN HQ later and now lives in the same city where his office was, NYC. He is still very active in the diaspora media world as well as in Bangladesh media.

At that point of time, I wanted to leave my job with the History Project where the main challenges were largely met and work had become routine. It had no way of going up or down but could only end as a project which it did soon. Pay was GOB level and so I was doing several work to keep the stove going at home. Apart from that, my emotional connection with the project founder Hasan Hafizur Rahman was very deep and after his passing away, I felt the bond with that office was also largely gone so I was looking around.

When Saadi had returned from Russia earlier he couldn't find any suitable jobs because Russian degrees was a no-no in post 1975 Bangladesh. He was freelancing everywhere and then was hired to run the "Sunday Star "a weekly Edited by Mohiuddin Ahmed bhai of UPL and his friend Col. Mujib. It was probably sponsored or supported by the then ruling power cluster -Zia- but by the 80s the support had sunk low and it wasn't even barely surviving. Slowly dying is a better description.

Saadi asked me to be his lieutenant as always and I joined, always needing that extra bit of cash. We asked our friends to contribute and soon it was looking great just as the adda at the office after 5 in the afternoon was in the office.

Dhaka Courier

Saadi left "SS" when he got the UN job but continued to write for the paper. I became the in charge of sorts of "SS" but when another publication, monthly "Bangladesh Today" was launched, Saadi joined that and asked me to as well. The editorial boss there was Syed Mahmud Ali, later of the BBC. It was the Ershad era and the magazine was a great niche hit, glossy and very well written.

And then Enayet came forward with the proposal to launch Dhaka Courier and both of us left BT for it. It was 1984. In fact I left the History project as well, not to mention an offer by Dr. Kamal Hossain to join his law firm to become the Acting Editor. I had a law degree and so was thinking of an independent career but DC came along and changed it all.

Cosmos office was still in Purana Paltan but Enayet soon left for the more suitably luxurious corporate space in Dilkhusha Commercial area and Dhaka Courier took over the Purana Paltan. I was the acting Editor and Enayet, the Editor. It was a time to learn and grow and great fun for all. In mid- 1985 S.M. Ali left BT and joined DC and I moved to Cosmos to Enayet's office where other friends also would drop in. I did a very different kind of work there from journalism but also did DC work after that. When SM ALi left to do his Ph.D. in the UK, I returned to DC full time again.

But I too left to join UNICEF in 1986, and Saadi took charge once more, juggling two jobs with ease. By then Cosmos had moved to its own premises in its current address and DC went there too. It still is there.

At Cosmos Towers

Thus began the great era of Dhaka Courier. Hasan Ferdous introduced weekly payments to contributors which was a successful strategy and some of the best news were broken and covered by DC during this period. Staff members were also top quality journos including Qurratul Ain Tahmina (Miti) now with Prothom Alo and Ayesha Kabir (English edition of PA). And of course Irteza Nasim Ali who later established Probe News Agency and South Asian Monitor based in Kuala Lumpur. Leading novelist Shaheen Akhtar was later there and a scores of others including Anadalib, a brilliant young boy whose drug addiction and frustration ended with him floating in a distant pond embracing the water not life.

The contributors were of the star quality and they were the stars. Badiul Alam, Matiur Rahman Khan, Salahuddin Babar, Jaglul Alam werte just three of the eminent names.

Moazzem bhai and others

When Saadi left for the US, Moazzem Hossain, one of the finest Editors of Bangladesh media, joined as the chief. I think my greatest satisfying moment was when he read the weekly circulation figures and was amazed to find Dhaka Courier was the top seller English weekly displacing the long standing weekly Holiday edited by another Enayetullah Khan (Mintu bhai).

Moazzem bhai soon left to set up "the Financial Express" and the slot was filled by Shamshul Hasan Zahid, the current Editor of the same paper. Others followed.

I was back in the management helm again for a while but Sabir Mustafa who later led BBC Bangla joined as did others. When he left several others took charge including Prof. Harunur Rashid, our English teacher in Dhaka College and eminent educationist.

There were many others and we must write the biography of Dhaka Courier properly one day. There was Ateeque Rahman bhai who dealt with a tough time and came out of it healthy and later joined the mission in India. Golam Tahaboor bhai of AFP, Syed Badrul Ahsan, Shamsul Haq, Zafar Sobhan of Dhaka Tribune and Rouwshanuzzaman bhai who was doubling with the UNB as well ran DC too. They had different titles at different times but all were steering Dhaka Courier. And all did well.

And now it's Shayan s. Khan's innings.