The way I've become a journalist…initial days...

In Bangladesh students have little freedom to choose their subjects at the university level. My case was no exception. When I decided to read journalism, I found all my family members, especially my brothers and sisters, against me. When I decided to take up journalism as my career after university, they again stood in my way even though it is an exciting profession. It may not sound nice that I had to struggle a lot against the will of my family but it is true.

My father, an educationist who fought against poverty throughout his life, unfortunately passed away before completion of my High School graduation. Then my mom and elder brothers took care of me and my education.

They wanted me to grow up as a learned man so that I could be a first-class public servant. According to their plan, they did not encourage me to take up journalism as my university major at the graduation level which I had long been dreaming of studying.

I was a student of Commerce at the Higher Secondary level. So, my elder brother had wanted me to read Business Administration (BBA). But upsetting my family members, including my elder brother, I got enrolled in the Department of Communication and Journalism (then Journalism Department) under the University of Chittagong, a known place to me and my family from which my father completed his MA in English Literature as its first batch student.

Soon after my admission into the desired department, I virtually stepped into my long-cherished dream of becoming a journalist which I could never give up for a single moment.

On completion of my first three months of four-year graduation course in Journalism, I expressed my eagerness to get attached with a newspaper to gather experience of practical journalism. I shared my zeal with the then departmental head – Ali Asgar Chowdhury -- who liked me much.

It was a fine sunny morning ….when I received a verbal proposal to be a newsroom intern at Chittgaong Bureau of the country's oldest English daily – The Bangladesh Observer.

Mr. Ali Asgar Chowdhury was the gentleman who conveyed me the message. I did not think twice to grab the much-expected offer. The following day, I visited the Bureau of the national daily in time to meet its Bureau-in-Charge Mr. Hafiz Inam Imam, the first Bangladeshi fellow of World Press Institute (WPI).

He was convinced after a brief discussion between us and allowed me to start work immediately through converting a news item into English from a Bengali-written press release. The news-item was duly published in the newspaper the following day which apparently gave reality to my dream of stepping into practical journalism.