After hearing the news, the head is hanging! I felt suffocated, it seems that the tears of great sadness are stuck in my throat. Aghor Da has been ill for the past few days; I was praying for Dada. I talked with my Dada one day. But I did not imagine that he will be out at 58!
While reading the status of bereaved colleagues on the internet today, I felt that if you want to know Aghor (Mandal) Da, you must first know the reporter Aghor Da! A reporter always lived inside him. He is a reporter at heart!
The first light was born from a piece of morning paper. Then we are part of morning paper sports from one time publisher. Our sports room is on the ground floor at Mymensingh Road, Banglamator; Right next to the road. Our room was a big place to hang out. West Indies home news from Dhaka field - where sometimes Amit Da, Pulak Da, Khokon Bhai used to come and join.
Around 2001, Aghor Da was a super star reporter! He will be there every week from this end of the landline to host the game on BCB Radio. The telephone operator used to tell Mintu Bhai in advance - today there will be a call from London. Then when the call came at the desired time, Dada would continuously tell the news of the country's sports. We used to listen to them with fascination.
Again, while walking, he would give us ideas one after another. If what he said continuously could have been written down properly, it would have made a great report. But I heard many things from my grandfather that we could not lift them properly. He used to throw it in the basket many times because the writing was not in his mind. He used to express resentment in harsh language. I think they are a blessing! Because he is my journalism teacher!
Aghor Mandal never liked sitting at a desk. That's why each of us Masud (Alam) Bhai, Moni Bhai (Tareq Mahmud), (Masud Parvez) Babu, Rakibul Hasan, Zahid Chowdhury who joined at the end, each of us used to face the field! And he used to keep focus on all sports not only cricket-football. He used to write with both hands. Sometimes Shamsul Haque used to write a long story on each of Tengku Bhai's wonderful pictures!
We almost assumed that Dada would go for any series outside the country. But we used to laugh that he didn't clear it before boarding the plane. Dada probably would have enjoyed it too. At that time, journalists were the only means of sending news from outside the country. It also happened that the fax of our morning paper was lost, Dada used to send faxes to Ittefaq or Inqilab office in Tikatuli. Some of us would collect and handle them from there. We would then memorize those tour diaries, match reports, interviews or exclusives. Those days of morning papers seem to be the best career days yet!
Then one day the morning paper meeting broke. We are in different places! But to me he has always remained my guru. He also remembered that little one of us that day and brought back the old days with each word. At the 2022 Australia World Cup in front of the Melbourne Cricket Ground on a rainy afternoon, I was suddenly surprised to see my Dada as if I had seen a ghost. As always, grandfather appeared in the World Cup without telling anyone. By then, however, he is the news editor of ATN News, apart from Bhorer Kagaz, Channel I, Deepta TV.
However, he could never overcome the illusion of the world of sports. Dada went to Aminul Islam Bulbul Bhai's house in Melbourne. I still remember some great moments with Dada on the way back from the city to the Federal University campus near Berwick that day. Bulbul Bhai and Dada were talking about the old sports arena and the present time as well. Aghor Da did not want to hold anything except the game, so the only part of the conversation is sports!
He had a strange whim to find news. He kept the reader hooked with great wordplay. Our Aghor Da was the master craftsman of making reports in the form of stories in the format of sentences. Captions are also good at creating titles.
What a strange cycle of life! Today he headlined himself; Newspapers, online, Facebook everywhere!