AHM Moazzem Hossain was the finest in the business

[This is a personal tribute posted on the writer's official Facebook page just two days before the journalist's passing when he was gravely ill and was on life support]

AHM Moazzem Hossain is the finest in the business — his grasp of Bangladesh's economy (and all that's even remotely connected to it) is matched by no one in the profession; a workaholic who never tires until he's met the deadline; the man who has led from the front in making the nation's first financial daily broadsheet work, both in content and as a business case.

It was October 1993 — the first was a Friday, so my appointment as the first reporter was dated the 2nd with the paper in pink hitting the stands on the 2nd (?) of November. I still remember the first edition's front page which carried three of my stories — only one with byline. I would rather not disclose/discuss at the moment the motivation behind the madness in those days to pursue any story that came my way.

Many years later, when we met at a dinner, the founding editor of The Financial Express referred to me as "one of the founders of the Financial Express" and made my day — I only helped him recruit some of the key members of the launch team. The days at FE were marked by many personal milestones, several of them defining moments of my life — the resignation was dated the 8th of April 1996 if memory still serves me right.

Moazzem Bhai played his part in some of those. He remains etched in my memory; he is a key character in that chapter of my life.

A quarter of a century on, Moazzem Bhai suddenly occupies my whole being. In his early 70s, a 1968 Masters in Economics from Dhaka University, it is in my opinion too early for him to go. Many more deadlines to meet, Moazzem Bhai, many more leaders need writing or rewriting, many more newsroom copies call for a second pair of eyes which you only possess …

… hope all the good thoughts being sent by so many colleagues over a five-decade career remove all that stands in your way. Let's hope it's only a comma (,) not a full-stop (.)