Toufique Khalidi and the lasting imprint of friendship, courage and generosity

It was Oct 2, a Friday. On my way home from work, I stopped at a petrol station to refuel my car. I was about to remove the nozzle when my mobile phone rang. It was my good friend Ishani Dutta-Ray from Kolkata. She asked if I had heard anything about “Toufique Bhai”.

I was taken aback.

Toufique and I had not been in touch for more than a decade.

“What happened?” I asked.

Ishani said she had learnt on social media that Toufique had died in London.

For a moment, I felt as though I had lost one of my quiet well-wishers.

Ishani is now the editor of Anandabazar Patrika. All three of us had worked together at the BBC Bengali Service.

I joined the BBC World Service in June 1999. Toufique followed a few months later. He was deeply affectionate and guided me professionally as a senior journalist, while also offering support in his personal capacity.

Toufique saw me more as a younger brother than a colleague. I remain immensely grateful for his warmth, generosity and kindness.

I still remember how he negotiated with the Bengali Service's leaders to take me along to Claridge’s Hotel to interview Sheikh Hasina in February 2000. I was young and inexperienced, and the opportunity was certainly an important exposure for me. His decision ruffled a few feathers at the BBC, but Toufique was stubborn.

I am sincerely grateful to him for standing by me when I was preparing to leave the BBC in 2012, and in the years that followed. After leaving the BBC in December that year, I worked for a few months with bdnews24.com. My role was to sharpen the English-language copy produced by the translation sub-editors. That engagement helped me hold on to my professional morale at a difficult time.

Toufique's commitment to journalism was unflinching, and his fearlessness as a journalist exemplary. His command of both English and Bengali was rare. The success of bdnews24.com stands as a testament to his leadership and willingness to take risks. I can vouch that Ishani shares the same sentiments about Toufique.

Although we had not been in touch since mid-2013, Toufique remained in our hearts and will continue to do so for years to come.

“To live in the hearts of people one leaves behind is not to die.”

Toufique will be dearly missed.

[Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a former BBC World Service journalist who also worked with bdnews24.com. Based in London, he currently works in further education as an Employability Development Officer at Harrow, Richmond & Uxbridge Colleges]