I didn’t even know that Ihsanul Karim Helal bhjai was seriously unwell and was hospitalized. I learnt that from the obituary published in the media. They refer to his month long hospitalization but not the cause of his ill health. It doesn’t even mention how old he was.  It’ as if  I was reading an anonymous death notice and a stranger had died. Except that I knew him and loved him like my own older brother.

Nothing else mattered to me when I read the notice. I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and loss.  It didn’t matter that I hadn’t met or talked to him in the last decade.

BBC days  

I was the reporter for the BBC Bengali service during the heady days of Awami League’s final years out of power for long that is 1994-95. I did my daily dispatch for six days and Helal bhai held the weekend. He was then working for the BSS and was absolutely the nicest person to be with in the tumultuous days of street protests, violence and the rest.

We however came from two different media positions. I held then and still do that a journalist will find it very difficult to report objectively if they have strong political beliefs. In fact I was a political “cynic “type who didn’t even subscribe to any political identity. I still don’t.

Helal bhai was very different because he was not just a loyalist of the Awami League but close to the current PM. In fact the entire family was in some ways. Helal bhai never hid his views and saw that as his duty. Yet Helal bhai’s reporting held no bias and it was both a surprise and a pleasure to see that. After all, I cared more about him than media reports.

He was more of a desk person in the sense that he knew his way around and people who were involved in politics. He could get information simply by asking, which I couldn't do that easily. I was more of the street variety reporter and perhaps closer to Ataus Samad bhai that way.  We liked the gunfire and smoke, billowing smoke rising from burning tires and interviews done on the run. But Helal bhai’s credibility was unshakeable and the audience reports clearly showed that.

His brief background

BDNews 24 has published this brief bio.

“ Ihsanul, karim a distinguished journalist with a career spanning over 40 years, was born on Jan 5, 1951, in Kushtia. He graduated from Dhaka University and did his post-graduation at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).

He joined the Liberation War in 1971 and fought in the western frontier as a member of the Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF).

He started his career as a staff correspondent of the government-run news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha or BSS in 1972. He worked as the bureau chief of BSS in New Delhi for five years from 1997.He also worked as the Bangladesh correspondent of several international media, including the BBC, and the Press Trust of India. Nicknamed Helal, he was known to his colleagues as “Helal Bhai”.

He was appointed the prime minister’s press secretary in 2015 for a year. His contract was extended by three years in 2016 and a further three years in 2019.Before joining the Prime Minister’s Office, Ihsanul worked as the president’s press secretary, and managing director and chief editor of BSS.

He is survived by his wife Shireen Karim, a son and a daughter. “

The details of his life are there but what no bio or obituary can capture is his grace, dignity and friendship. Good bye Helal bhai. Till we meet again.