An acclaimed entrepreneur and banking legend is no more. Abdur Rouf Chowdhury, former chairman of Bank Asia and visionary of Rangs Group passed away around midday on February 18, 2023.

Rouf bhai was one of the most creative entrepreneurs in the country, having founded many companies in very diverse fields

He dedicated his entire life to the cause of the poor and to humanity.

The lady I am writing about was a silent social worker and an ardent homemaker.

Akbar Ali Khan is no more. His passing leaves a deep chasm in the intellectual firmament of Bangladesh.

As a visionary and an intellectual, Abul Mansur Ahmad was far ahead of his time.

Jahan Ara dedicated her life to the promotion of girls’ education in Bangladesh

Mrs Musleha Islam, known to many as Bucchu Apa, Khala, Nani, and Dadi, was born in an Urdu-speaking family in Kolkata.

From the moment he appeared on the world stage, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s most compelling politician in a generation, was cut from a different cloth.

Former president of Bangladesh Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed passed away on March 19, 2022. In grateful remembrance of his contribution for steering the nation from autocracy to democracy during the turbulent days of 1990-1991

Emeritus publisher Mohiuddin Ahmed, the doyen of Bangladesh’s publishing industry, left us on June 22, 2021. As it is said, life ends but memories do not. When I recall my association with him, three distinctive episodes and numerous encounters flash across my mind.

Sometime in October 2001, I attended a discussion programme at Markfield Conference Centre in Leicestershire, UK. There was a lively debate on Islamic banking over lunch, involving Murad Wilfried Hofmann (1931-2020) and Shah Abdul Hannan (1939-2021).

My first meeting with Mohiuddin Ahmed was in 1956, at a dinner in his brother's house. His brother, Kabir Ahmed, was what in Bangla we call the "bhaira bhai" of SAM Khan, my father's colleague in the civil service, and the friendship of the two families extended to include him.

At the first death anniversary of Syed Muazzem Ali, former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, on December 30, many of his colleagues remember him as the highly accomplished and charismatic diplomat who helped to turn International Mother Language Day into a reality, and who tirelessly advanced Bangladeshi priorities on the world stage. They remember his warmth, humour and charm.

The sky was unusually blue for an early morning in late November, the day Aly Zaker passed away. Everything else that happened after feels like a sort of blur, except I distinctly remember thinking that he would have appreciated the beauty of that cold, clear morning in Dhaka.

Ziauddin Tariq Ali was known to others as a freedom fighter, a cultural activist and a founder trustee of the Liberation War Museum.

Chef Haji Mohammed Rafique of the Fakruddin brand has passed away yesterday (September 27) at the United Hospital, after suffering from infection in the lungs. He left behind the legacy of a culinary empire that his father, the legendary chef Md Fakruddin Munshi, had established.

With the sad demise of Ziauddin Tariq Ali, a colourful personality of the generation of Muktijoddha, a life-long crusader of secular liberal nationalist values of the liberation struggle has left the arena of history.

At a time when Bangladesh is planning the historic celebration of the 50th anniversary of independence next year, the demises, in quick succession, of two great commanders of the Liberation War, are too shocking.

A major disappointment in the public life of India’s first Bengali President Pranab Mukherjee, who died on August 31, 2020, was that he could never contest and win direct elections to parliament, which would have helped him shed the tag his critics gave him: “a politician without a mass base and following.”