GKC: A remarkable personality

FE Team | Published: October 28, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Gias Kamal Chowdhury

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury Gias Kamal Chowdhury was a near-legend in the journalistic world of Bangladesh. Barring the last few years, when he was incapacitated by severe illness, he was associated with the journalist community in many ways. The very fact that he was the President of the National Press Club and of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) amply shows that he scaled the zenith of professional bodies of the community. He was a member of the Wage Board for newsmen and other employees of newspaper industry. His multi-faceted involvement made him really a unique figure. Somewhat surprisingly, he was also the President of the Bangladesh Olympic Association. A vastly knowledgeable person, mostly attired in very simple clothes and accustomed to a lifestyle of a commoner, GKC, as he was popularly known, was an activist of left politics in his young days and was known as a follower of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani. Dead at the age of 74, he was closely known to practically all the politicians of the last days of erstwhile Pakistan era and independent Bangladesh. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib used to affectionately address him as 'Gias' even though he knew that politically GKC held different views. During the early years of newly-emerged Bangladesh, GKC was the Secretary General of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, of which late Nirmal Sen was the President. Kamal Lohani was the President of the Dhaka Union of Journalists and it was a period of glorious and healthy trade unionism in the journalist community. This writer was privileged that as a young reporter of the national news agency BSS, he was deeply associated with the union activities at that time. This scribe became an assistant secretary general of the undivided BFUJ in 1978 and unhesitatingly acknowledges that his involvement in trade unionism of the newspaper world was largely because of Gias Bhai. When much later the union got split mainly on political lines, GKC and I were in the opposite camps. But there had been no diminution of respect for him as this writer often looked to him for advice on professional matters. This writer worked with Gias Bhai for an uninterrupted three and half decades in the BSS, during which he was also his immediate controlling authority as the Chief Reporter. He was also the Managing Editor of the agency. When later this scribe became the Chief Editor of the BSS, Gias Bhai and late Chief Editor Faiz Ahmad were too happy that he could reach that position. Both had invaluable contributions to his career. True, GKC was not much familiar as a writer as such. But it was understandable that his too deep involvement mainly with the welfare and betterment of the country's journalists kept him busy with the larger matters. Nevertheless, he hardly missed his reporting assignments in the BSS and also in the Voice of America (VOA), of which he served as the Bangladesh Correspondent for many years. Beginning with the then Pakistan Times in 1964, GKC remained active with the profession till he retired from the BSS and later became too ill. Several years ago, his life hung in the balance when he was going through a difficult brain surgery in the CMH. Fortunately, he miraculously survived. Gias Kamal Chowdhury is dead. But he would always be remembered for many of his rare qualities. An extra-ordinary quality, really unprecedented in the realm of media, is that he would always extend a helping hand to anyone who would be in trouble in any way. The number of people, who have been benefitted by his selfless services, is simply countless. Those who knew him closely used to say that his family members hardly got his company. Because, he would get out from his house in the morning and return late in the night, busy mostly with others' interests. Indeed, GKC had distinguished himself as a different kind of senior newsman and a human being - parallel of which is difficult to find. Email: zaglulbss@yahoo.com