My Father, the Journalist – Reminiscences on his first death anniversary by Sk Sadar Saif

By Sk Sadar Saif

My father, Sk Sadar Nayeem was born posthumously on 11th Oct 1956 when his father Sk Muslim had passed away some 7 months ago. My grandfather was an influential person who also happened to be the former vice chairman of Kamarhati Municipality. But my father was deprived of his father’s love and guidance since birth.
Having been brought up at his maternal grandfather’s home in Raja Bazar, he completed his school education from Hare School and then graduated in English from Maulana Azad College. Thereafter he completed his MA from Calcutta University.
Being good in studies he could have chosen any lucrative career like medicine, civil service or law but he had always listened to the writer in him and wanted to become one.
Having a special soft corner for his dear city of Calcutta, he started his journalistic career here as a Freelance Reporter for the leading Urdu daily, Akhbar e Mashriq in 1980. About the same time, The Telegraph was launched in July 1982 by MJ Akbar. My father, being a die-hard Akbar fan, left Mashriq and decided to join The Telegraph. But fate had other plans and he couldn’t join The Telegraph as a full time Journalist. Moving on in life he had to join a soap manufacturing company as a manager and for the first time Journalism took a back seat in his life. But he always yearned to bring back his Mashriq days.
The opportunity came after sometime. All of a sudden two events happened and my father’s life changed, perhaps forever and he found his true calling in life. Gulf War-I broke out in the Middle east with Iraq invading Kuwait in 1990 and the Hindutva brigade brought down the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in Dec 1992. Both the events had national and international ramifications and in my father’s own words, it brought out the Journalist in him. He used to write letters to the editor in the Statesman during his student days. But this time wielding his pen as a Freelancer he extensively wrote in almost all leading newspapers of North India in English, Bengali and Urdu. Some of his articles were also translated in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi.
His favourite subjects were Partition of India, Hindu-Muslim relations, Communalism in modern India, Middle east crisis, Israel-Palestine issue, Economic liberalization & reforms in India, GATT and WTO, Nuclear proliferation, Child labour, Muslim women education, Islam and Terrorism, Rise of Mandal and Coalition era in Indian politics, Role of America & its allies in the unipolar world etc.
Journalism brought him fame and he came to be widely known in literary and journalistic circles around Kolkata and beyond. It was around this time he also dabbled in the film world as an actor and producer. But according to him he was always a writer and a journalist and would remain so for rest of his life.
With the onset of the 21st century, my father having left his private job, decided to focus on his writing full-time. A chance meeting with CR Irani landed him a job in The Statesman at the desk. It was his dream come true which he was yearning for since his Mashriq days. With the launch of Dainik Statesman (Bengali) in 2004 he was the only editorial staff in the Statesman group to contribute to both the English and Bengali papers. Slowly but steadily he climbed up the editorial ladder. In Nov 2015, he was appointed as Editor of the Dainik Statesman, a post in which he remained till August 2020. So much so was his dedication to bring out the paper in those challenging and bleak times of international lock-down that he even braced Covid-19, despite warnings from his doctors to remain indoors. His passion and ‘nose’ for news made him peerless among his colleagues.
Post retirement from The Statesman, he collaborated with the famous poet and lyricist Gulzar and translated his collection of Urdu poems “Pluto” from Urdu to Bengali. The translation received rave reviews from leading newspapers like Ananda Bazar Patrika as well as from the general public at large.
Towards the end of his life, my father joined the Puber Kalom, a leading Bengali Daily, as a Senior Reporter. At Kalom, he collaborated with his old friend and Editor Ahmed Hasan Imran. It was Imran saheb who persuaded my father to contribute as much as he could because he understood the writer in him. And my father responded to his friend’s call till the very last. He knew that his health was failing him but he never stopped his pen from writing. Having contributed to English, Bengali and Urdu Dailies simultaneously was perhaps my father’s greatest achievement in his entire Journalistic career. Ultimately his pen stopped, perhaps forever on 06th Feb 2024 when he passed away in his dear city of Calcutta, exactly a year ago.
My father’s pen might have stopped but his writings have lingered on in the collective memory of his friends and well-wishers and will continue to inspire future young Journalists.