Remembering BD: A master of wit, wisdom and wordplay

I first met BD back in 2005, when I joined TOI. From then on, I got the opportunity to work very closely with him in both TOI and Dainik Bhaskar.

BD managed to combine wisdom & erudition and childlike exuberance with effortless ease. He would talk about something profound and then crack a joke the very next moment, and his infectious laughter would engulf the entire room.

BD was very fond of punning and we often got into chats which would go on and on as he would always want to have the last pun....and he was really good at it.

So many BDisms are etched in my mind. He was a master of the English language and had a unique way of expressing himself. He liked using difficult words and was amused when the audience was flummoxed. And then he would explain it simply and we would realize that it all made perfect sense.

BD always said that he looked at the past not with nostalgia but with postalgia...but all the conversations we had over the years are now highly nostalgic.

He was deeply spiritual as a person, I had the privilege to see that side of him when we visited temples in Delhi together.

We also used to bond over Bengali songs, I used to shared my recordings with him and he would point out nuances very subtly, always ensuring that he didn't hurt feelings. I confessed that I could not do justice to the last song I shared with him. And he replied,

"Please don’t think about that. Just enjoy relishing how far have you come. I follow that and realise that God has given me more than what I deserve."

That's one of the last few messages I got from him just a few days back.

BD always said he follows ego less passion and that ego has no place once you realize that we are all united by the ultimate democratic outcome - death.

But people like BD don't die a part of him lives on in every life he has touched.