Dhaka, Oct. 3 -- I first met Toufique Imrose Khalidi after three years of working at bdnews24.com. By then, I had finished a two-year stint at Stripe, bdnews24.com's youth supplement, and had started working full-time at the English desk.

Until then, I had only seen him in photographs and heard about the formidable TIK, as he was known in the newsroom.

He walked in wearing his signature panjabi and thin-framed glasses, speaking in a low voice that demanded attention.

He was the quintessential Bengali father figure from modern literature, and I soon understood how much that shaped the way he led the people around him.

When we started talking, Toufique Bhai told me about his long friendship with my father and how he wished we had met so...