Dhaka, Nov. 1 -- It was Oct 2, a Friday. On my way home from work, I stopped at a petrol station to refuel my car. I was about to remove the nozzle when my mobile phone rang. It was my good friend Ishani Dutta-Ray from Kolkata. She asked if I had heard anything about "Toufique Bhai".

I was taken aback.

Toufique and I had not been in touch for more than a decade.

"What happened?" I asked.

Ishani said she had learnt on social media that Toufique had died in London.

For a moment, I felt as though I had lost one of my quiet well-wishers.

Ishani is now the editor of Anandabazar Patrika. All three of us had worked together at the BBC Bengali Service.

I joined the BBC World Service in June 1999. Toufique followed a few months later. He wa...