I saw him in the dining room. He had just arrived from America. He met me very warmly and was happy to learn that I was a delegate from Bangladesh. We took to each other immediately. He wanted to know about the people of Bangladesh of whom he had heard so much. He wished he could have the opportunity to visit our country. In fact Prof Fakhrul Alam of English Department of Dhaka University urged me to invite Edward Said to come to Dhaka. But he was busy with his other assignments and promised to come sometime next.

As we sat over dinner we had a lot of time to exchange views. I was looking forward eagerly to hear his lecture at the famous Stockholm Town Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize was being awarded. I had read his book on 'Orientalism' many years before and admired him for his brilliant discourse and analysis of existing theories on eastern cultures. He was able to confront western civilizations vis-a-vis oriental. His writing had given a stature to the eastern nations who had long suffered from the prejudices and biases meted out by western scholars.

It was such a pleasure to meet this great man who was congenial and lively. Over the next seven days we became friends and met morning and evening, at meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had first heard of Edward Said during my stay in New York in 1976. I was staying with a friend Gautum Das Gupta, Editor and Publisher of Performing Arts Journal in New York who was a friend of Edward Said. We attended a meeting at Columbia University where Edward Said was to come, but for some reason he did not attend. It was to be another time that we met.

Now that I was meeting him in Stockholm we had ample time to discuss many subjects over a wide range. We talked of liberation movements in many parts of the world, especially the Palestinian cause and Bangladesh's national identity movement. We talked of films, sports, music, drama and the weather!

Edward Said was born in 1935 in Jerusalem to a well-off Christian family. His father's name was Wadi Ibrahim and mother's Janet. His mother gave him the name Edward after the British regent Edward, Prince of Wales. I came to know that Edward's nature was the opposite of his father, who was hot-tempered and practical. His father migrated to America in 1911 during the First World War and signed up in the United States Army. He prided himself as a citizen of America. Edward, however, the only son of his parents (although he had four sisters) was gentle and thoughtful by nature. When I presented him with a Dhaka Muslin stole (orna) for his wife, explaining the intrinsic value of this handloom fabric, I could see the appreciation in his eyes. He told me he would convey the historic background of this woven textile to his wife. It was such a satisfaction for me to give this gift to a man steeped in culture.

On the day of Edward Said's lecture at Stockholm Town Hall, the assembled crowd was waiting with bated breath. We all knew we were going to hear the words of not only a literary scholar, but the foremost Arab intellectual of our times. He was proud to be Arab and proud to be Palestinian. English was his academic speciality as well as music and culture. He spoke in a beautiful voice and raised the moral issues of the Palestinian cause with depth of feeling. There was pin-drop silence among the listeners.

After the event we returned to our lodge and I went forward to congratulate him. I said "Edward it was a marvelous piece of oratory. Your words will be written in golden letters in the history books." He smiled humbly and rose to clasp my hands. He asked me to sit down and celebrate. We did till the wee hours of the night. We were in a glorious mood. I mentioned I would be visiting Morocco the next month. He wanted to know which cities I would be visiting and I mentioned Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakesh and Fez. He corrected my pronunciation saying the local inhabitants pronounced it not as Fez but as Fars. What a meticulous person he was! Again he stated that he had friends in Fars whom I must meet. We had struck a friendship that I greatly value to this day.