Tareque was the most unsexist man: Catherine Masud

####PA: How did you meet Tareque Masud?

CM: I met Tareque at Dr Mafiz Chowdhury’s place at 2 Indira Road. He was the industries minister of the very first Bangladesh government. He preferred to stay in that barely inhabitable house on Indira Road rather than staying in his big house in Gulshan, because he liked to have a place where he could write. He invited all his artist friends to come and stay there. It was kind of a bohemian centre, frequented by many of the intellectuals, including the poet Ahmed Sofa. They called the place ‘Pagla Ghar’.

I had met Sofa bhai a few months earlier in Kolkata through a friend of mine and he invited me to visit him at Indira Road. I went there for the first time one July afternoon in 1987.

I met Tareque there that day. He was also staying at Dr Chowdhury’s place. He was working at that time on his documentary Adam Surat, on the painter SM Sultan. I had seen Sultan’s work and was fascinated by his paintings. Tareque spoke with me about his film, and showed me a folder he had put together on Sultan and the documentary.

Sofa bhai was the centre of attention, holding forth with his wide knowledge of Eastern and Western civilisation. He had a circle of admirers around him. He was Tareque’s guru as well. I started to go to Indira Road regularly, and we became friends under Sofa bhai’s spell.

PA: How did it start?

CM: Well, Sofa bhai, being the writer that he is, would imagine both of us in love. At one point he would tell me ‘Tareque has fallen for you’ and another time he would tell Tareque ‘Catherine has fallen for you’. He kind of created the situation.

It was a time of turmoil, near the end of the Ershad regime. Every now and then there would be hartals (strikes), which at times stretched for months on end. So there was plenty of time to sit about and have adda, through the afternoons and evenings.

At times Sofa bhai would say, 'Catherine you have to come for dinner' and I would duly oblige. Then Tareque would mysteriously disappear. Shortly after, delicious food would appear, brought out by Tareque.

Long afterwards, I came to know that the dishes were prepared by none other than Tareque Masud. He was quite a good cook.