Published: 11:26 PM, 28 August 2026
I Am Bangladesh's Mr. Difficult Words!
I have had a deep passion for and affection for words since childhood. Whenever I read books or newspapers back then, I would note down the words that I found interesting, striking or important in a diary-and I always used a red-ink pen to do it. Even today, I continue to make my notes with a red-ink pen.
I developed a strong interest in the English language from my school days. Perhaps that is why I consistently performed well in English and scored good marks. During those years, I regularly read English-language newspapers. We had an English newspaper delivered to our home every single day.
In fact, I was the only person in my locality-and ours was the only household in that countryside area-where an English newspaper was delivered daily.
I would spend an hour every day reading the newspaper. There was almost an art to the way I read it: I would underline passages with a red-ink pen and pore over the newspaper meticulously, word by word, line by line. By the time I was done, the newspaper would look almost artistic. My mother preserved many of those artistic copies for years. Sadly, they were destroyed in the devastating floods of 2024. My love and fascination with words were so intense that I kept several different diaries exclusively for recording words. I was so obsessed with vocabulary that, by my first year of college, I had memorized 1,000 GRE High-Frequency Words.
That fascination, love and weakness for words remain as strong as ever. Even today, I learn new words every day. And every night before I go to sleep, I can usually recall what the Word of the Day is!
This lifelong passion for words has inevitably shaped my writing and left a distinct imprint on my literary style. I consider that only natural. I believe: words are what shape ideas and reflect thoughts.
Today, one of my readers and well-wishers told me, "Your writing is brilliant. But you use so much complicated vocabulary that everything isn't always easy to understand."
A few days ago, someone else remarked, rather mockingly, "I Am Bangladesh's Mr. Difficult Words!"
The truth, however, is that I always try to write in clear, accessible language, keeping the reader's comprehension in mind. Yet my extensive vocabulary-and perhaps the socio-economic realities of this country-can sometimes make my writing appear more complex to some readers.
Moreover, I have to keep my international readership in mind. In fact, my international readership is considerably larger than my readership within Bangladesh.
It is fair to say that I am besotted with words. I love them impeccably. Words attract me as honey allures bees. I make it a ritual to learn a new word every day-a small act of expanding my universe.
I read extensively. I read everywhere-in books, on the streets and even in the language of people's eyes. Since childhood, reading has been my education, my escape and my entertainment.
Actually, blessed with a keen ear for words and a remarkably retentive memory, I have cultivated within my mind a rich and formidable lexicon of exceptional and highly precise words.
Words are a powerful weapon to me. They are one of the greatest disciplines-and deepest pursuits-of my life. I constantly learn new words out of my intellectual curiosity. I am a bibliophile, a wordsmith and a logophile. With words, almost anything can be created; and with words, almost anything can be destroyed in an instant.
Words are power. Words are poetry. Words are beauty. Words are sexy. Words are desire. Words can seduce the mind, stir the heart, disturb the conscience and illuminate the darkest corners of human experience. With words, we preserve what time tries to erase, give meaning to what silence cannot explain and build worlds that exist long after we are gone. Perhaps that is why words are among the most beautiful forms of human freedom.
Emran Emon is an eminent journalist,
columnist and global affairs analyst.
He can be reached at [email protected]
