How Taposh's photo went viral

It was 3 August when the month-long Anti-discrimination Student Movement protests took its worst turn into violence. I reached the airport to catch a Singapore flight with Biman Bangladesh scheduled for 8:30am.

My flight was set a month back to attend the Asian Journalism Fellowship programme with National University of Singapore. As a reporter I was asked to keep eyes on the airport as many political leaders were reportedly escaping the country in this crisis time.

Fortunately, I got an upgrade of my ticket from economy class to business class as some seats were empty. I noticed that only four passengers boarded in business class on that flight.

The plane was almost ready to fly as we were already served with peanuts and juice.

Suddenly, I noticed the cabin crew became really busy to welcome a VIP guest at the last minute. I became alert to keep my mobile camera on. Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation boarded the flight. He was the last passenger who boarded, leaving his burning city behind. He was travelling alone wearing a black suit and carrying a small handbag.

Though the country was burning, there was no sign of this on his face. He looked very fresh with well done hair. He sat in the first row of the cabin. Though, I could not see him as I was sitting in the last row on the same side but I could sense that he had a long sleep as he was served food just 30 minutes before landing on a four-hour long flight.

I clicked my camera soon after he boarded and sent it immediately to my office. It was just to confirm that it was true that political leaders are escaping the country.

I shared the photo in an internal messenger group of my office where we share all information. Though, sharing photos was not intended to publish but to be sure that VIPs are running out of the country in this unusual crisis period.

We all forgot about that photo as so many developments about the demonstration were coming all the day. However, the next day, I saw that same photo of Taposh had gone viral on social media. Someone we don't know had passed the photo and it went viral.

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