It’s not always very easy to be a neighbour of a celebrity, especially if you are a journalist. Sometimes you need to report things that you don’t like. There could be a conflict of interest, as you need to keep a balance between your personal relations with professional duties. This may also cause you some embarrassments, something that I experienced first-hand in late 2014 when Rubel Hossain and film star Naznin Akter Happy saga unfolded.

I became Rubel’s neighbour earlier that year when I took possession of my small apartment in Mirpur. Rubel joined me in the same apartment building a month later and started living one floor above me, alone. Frankly, I was glad to have him as my neighbour and promised to myself about not paying any attention to his personal life. I knew he was having an affair but was never curious about it. I saw Happy maybe one or two times but was not aware of her identity as a film star.

Everything changed dramatically when Happy filed a lawsuit against Rubel, accusing him of rape. It was a serious allegation, so I could not avoid it even if I wanted to. My journalist friends turned to me for some details. But I had to frustrate them. I was double-minded whether to approach Rubel and dig deep on the issue. It was a dilemma I rarely faced in my career. The reporter inside me was spurring me to use my advantage as neighbour. But I finally decided not to embarrass him and reported the issue just like any other reporter.

The day Rubel was going to court to seek an extension of his four-week bail, I met him at the entrance of our building and wished him luck. It was my only ever conversation with Rubel on the Happy saga. I felt aghast in the afternoon when I came to know that his bail prayer was rejected and he was sent to jail. But in professional life there is little room for emotion. It was a big breaking news for us because Rubel was not just an ordinary cricketer, but a member of the provisional Bangladesh squad for the next World Cup. So, I had to put everything aside and report the matter.

The next three days we all were busy doing follow-ups until he was freed on bail, thanks largely to an intervention of Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan and Rubel happily joined Bangladesh’s tour party for the World Cup. I never spoke to Rubel about the issue after his release, firstly because I did not want to embarrass him and secondly, I did not want him to feel distracted before the World Cup. It was not just me, perhaps the whole country wanted him to forget the unfortunate incident in his life and concentrate on the job ahead. I had little idea he was going to repay all of us very soon. I was perhaps the happiest man on the planet when I saw him uprooting the stumps of Stuart Broad and James Anderson in the space of three balls in Adelaide to knock England out of the World Cup and catapult Bangladesh into quarter-final.

Next day when I saw Rubel creating history I felt really proud. It was not possible to congratulate him personally as I had to file my reports. But I was not worried about it either because I knew I would get plenty of opportunities. Now that he has become a national hero, Happy dropped her allegations against him through a Facebook status a day after the game. I was just thinking if I could speak to him about the issue as everything seemed to have taken a positive turn now. The same dilemma returned and I finally decided to stay firm with the promise I made to myself about a year ago.

I broke my promise only once. On December 31, 2015, we arranged a barbeque party on our rooftop to celebrate the New Year, where every family living in the building joined. Rubel was again late to join the celebration. It was well past midnight when he came to the rooftop to join us and I moved forward to only tell him, ‘Happy New Year, Rubel.’ Rubel gave me a smile but all others burst into laughter to make me finally realise I said a word I intended not to say to him for months.

The writer is the sports editor of New Age