Great Sports Administrator Tycoon

2nd May of 1984

Kawran Bazar Government High School, Tejgaon, Dhaka

At about 10:30 in the morning, in front of a shabby-looking school situated almost in the heart of one of the most important wholesale distribution centers of Dhaka—Kawran Bazar, a black, luxurious Mercedes-Benz S-Class W116 was parked. This startled nearby people who are mostly vegetable wholesalers and small vendors. People who could afford this car shouldn't stop in a place like this.

But when they saw a neatly dressed young boy around 10 or 11 who lacked an aura of nobility emerge from the car, they became more astonished. Although the child of this age is supposed to be a school student, he is not definitely for this school. And is their reasoning wrong? Definitely no, as the status between the car and the school isn't matching, thus creating commotion among the people around.

The child who created the commotion among those people is none other than Shamsur Rahman, also known as Shams. Although people were whispering to each other and staring at him, it didn't affect him a bit. He felt emotional on his way to enter the same door, which brought him many good memories 40 years ago in his last life.

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Next one hour Shams spent time meeting the Principal and the teachers who didn't have any classes during this period. All the teachers were sympathetic towards him as they already knew his parents had died in the accident almost 1 month ago. Shams's parents had maintained a good relationship with them as due to work pressure they couldn't come to the school, so that the teachers would take good care of Shams in the school.

Meanwhile, Usman completed all the necessary procedures for the Transfer Certificate of Shams. After that, the bell rung indicating the start of tiffin period, so Shams took leave from the teacher head towards the designated classroom of Class 5 to meet his classmates for the last time, especially his best friend Kamrul, while his butler Usman went out of the school with the TC to wait for him in the car as his work has been completed and he didn't want to be bothersome personnel for his master.

When Shams entered the class, he was welcomed by everyone enthusiastically. In the last life, before his parents died, Shams was a social butterfly and had good relations with every classmate in the school but he changed later due to the initial bullying he faced in his new school. So when his classmates who already knew about his condition saw him after almost 1 month, felt that a good welcome was needed. Most energetic was Kamrul. He directly hugged Shams after not seeing his best friend who lost almost everything and after comforting Shams as much as he could, they started sharing updates about the school and daily life which they always did before. Shams's other classmates also join the conversation and before they know it, the tiffin times ended.

As they already knew from Shams that today was his last day in this school, all parties were reluctant to say goodbye to each other but after all people needed to go down their own paths eventually, they parted away but shared the detailed contact information before so that they can meet during the free time.

After that Shams went out of the classroom and started walking towards the school gate as he needed to accompany his grandpa in one of his meetings with one of the highest-ranking generals & powerful person in the country right now, Major General M. Atiqur Rahman, Principal Staff Officer of Bangladesh Army and one of the close & trusted person of current President & Army Chief of Bangladesh, who will eventually become Army Chief in 1986. One thing more, this person is also a distant cousin of his grandpa.

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Night 2nd May of 1984

Rahman Villa, Gulshan–2, Dhaka

In the luxurious living room, a tired old man and a young boy were sitting in front of each other and were having a conversation. They are none other than Shams and his grandpa Mahbubur Rahman. As for what they are discussing, it is related to the meeting they had with the distant cousin of his grandpa, Major General M. Atiqur Rahman.

"So Grandpa, you only have this night to think over and inform them of your decision. Have you decided what to do now?" Shams asked his grandpa and also added, "If you want to ask about me, I will suggest you take their offer. This will help secure our business environment for now and give us time to diversify our business."

Hearing this, the old man sighed and started thinking. After a few moments he replied in an angry voice, "I know, they are giving me no breathing space. They are just looking for either a scapegoat for their future failure or a Golden Egg Duck for Ershad. And most importantly, I am already very busy with business and don't even have time to recuperate from my illness. I really don't have time to entertain those muleheaded brawny fools. What worse could happen? I will just surrender the shares of paper mills to them."

Hearing his grandpa, Shams panicked and there were many reasons behind this. First of all, in the last life, his grandpa got the same offer from the government. It's been only 2 years since Ershad took control of Bangladesh in a military coup. For this reason, the current government faces many problems on the international stage from financial to diplomacy as there are few renowned and internationally accepted persons in his government & administration.

Mahbubur Rahman, although led a very lowkey life has a good standing among the international business community and has a vast network built by the Rahman Family which could help the current government. For this reason, Hussain Muhammad Ershad, since the start of his presidency, even made regular contact with him so that Mahbubur can help the government a bit. But the old man was either stubborn or very stubborn to directly deny the military dictator thus leading to the current situation.

In the afternoon meeting, Mahbubur's cousin thus conveyed the proposal or rather death order of Ershad to him. Atiqur relayed to him a few options on behalf of Ershad–

1. Become a Minister of the current government's cabinet and help them in the international arena in a positive way.

2. Become President or Chairman of one of the national organizations which have international affiliations thus becoming a partner of their administration and trying to face-lift the current regime in the international arena.

3. If not have chosen any of the two options mentioned before, then transfer shares of either paper mills or jute mills which are cash cows of Rahman Group to the government as they were originally state businesses before Rahman Group bought them after the death of Mujib in 1975.

For an old-generation person with high moral values who came from a long lineage of elite-class business family, these terms are humiliating. Also, Mahbubur really wasn't in any type of condition to make time for extra responsibility due to physical and familial reasons. So in the last life, Mahbubur directly rejected the offer.

But can a muscle-headed dictator understand that? Thus the Rahman Group faced relentless oppression from the government along with confiscation of almost 60-70% of the properties. This actually started the downfall of the almost 100-year-old Rahman Group. Later due to Shams's squandering and god-level capability of making enemies whenever he saw people, the business almost fell into bankruptcy.

In the last life when these things were happening, Shams was unaware but most importantly didn't bother. But in this life, Shams wanted to change this. However having a direct relationship with the political fraternity is a big no-no, especially if it's a military dictatorship as the hard-earned reputations can plummet if something goes out of control.

But to Shams, who has firsthand experience of more than 20 years of managing a successful business in the muddy water of Bangladesh in his last life and has future knowledge, thinks that he can manage the responsibility behind the scenes while his grandpa at the front, at least until he can become the Captain of the ship named of Rahman Group.

So although Mahbubur was angry, Shams replied in a coaxing way to use his cuteness as a last resort to calm down his grandpa, "Grandpa. Don't be that much angry. It's only for a few years and I promise you that I will also help as much as I can. And if you think, you can reject the position in the cabinet but you if choose one of the organizations, especially related to sports, it may not only be easy but also helpful for our businesses in the future."

Don't giving any chance for his grandpa to think half-heartedly, Shams also added, "Like you can choose to enter Football or Cricket or Hockey federations. As they are quite popular in Bangladesh, we can also expand to related ventures of these sports which will be very profitable and help us diversify our business. Also don't just accept but put a counteroffer for permits and licenses for Private TV channels & Newspapers. You know, the media business is always profitable, anywhere in the world. And why should we be the only one to pay, let them pay an equal amount also."

Hearing Shams, his grandpa looked at him with an astonished face. In the last month he already saw how mature and intelligent his grandchild is, but to have these types of business acumen and cunningness is quite unbelievable for him as Shams is just only 10 years old now. If he didn't know him personally and heard, he wouldn't believe it. But after pondering over the solution given by his little grandchild, he finds this is the most optimal option for him now.

He actually doesn't have any other option other than accepting the proposal. Although it will hurt his moral values to be officially associated with these muscle-headed bullies at least by following the proposal of Shams, he will at least secure a period of peace for the family business and might have a chance to grow and diversify it.

So he finally replied in a slightly hesitant voice, "It looks like there are no other good options. I will reply to them with your proposal but young man, you need to help your old grandpa. Remember, you just promised."

Hearing his grandpa's reply, Shams was delighted and replied, "Sure Grandpa. I will help you out and you mark my word – this will be the new beginning for business."