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Gulf News was the third stop in my journey through journalism. By the looks of it, this would be the last. And it was the longest; 20 years and still counting. It has been an amazing ride in the newsroom; there's never a dull moment.

I never intended to stay so long. It’s just that I found a comfort zone, a place where I enjoyed what I was doing. And I loved the fact the bosses trusted me. They trusted me to produce the paper for nearly two decades, and some of them during turbulent times. 

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Image Credit: Jay Hilotin / Gulf News

For a sportsperson who became a journalist to pursue the passion for sport, I changed lanes after around 10 years. But by the time I joined Gulf News, I was fully involved in newspaper production – editing copies and designing pages.

I took delight in producing the Nation pages every day, and the Front Page on weekends. Later, when Front Page production became my daily responsibility along with Senior Night Editor, we were in the front row when news broke anywhere in the world. Sometimes it was a mad scramble, yet in the end, it all seems well worth it. The joy of seeing the paper the next day is unbeatable.

Those days in the newsroom were the most satisfying ones of my career. When Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan died, we produced some superb pages. The Lebanon-Israel war was horrific, and our pages brought out that horror. My personal favourite is a page that reflected the protests in Egypt before the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak.

I was always on duty when most major events occurred. That’s a joke in the office. But to me, those were memorable days. Extraordinary days, as some of these events reshaped the world. The Iraq War, the Lebanon-Israel War, the Asian tsunami, Mubarak’s exit, when Saddam Hussain was hanged, the deaths of Michael Jackson, Mandela and Steve Jobs. There are many more.

The move to The Views opened new vistas. The best in commentaries were available to me. Some of the Opeds shaped my views as well.

Now I am enjoying life as a senior journalist in Gulf News. The online platform has given me a new direction. I have resumed writing. And I love it

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