Arifur Rahman Khadem - আরিফুর রহমান খাদেম

Arifur Rahman Khadem, also known as Arif Khadem, was born in the historic village of Kharampur under Brahman Baria, Bangladesh. Arif was mostly raised in Dhaka Cantonment, Tejgaon, Kharampur and in Sydney. Although he has been permanently living in Sydney for about 13 years, he is immensely home sick and visits Bangladesh almost every year. He is deeply connected with the people in his village and is actively involved in social and educational activities. He had a brilliant educational life.  His schooling was mostly completed at BAF Shaheen School & College. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) with Distinctions. He then repeated the same results with MBA at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) while topping 60% of subjects in his Department. He also did a couple of Diplomas and Technical Courses in IT. Arif is a member/associate member of Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA Australia), Australian Computer Society (ACS), the Justice of Peace (JP), AMU Students’ Association Dhaka and some non-political organizations in Australia and Bangladesh. 

Arif is currently working in one of the leading Architectural Firms in the continent as Finance and Administration Manager. Apart from working in the finance profession, he is casually involved in a number of Universities and educational institutes in Australia and Bangladesh as a Lecturer teaching BBA, IELTS, TOEFL and Spoken & Written English Language Courses. So far, he has lectured at UTS, Charles Sturt University, Martin College, Australian International College of Business, East West University, Manarat International University, Dhaka International University, Democracy Watch Management Institute, Confidence Language & BCS Training Centre and Zenith International. He was the founder of English Language Courses at Confidence Language & BCS Training Centre & Zenith International, Dhaka. He has a great interest in languages while having especial interests in Bangla & English. In addition to fluently speaking in them, he can speak in Hindi, Urdu and some Japanese. 

On the other hand, Arif has a genuine interest in making creative writings. He has a book of his writing called “Basic Knowledge in Practical English” published by Oitijjhya at Ekushe Book Fair Dhaka in 2008. This was one of the most selling English language learning books at the Fair that year. The book discusses in details about the basic errors non native English speakers commit when forming general sentences. The book also elaborately talks about formation of making sentences from one subject and one verb to a two lined sentence using different parts of speech. It is a very easy step by step process that no other language learning book has introduced in the country as claimed and praised by many readers including a number of national figures that also include some prominent journalists, educationists and political leaders. It is definitely helpful for beginners and people struggling with Basic English. Keeping readers in mind, the author added FAQ section for the first time in this kind of book. 

A number of language institutes in Bangladesh have been following the methods and techniques used in this book to teach their students. He distributed a copy of his book to many organisations including a book for each of the school & college libraries in the Sub-District Akhaura. At the same time, the City of Canterbury, Sydney welcomed his book to its libraries as they collected some copies of his book and made them available for public borrowing. They are available at Campsie, Lakemba, Earlwood & Riverwood libraries. The Merudondo Bikroy Kendro also sells his books at various Bangladeshi Fairs in Sydney. He is currently working on a number of other language books, which he is hoping to publish over the next three years. He edited the Ethics Book of the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI Australia). 

Arif worked as one of the main columnists of Daily Jaijaidin Education for nearly two years writing articles on Basic English language and employment. During those periods, he established a solid readers’ base attracting thousands of regular readers around the globe. He is currently writing almost all Bangladeshi national newspapers on contemporary issues including Daily Naya Diganta, Ittefaq, Shamokal, Kaler Kantho, Amader Shomoy and monthly Mouchakay Dheel while regularly writing Sydney based newspapers Daily mX, biweekly Bangla Barta, monthly Desh Bidesh, Web Magazines bangla-sydney.com, basbhumi.com and Sangbad Australia. He also had an article published in Sydney Morning Herald. His articles published on “Danger of Road Accidents & Ways of Getting Rid of such Accidents” and three different articles on “Dhaka International Airport and its External & Internal Problems” won the hearts of thousands of readers home and abroad including some higher Government officials. 

Lately, the writer wrote a couple of articles in the Editorials on “School Beating in Bangladesh” and “Voting Rights for Bangladeshis Living Overseas”. Both the articles had some instant practical impacts as Bangladesh Government banned school beating within a week after the article was published while declaring to include the overseas voters in the list two weeks after the publication of the article. Arif delivered speeches at many educational and political seminars chaired by prominent individuals. He appeared in a number of TV & radio shows in Bangladesh and Australia including BTV, NTV and Channel 9 while hosting some programs and starring a drama on radio. He is also keen on writing some comedy and educational dramas for Bangladeshi TV channels. 

Arif loves almost all types of sports which notably include cricket, football, badminton, tennis, volleyball, karate & swimming. During his boyhood, he had the opportunities to play some limited overs cricket with some national cricketers in his country town. He was also awarded black belt in Japanese Karate under a National Umpire in Bangladesh and qualified for SAF Games. Besides them, he enjoys travelling, going long drives, gardening, cooking, fishing, exercising, socializing, computer, music, magic, dramas, meeting people and discovering new adventures. He travelled the UK, many Asian countries and Australia including New Zealand. He is happily married with his lovely wife Shamsad Khadem Pinky. They have a little son by the name Adyan Khadem who is now 3. His father Riziqur Rahman Khadem is a retired Aeronautical Engineer. His parents live in Bangladesh while his only brother Atiqur Rahman Khadem Nikkon lives in London with his family. Arif dreams of making selfless contributions for his country and country people.