How Dr. Yunus First Heard the News
It was around 2:50pm, when someone from the Norwegian television channel called me. He told me that the peace prize will be announced within 10 minutes and requested me to hold the line because whispering went on outside the room that I was going to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 'The Nobel committee has entered the room, it's time for declaring the name,you better hear the declaration live,' the TV channel crew requested me.
I was on an interview with the Time magazine. A journalist from Delhi was interviewing me. The interview was scheduled from 2:00 ~ 3:00pm. While I was talking with that journalist, another person was calling me in another phone. At first I did not pick the phone. But, the phone kept coming over and over again. At one point, I was kind of irritated, and finally picked that phone. It was around 2:50pm, when someone from the Norwegian television channel called me. He told me that the peace prize will be announced within 10 minutes and requested me to hold the line because whispering went on outside the room that I was going to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 'The Nobel committee has entered the room, it's time for declaring the name,you better hear the declaration live,' the TV channel crew requested me.
Then he went on :'Now we see your picture on the big screen but yet we are not sure whether you or anyone else claimed the Nobel Peace Prize...If you win, we will take your interview, otherwise thank you Mr Yunus'.
'Congratulations Dr Yunus, you got the Nobel prize,' the TV channel greeted me, and a moment later I heard the declaration in English and it was 3.03pm.
My family members started celebrating. One of my colleagues called me, as he saw the news of me winning Nobel prize on TV.
After a few minutes, members of the Nobel committee and Norwegian deputy prime minister phoned and congratulated me.
This is a fantastic news, it's unbelievable...it's a very happy moment for me, my family, colleagues and for my country.
I did not expect the prize this year because every year this kind of rumours go on but this year I did not hear any discussion, so I was not hopeful....
This is an honour for the country, for the nation...This kind of incident does not happen often to a nation. We [Bangladesh] have taken many things from the world, now we have given something to the world. We have placed a model before the world.
