GIVEN the overwhelming ‘popularity’ of oborodh, there is now the combo meal — Oborodh & Hartal on the same day! Call it Obotal, the buy one, get one free deal, or should I say, suffer one, get additional suffering for…
INTRODUCING Hartal 2.0– The Oborodh. For the uninitiated, here are the specifications: 1. Hartal is where you cannot get out of the house. If you do, you will be attacked. 2. Oborodh is where you can get out of the…
DHAKA Airport boasts at being one of the very few airports charging people when going inside to bid farewell to their loved ones. And now, there is a cage at the outer periphery adding another layer of insulation against unwanted…
THE immig-ration officer at London Heath-row Airport sits within his glass enclosure like the Pope in the popemobile. Minus the smile. “Why are you here?” He is expressionless. “Because you were there.” I reply … on the inside. On the…
“WELCOME aboard Bus 6A. As cocktails are served on this ride and if you are lucky enough to jump out unscathed, we hope you keep the memory fresh till the day of voting.” Still, the buses are packed, as there…
JSC examinees are at peril. Doesn’t matter. We can do with far less than a class eight education to fathom what’s happening all around. Besides, they are not voters… Kids suffer burns from torched vehicles they are riding in or…
THE frigid, binary cold war in Bangladesh defies all theories of global warming. The stalemate over a caretaker government really boils down to who blinks first. And then, a flicker of hope. All eyes are on the red phone. Finally,…
WAS this the worst? At least it was not the first. Since 1976, there have been 17 US government shutdowns. The longest was for 8 years — when George W. Bush was president. Blame it all on the global economy.…
OUCH! That was a sharp electric shock…as I see my electric bill. To cut costs, I have started self imposed load shedding. Sure I’m bumping into walls in the darkness, but I completely accept the logic that the price of…
BEING someone who takes immense pleasure in gastronomical pursuits, I couldn’t turn down the free meal. The business lunch turned out to be the most memorable of all business lunches — in the shadiest part of Detroit and at a…
Congratulations BSF! You are the first to be covered twice in the brief history of ‘Humorously Yours.’ But that had to be, as Amiya Ghosh is acquitted due to ‘insufficient evidence.’ There was no smoking gun — the smoke had…
THE journey started 150 years ago with the telegraph, where we painstakingly typed out messages one letter at a time. We have come a long way to today’s cell phone, where we send SMSs by painstakingly typing out messages one…
AND now, the winners of the World’s Most Livable Cities sweepstakes—Aussies and Canucks!! Damascus also steals the spotlight—again! It’s on top of the inverted list. Dhaka is a distant second, and not in the least envious. All cities are equal.…
With all eyes on Egypt, Syria gets jealous and draws attention by crossing the red line. It is gas, not solids, that gets warships cruising. The UN, acting on its characteristic speed (takes Bin Laden off its sanctions list two…
SO many great catches during the BPL. The unpaid players were grabbing anything that came their way. The bookies do high fives. Aha! There may just be a way to pay the players. Bookie #1: “So, how many no balls…
WHAT? A double digit percentage increase in call rates? Oh wait, that used to be the mobile operator’s billboard. All mobile phone operators are in unison on the issues of SIM tax, 3G/VAT and billboards for a common cause. Sahara…
EID Muba-rak. Belat-ed Eid Mubarak. Advanced Eid Mubarak. Depends on when Eid is celebrated. “What’s your gut feeling on the exact day of Eid?” “I don’t know. Till Eid, my gut is totally empty. The only feeling in my gut…
It’s 2011. Manmohan Singh to Indian newspaper editors: “We must reckon that at least 25% of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-e-Islami and they are very anti-Indian and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI.…
All eyes are glued to the courtroom, be it following the George Zimmerman or the War Crimes trials. Every other news falls below the radar. Have a confession to make? Now is the time. It will surely go unnoticed. But…
BE proud of our engineering feats. We take an ordinary building and turn it into a residence, office, hospital, school, university, bank, restaurant, embassy, or even a Yaba factory. The bedroom where you are chilling out at today, can be…
THE magician takes my Tk.1,000 note and makes it disappear. He then pulls it out from behind my ear and hands me a Tk.500 note. “Here’s your Tk.1,000 note…minus taxes.” I earn money from my job after paying income taxes.…
LIKE a sniper, I tighten my nervous grip on the TV remote. My vigilance goes up a thousand-fold as my kids join me in watching TV. I am proud to be the fastest to switch the channel the instant there’s…
IT’S not a new widget for the Facebook wall. It’s the old fashioned one to which we ask: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” The mirror stays silent, but my TV blares out the…
WITH a wife and two daughters, I swim in a sea of hormones every single day. I do so gladly. For once, I’m happy to be a minority. My eight year old tells me, “Baba! You need to buy me…
AFTER two decades in the US, I return to Bangladesh — as a recession refugee. People ask my parents, “What does Naveed do?” “Uh, uhm, er… You know what? Our daughter has a PhD!” Ok, ok… I can’t JUST be…
I promise myself that I will never complain about traffic. Driving in broad daylight with no traffic is much scarier. It’s a nationwide hartal. I manage to carpool to Dhaka Airport in an ambulance. You know it’s a hartal when…
