Five years ago, Shehnaz Alam, an ardent bookworm, left Bangladesh for higher studies. During her stay in New York she used to spend hours sitting in various book stores flipping through the ever-expanding stock of books. This year when…
Sumayea Zara, a first year student of Dhaka University, was thinking about how she could utilise her spare time after classes. As a first year student she has enough free time to do other things. But as a career conscious…
Taking a stroll around Madhur Canteen, named after Madhu Sudan Dey, a visitor would come across various spots – where students of Dhaka University sit in rows, chatting and possibly planning their future. It is a place where the streets…
Ahmed Nazir is an artist who is acutely affected by what is going on around him, not just his immediate environment but in the world in general. His oils and mixed media work have been seen fairly recently at Divine…
The world has always been a pretty strange place. Life is quirky and people often do things which surprise and then shock and sometimes amuse us. Think of everything that is happening around Syria. Some western nations are busy these…
On the western coast of India, off the Arabian Sea, is the tiny state of modern Kerala. Though small its reach is far and long. There is no part of the world that does not have a Malayali (as the…
Prithu Raja would rather let his kingdom go to ruins than see it surrendered to a violent, uncivilized tribe called Kichoks. He was respected and deified by his subjects, and unable to see his “purity sullied”, the king decided to…
At the first glance, the cover of Ankur Betageri’s collection of poems, with the portrait of a man in a turtleneck and a jacket, and a crow perched on where his head should have been, reminds you of a Milan…
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been claiming for a long time that the next general election will be held as per the parliamentary democratic system in other countries. In line with her claim, she has recently announced that the parliamentary…
Amber is fossilised tree resin, a yellowish, pellucid gem washed ashore by the waves of the eastern Baltic Sea. Sometimes there are ancient insects within it, or parts of leaves to decorate it. Amber is a souvenir-laden Cretaceous traveller, and…
This is the first in a series of articles written by Farah Ghuznavi as Writer in Residence at the Commonwealth Writers website, based in the UK.Commonwealth Writers is the cultural initiative from the Commonwealth Foundation, and Farah is their first…
It is striking that science is still widely viewed as merely a subject one studies in the classroom or an isolated body of largely esoteric knowledge that sometimes shows up in the “real” world in the form of technological or…
Yes, you have your problems. Your media has dubbed your country the most unsafe in the world for women after recent gang rapes at New Delhi and Mumbai came to light. That is quite an abomination, albeit self-inflicted, considering that…
Snake Charmers or Bede have always lived by the rivers in their boats, travelling from town to town to charm people with their tricks. Snakes are their pets and their livelihood – even little infants are taught to make friends…
Many counterterrorism and security experts believe that extremism and terrorism have a cause and effect relation. If this were true, it would be almost impossible for Pakistan to tackle the issues of terrorism and militancy without effectively responding to growing…
DISRESPECTED My family and I had planned to go to our home-town by train during the recent Eid holidays, due to the tremendous traffic on the highway. It was the day before Eid and we reached the station on time.…
On the Brink of Catastrophe I was shocked to read about the sufferings of hundreds of families in Dacope, Khulna due to an unplanned construction of embankments. What was supposed to protect people from flooding has become a curse in…
“The plan to deploy UAVs is picking up pace… We are actively pursuing it and would like to use them not only on the western border but also on the eastern border with Bangladesh.” SUBHASH JOSHI BSF Director General On…
Tourism is the most glamorous form of escapism. Reality is often a nightmare from which you can’t wake up, no matter how hard you pinch yourself in the arm. It is when you are all worn out from work deadlines,…
With one of the strongest economies in the world, and a higher per capita GDP than any other Canadian province – Alberta is a great place for any international student to kick-start a life – and successful career – in…
