That was my fastest waking up from sleep. For a while I wondered where I was and why I was not sleeping in the middle of the night. I got the answers instantly. It was not raining but pouring on…
Rafiq Azam wanted to be a painter, just a painter and nothing else. At the age of only seven, he picked up paint and brush to try his hand on a canvass. He tried to capture what was in…
In a city of concrete mess, life is not like what one wants it to be. Dream, love and passion about life get buried deeply somewhere in the ways of nonstop urbanisation and thoughtless building designing. Zest for life fizzles…
On July 4-5 this year, the Liberation War Museum in collaboration with South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University and South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) of Brussels organised a two-day conference titled, “International Conference on Bangladesh Genocide and the Quest for…
Porabarir Chamcham, the “king of sweets” as it is called by its lovers. One’s mouth is certain to water by the very name of it or the thought of it. I mean if one knows what it is. For those…
Once there were around 40 families in Porabari union in Tangail making the Chamcham that received nationwide fame. But now only about 10 families are in the business due to high production cost, poor profit margin and the fact that…
Unlike in any other place in the country, Sarail, a small town 80 kilometers northeast of the capital, reserves some mind-boggling surprises. For centuries two distinct species — Sarail hound and Aslee Morog (fighting fowls) — have survived in Sarail.…
Cockfight is said to be one of the oldest sports of the world whose origin goes back to 6,000 years in Persia. But how Aslee Morag, a unique variety of fighting fowl, became a regular feature of Sarail remains a…
“Have you ever wondered why the region stretching from Brahmanbaria to Habiganj is marked red in the police record since British period?” asks Zulfikar Chowdhury, a former tea garden manager who is now working with US oil company Chevron. We…
Kamrunnahar had moved into a third floor flat in Goran with her husband and three daughters in 1998. It was and still is a dark and tiny two-bedroom flat. The neighbourhood is not something special. Goran, near Bashabo, has a…
Born in a large family, he always wanted to be out of it, to live on his own, away from his folks. “One day, when I grow up,” he would whisper to himself from time to time. His day came…
It’s an uphill task for single women, who want to live on their own or with siblings or friends, to find a home in the capital. Almost always, the first criterion to rent a house is that you must have…
Almost 42 years ago, Ravi Shankar, George Harrison and “friends” staged rock’s first mass act of philanthropy. Harrison, whom Shankar lovingly described as “my student, my brother, my son, all combined,” was enjoying his peak years as a solo superstar.…
The Concert for Bangladesh was the event title for two benefit concerts organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7:00pm on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden…
The Concert for Bangladesh happened because of my relationship with Ravi. He is such a humble person. He said, “I am going to do this show. Maybe, if you or Peter Sellers or both of you can come on and…
Dylan had been off the road since a motorcycle accident prematurely ended his 1966 Blonde on Blonde world tour, though he did perform at a Woody Guthrie tribute show in 1968, later guesting with the Band at a 1969 Illinois…
Literature has immortalised Humayun Ahmed. Or Humayun Ahmed has enriched literature through giving it fresh new shots in the arm. The result has been a fantastic combination of creativity and established tradition. In his novels, in his plays, it…
It was as dreary a July Friday afternoon as it could be for a boy in his early teens. It had been pouring in the morning and it was still drizzling. The playground near my home in the small town…
Humayun Ahmed, who earned a PhD in chemistry from North Dakota State University, and who was a scientist, writer, and a filmmaker, died aged 64 in the US, after a nearly year-long battle against colon cancer. Every Bangalee heart has…
“I am a father of two martyred freedom fighters. My two sons died in 1971,” said the man, aged 60, smiling. He lost two sons in the war but still he could laugh. “My name is Abdul Jalil.” We meet…
In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll…
Daniel Ellsberg A former US military analyst employed by the RAND corporation, in 1971, Ellsberg leaked a top-secret Pentagon study of the US government’s rationale behind its decisions during the Vietnam War. These documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, were…
Since Edward Snowden leaked news of National Security Agency’s surveillance programmes, political pundits throughout the world are busy weighing in on what he has done. In recent articles at The New Yorker, John Cassidy and Jeffrey Toobin, staff…
If Hollywood is anything to go by, we can expect a multimillion-dollar adaptation of Snowden’s operation once all the details come to light. As the whistleblower remains stuck in the transit zone at a Moscow airport, let’s take a look…
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many…
Perhaps the most harrowing time in prison for Nelson Mandela was when his wife Winnie was arrested and detained by apartheid-era police. There was nothing he could do to help her or their daughters Zeni and Zindzi — aged nine…
While the world may know him as Mandela, he is known by a number of others names in his own country. Some of the monikers date from his childhood, while others reflect the respect felt for an anti-apartheid hero. ROLIHLAHLA…
1918 – Born in the Eastern Cape 1943 – Joined African National Congress 1956 – Charged with high treason, but charges dropped 1962 – Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison 1964 – Charged again, sentenced to…
Once a flourishing community in Bengal, Armenians have dwindled in number to such an extent that only one man now represents the entire community in Dhaka. He is known by his Anglicised name of Michael Joseph Martin. When Martin, now…
Though listed for preservation by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, the 232-year-old Armenian church in Old Dhaka is yet to be recognised as a protected heritage site by the Department of Archaeology. “As part of our efforts to declare the church a…
The East India Company’s observation in 1699 about the Armenians that “most certainly they are the most ancient merchants of the world” was perhaps no exaggeration. From the beginning to the end of the pre-modern era, Armenian merchants ventured out…
The question should not be how betting came into cricket but how it has been kept out of the game for large stretches of time. In fact the now revered laws of cricket came into existence, in 1744, primarily as…
In 2008, I was playing Premier League cricket for a smallish club with modest ambitions. During the end of that season, we were playing against one of the giants of Bangladesh sport, who were still in with a chance of…
DECEMBER, 1998 Journalist Malcolm Conn of The Australian uncovers the story of how star players Mark Waugh and Shane Warne had accepted money from a bookmaker in return for providing pitch and weather information. APRIL, 2000 South Africa’s Hansie Cronje,…
While it is true that in cricket’s current crisis bookmakers from India and Pakistan play a sordid role, it would be naïve to assume that betting on sports is not present in Bangladesh. Betting on the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL)…
There was a severe blizzard at Camp-I (23,000ft) at North Col on May 20, 2010. The ruthless snowstorm dismantled 12 tents in a few minutes. It also had two tents drift away. And we — the two sherpas Kailash Tamang…
At 12:50am. June 8, 1924. The team’s geologist, Noel Odell, glimpsed them for the last time — two tiny black dots climbing one of the rocksteps of the Northeast Ridge at over 28,000 feet. Then the veil of mist closed.…
The good fortune of returning home safe was not the fate of Sajal Khaled, the fifth Bangladeshi to conquer the world’s highest peak. He lost his life in his tent while descending the treacherous slopes. The peak was a holy…
In 2006, a lone climber attempting the summit of Mount Everest for the third time was, purely by chance, caught in an amateur photograph taken by another climber of the scenic mountaintop ahead. The climber in the photograph was making…
The body of “Green Boots” (an Indian climber who died in 1996) lies near a cave that all climbers pass on their way to the peak. Green Boots now serves as a waypoint marker that climbers use to gauge how…
