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Twenty something : Here we begin

Mahreen Ferdaus

The twenties are apparently the 'best times' of your life or so I am told by the middle aged subarban Auntyjis, especially the ones that have given up the high heels and power suits and settled down with two and a half kids and a house in a cul-de-sac. Well if they are meant to be the 'best times' then I sure can't feel it. The prospect that it all goes downhill from here on makes the future seem rather bleak. The concept of the quarter life crisis though gives me hope. As the theory of the quarter life crisis goes, the twenties are your perfect time to be at loss.

The first couple of years of your twenties are an agonizing time of coming to terms with the realization that the teens ARE in fact over. No longer can you blame all on the fact (ok maybe just excuse) that you are young and therefore by definition foolish. Words like responsibility and career start to lurk at the back of the mind and the expectations-of-parents curve starts to take the upward climb. For the most part, as has been the case with me, you have no clue what you would like to do with your life and keep hoping that like an epiphany you too will come to an awakening. (At the moment I am on-'I'll be a management consultant for media companies...better than being a blood sucking investment banker but you still get to wear the heels and the power suits. and a reasonable economic boost i.e. get paid well for being an office slave!)

Just the thought of crossing a decade makes me cringe! With the idea of the quarter-life crisis I'm finally safe and normal. It is how it is all to be. The twenties can therefore be a heart-wrenching time, when you can be indecisive, clueless, going through the crisis of coming of age. Nothing out of the ordinary for a twenty something to be working but not very well, responsible but not quite always and with a head that's switched on but looses the fuse ever so often. Moreover I find people start taking you more seriously. It seems that numbers (aging to be precise) does a lot more talking than I have ever given them credit for. I find that now people are, strangely enough, willing to trust me with amounts of cash that I would have found unimaginable a couple of years ago. Funnier still is the notion that for whatever reason one finds oneself in this odd situation where one is asked by a random collection of family and friends to pass on advice to their children or siblings.

Pass on the knowledge. Show them some sense. If only they knew the truth of how clueless twenty-some-things are. Sharing our mistakes, we can do. There is always plenty of those to go around and surely some lessons to be learnt. Somewhere amongst all the hype of the 'best times' and the cynicism of the quarter-life crisis, I hope, lies the truth. These are trying times. Keep trying and trying till we get there...

(Girton College, Cambridge)

Lalon Geeti at midnight

Rakib Ahammed

Midnight, deep-silence, a beautiful tune was coming from a long distance. I was trying to understand that beautiful tune, could not get it clearly. I became excited to identify this mysterious tune.

I came down from my hall, started to walk towards the direction of the tune. I found that place and was amply surprised.

Some students of Dhaka University (DU) gathered at Mall Chattar, a wonderful place of DU campus and organized a musical programme.

They were singing the song of our heart - Lalon Gity. I am happy that DU students love Lalon Gity.

Few minutes later I found myself in the middle of a big crowd. We enjoyed some beautiful songs like PABE SAMANEY KI TAR DHEKHA; MILON HOBE KOTO DINE; JAT GELO JAT GELO BOLE, BARIR PASHE ARSI NAGOR etc.