Feature

Dreaming to be an astronaut

Hadikatun Nuzum

How big the universe is? Is it constant or apparently expanding? Are there any lives beyond us? Who am I and where from did I come?...Well, these are all the very common questions that rise on human mind when looking at the night sky. We are endlessly fascinated by the moonlight, stars, comets, meteors etc and many other astronomical events also increase our curiosity.

Developed countries like USA, Russia, Japan, China and some EU countries or even our neighbour India have gone a long a way in space technology and have participated in many expeditions to the space. In the case of Bangladesh, where people don't get their minimum food to survive, the very expensive astronomical research is quite unimaginable. But, we are happy to know that some Bangladeshi scientists are serving at NASA successfully! So, one day when we will get rid of poverty, we could surely join the rest of the world in the race for space!

You know, childhood dreams know no bound. It sounds funny but true, I wanted to be an astronaut! I enjoyed those wonderful programmes shown on Discovery Channel, I read science pages on newspapers and obviously I found physics more interesting than any other subject. The movies like “Apollo 11” have remained my all time favourite. I liked to locate Orion, Venus, and Mars etc in different seasons.

But now, at my age of twenty, when I am introduced to reality, I can see those dreams are fading away. I have discovered that there is no similarity between the dream world and the real world. I can't help but laugh when I think about those dreams. Now, I am getting ready for 1 to 5 jobs and involved myself with the “take & pay” theory of life. But we can't afford to live without dreams. So, I have started to see the same dream but in a different way. Yeah, you got it! I am now inspired by Anusheh Ansari! I wish one day I would be very rich and will travel like her! It may sound like a jest and I also personally don't agree with the culture of wasting a lot of money (minimum 2 billion dollars!) only for a travel, where instead of this, I can use that money in helping a big number of poor people. But in spite of this realization, I am still spellbound about Ansari. Yet, I love to read science fiction books. While getting my CSE course, I became very curious to listen to my teacher's experiences on visiting NASA.

I still love to see the night sky and get lost in it. Standing alone on the lawn, I get the thrill when I think of those future days when space travel will be easy like today's regular trips.

Hadikatun Nuzum
1st year, 2nd semester,
BBA, Shahjalal University
of Science & Technology (SUST)

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam

A teacher-student group of Metropolitan University, Sylhet recently arranged a picnic-cum-study tour. It was titled 'Pleasure Tour'. The selected picnic spot was Alibahar Tea Estate, Sylhet. I was one of the participants in such a wonderful program. Dr.A. Hoque, my colleague, along with some enthusiastic and hard-working students did everything possible to make the program a grand success.

Our journey started from the facade of Al-Hamra Shopping City where a lot of snaps were taken. Reaching the spot everybody became jubilant. It may be mentioned that one of the key objectives of the tour was how to achieve creativity in various fields of life. Mr. Monju, a cultural minded man, who was a guest in the tour, gave the students some guidelines on how to make a two-minute movie, which was the focal part of the purpose of the tour.

Alibahar Tea Estate is set in an environment that is surrounded by ample greenery and scenic beauty, which made me feel as if I was treading through a dreamland. Some sort of celestial serenity engulfed my being when I walked amongst the lush green tea-leaves. The weather was very fine indeed: neither rainy nor too hot. The breeze was blowing gently, the sun was shining gloriously; the tea-leaves were tossing and turning in the breeze, flowers in some trees were spreading fragrance; some beautiful birds were frolicking with one another. The whole ambience cast a heavenly feeling all over us. Green has always been my favourite colour and it seemed to gradually turn much greener for I saw everything through rose-coloured spectacles.

After lunch, students took part in some activities, which were planned before. Among many competing groups only three were awarded. I was one of the judges to grade the performers. A two-minute drama prepared and performed by MBA students was judged the best. Another two-minute drama, Dui Mastaner Prem Kahini, staged by BBA students, was declared second and a documentary was declared third.

After that a mind-blasting cultural program with modern songs of diverse themes continued until we decided to come back. I gave the last speech in which I expressed my feelings, emotions and ideas. I declared the names of the winners of the competition and handed over the prizes. I told them how I was rejuvenated through attending the picnic. It was really a superb program from which every participant learnt something to understand what is meant by creativity. All of us ought to be creative to smarten up our life. It must be kept in mind that imitation ruins life. American philosopher Emerson truly stated that “Imitation is analogous to suicide”.

Each participant expressed happiness for the excellent in the program. It was the type of program which, I think, would be distinct for the reason that participants learnt through fun of creating something inspiring for their future life. The tour formally ended at 16:00 hours and all of us started our return journey for home with great expectations of making similar exquisite programs in near future.
Alibahar Tea Estate will remain evergreen in our heart as a reminiscing rendezvous.

The writer is a lecturer of
Department of English
Metropolitan University,
Sylhet

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