Feature

An Elegy To Dewan Rahat Karim

Zannatul Lamea

The students were buzzing in the classroom - it was the first class of Summer 2006 at North South University. It was my very first semester, and there I was amidst the students, a bit excited, a bit anxious about the course and wondering how the faculty is. In came a gentleman, and introduced himself as our accounting faculty- Mr. Dewan Rahat Karim . It was his first semester here, so he was equally excited. Might as well be a bit worried at the back of his mind, wondering how to deal with us brats. But he started off smoothly, and broke the ice soon; pretty soon students like me who were worried about accounting having no previous background in it, sat back comfortably and heaved a sigh of relief because we all felt comfortable with his teaching style and his gentle personality. He would explain thousand times if asked, without the slightest sign of irritation; and we took advantage of it at the fullest. I guess the most busy time he had in NSU were the days before exam, students would pour in his office with accounting problems, and he would make each of the students solve their problem, with utmost patience. And by the end of the semester, we confidently boasted that we literally learned accounting.

The article was supposed to stop here, expressing a student's respect for her teacher. But then again, it’s Bangladesh, a country where anything can happen anytime. A country where citizens deal with incidents marked exclamatory. Numb is the expression students of NSU had today, not grief, not demise. We grieve over incidents that are justified to be sad and accepted. But we couldn't accept it - We could not accept this unexpected death of our faculty. We simply could not! We abhor the situation we are living in, where crimes go unnoticed under the very nose of our respected 'law enforcers'. We loathe the human animals that killed him brutally. It's a shame we live in a system where criminals walk under open sky and victims rest in peace in their graves. Where assassins celebrate their hundredth murders; where thousands of innocent lives are taken for no apparent reason leaving millions of people connected to them live a paralyzed incomplete life. It REALLY is nothing but pure shame!And about our faculty, we the students can do nothing but express our utmost sorrow and respect. Words cannot explain the depth of agony. NSU suffers at his loss. May his soul rest in peace, Amen.

Dedicated to : Dewan Rahat Karim, a Teacher of North South University, who was strangled to death by muggers at Gulshan on the night of 25th September.

The writer is a student of North South University

Test your IQ

1 Question A plane crashed on the Bangladesh and India border, in which state were the survivors buried?

2 Question A butcher is 90 centimeters tall. What does he weigh?

3 Question: If you write down every number between 50 and 100, how many times will you write the number 6?

4 Q: If you drive to the store at 20 mph, how fast must you go (again returning by the same route) for your average speed to be 40 mph?

5 Q: The following is what seems to be a mathematical proof that two equals one. What's wrong with it?

a = b
aa = ab
aa - bb = ab - bb
(a + b)(a - b) = b(a - b)
a + b = b
a + a = a
2a = a
2 = 1

6 Q: There are several chickens and rabbits in a cage (with no other types of animals). There are 72 heads and 200 feet inside the cage. How many chickens and how many rabbits are there?

7 Q: A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?

8 Q: A sundial is a timepiece that has the fewest number of moving parts. Which timepiece has the most moving parts?

9 Q: In front of you are three light switches. Only one does anything, and it turns on the light downstairs. From here you can't see the light, and it makes no sound. You must determine which switch operates the light, BUT you can only go check it once. How do you figure out which switch is for the light?

(Compiled & sent by Amanat Ahmed)