Letters
Good
Anniversary Issue!
Congratulations on your excellent 8th anniversary issue!
I read the entire issue from cover to cover and I have to
say that this is to-date, SWM's greatest edition. Good in
content as well as graphics, the new and improved SWM is
definitely paving the way for other magazines in Bangladesh.
Although I found that quality of the paper was quite poor
for such a great occasion, I felt the quality of writing
by staff writers as well as regular contributors made up
for it. I also enjoyed the interviews of Aly Zaker, Neeman
Sobhan and Richa Jha as we do not very often know much about
the people whose columns we read every week. It was nice
to get "up close and personal" with them. Ahmede
Hussain's fiction piece further proved his talented flair
for writing, while Mustafa Zaman, Imran H Khan and Shamim
Ahsan's articles added their own perspectives and an original
twist on the life of being an SWM writer. The cover story,
written by Aasha Mehreen Amin, Kajalie Shehreen Islam and
Srabonti Narmeen Ali was extremely well done and interestingly
written, with a combination of all three authors' strong
senses of humour and wit. The layout was exceptionally impressive
this time. All in all, I think you should pat yourselves
on the backs for a job well done. Congratulations again!
An Admirer
On Email
A
Response
The letter on the June 11 issue of SWM by Nayeem Islam caught
my attention. What I want to ask him first is, what exactly
do you want from a weekend magazine such as SWM? Do you
want to learn the basics of English from it? If so, I am
taking on your challenge. Dear readers, I think you would
agree with me that the articles in SWM are mostly good,
often informative and usually interesting. Chintito, for
example, who pokes fun at the socio-economic realities in
his own inimitable fashion, is very witty and humourous.
I also love to feast my eyes on the Globetrotter page, and
love the New Flicks page and Dhaka Diary, not to mention
Write to Mita. The accusation that the articles are flops
seemed ridiculous to me.
Mustafa Najmus Shantanu
DakshinGaon, Dhaka
National
Budget
The National Budget, which greatly influences people's lives
and standard of living, has recently been passed. The main
opposition party, as usual, has rejected the proposed budget,
calling it a futile and over-ambitious one. No doubt, the
budget is a challenging one, which reflects the honourable
Minister's high confidence and over dependence on the taxes
of middle class people who have been struggling to cope
with the rising prices of daily commodities.
Although in the budget the taxes on some of the items have
been reduced, most of the greedy dealers hardly reduce the
retail prices to give maximum benefits to the customers.
On the other hand, such dealers have no qualms about increasing
prices of newly taxed items, even if such items have been
stored since long before the budget. The authority hardly
takes any action against them to control such dishonest
practices. As a result, common consumers do not get the
intended benefits of the cut and reduction of taxes from
daily commodities. The imposition of various taxes on newer
items help enhance the suffering of underprivileged people
further.
I would like to ask the honourable Minister what action
he is going to take against the debt defaulters who can
add a significant amount to the treasury of the government.
Will they go unpunished while the majority of the people
have to take the unbearable burden on heir weak shoulders?
I firmly believe that if the government considers these
facts it does not necessarily need to depend on public taxes
and harmful foreign loans which carry a huge amount of interest
every year to be paid from public money. It is high time
to detect and utilise every potential source from within
the country to get out of the noose of foreign aid.
Md Arif Sadeq,
Department of English
University of Dhaka
Baseless
Criticism
Dear Mr. Nayeem (SWM hater), I don't find your criticism
of SWM logical. You don't like SWM but you're still reading
it, what a wonder! You have spoken very highly of Jai Jai
Din, but how can you compare a Bangla magazine with an English
one? I think you should learn to think clearly before criticising
something.
Farhana Sultana
Uttara, Dhaka.
A
Great Man Indeed
I immensely enjoyed Morshed Ali Khan's cover story about
his African daughter Aougny. I hope and pray that SWM's
coverage on this story will encourage others to help other
children in similar situations. Morshed Ali Khan is a great
soul. And he makes us all proud.
Md. Akhtar Hossain
Dhaka
Poetry
Please!
I am a regular reader of SWM. It is a very good magazine
in every aspect. All of the articles are well written. There
was a time when poetry featured in the magazine but it is
no longer a part of SWM's menu. Why? I believe many other
readers would also like to see poems in SWM. I hope that
SWM will consider printing poems in the future.
Khokan Sarker
Dept. of English, AUB
Letters to the Editor, Dhaka Diary & Write to Mita with
the writer’s name and address, should be within 200
words. Articles should be within 1,200 words. Articles and
photos submitted will not be returned. Plagiarised articles
will not be accepted. All materials should be sent to: Star
Weekend Magazine, 19, Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215, Fax: 8125155,
or e-mailed to <dsmagazn@gononet.com>
Articles may be edited for reasons of space and clarity.
