It is great that TEDx events are spreading across Bangladesh gradually. Specially the universities are picking it up, and organising their own events. It has significant potential of finding hidden gems in various communities, and nurturing local community leaderships. While it grows, I think it is important to remind and clarify about some persistent myths, …
খবরের কাগজের ভাষ্য মতে, আমাদের আইনশৃ্ঙ্খলারক্ষাকারী বাহিনীগুলো আজকাল শুধু মানুষজনকে “তুলে নিয়ে যায়” আর “আটক” করে, পরে মন চাইলে “গ্রেপ্তার দেখায়”। সভ্য পন্থায়, আইন মেনে “গ্রেপ্তার করে” না তারা। গ্রেপ্তার এখন আর ফ্যাশনেবল না। কোন ওয়ারেন্ট ছাড়া, নাম পরিচয় ইউনিফর্ম ছাড়া মাস্তানের মত তুলে নিয়ে যাওয়ার মধ্যে একটা চার্ম আছে, একটা হ্যাডম আছে, সেটাই নগ্নভাবে …
Bangladesh is not a tourist destination; I see no possibility of becoming one in near future, and there is nothing wrong in it. On the contrary, I am rather happy that it is not. Tourists are a nuisance, and tourism based economies are vulnerable. Thank god we are not dependent on tourism in the middle …
Some generic, proven in practice, communication tips for making everyone’s life easier: 1 Do not end your opening messages with just Hi / Hey / Hello / Hello bhai / Assalaumu alaikum/ How are you? / Kemon achhen?/I have a question—type of sentences. Add your issue/actual-message/questions along with your greetings right in the first message …
I walk. I try to enforce the rule—I must walk to any distance shorter than three kilometres, even if I have access to alternatives. As I walk, the paths accumulate memories. They become ingrained in the mental map of the city. Probably the most vivid of all meta memory of footpaths are the ones with …
The war of burgers 🍔 in Dhaka is intense. It is a verily controversial topic, and people are often deeply emotional or indoctrinated about their choices 🤓 The common tendency of local restaurants is to transform everything into a torkari. They did the same with burgers. They introduced this jhol and jhal that messed everything …
বাংলাদেশে ধর্ষণের বিচারে মাত্র ৩% মামলায় এ পর্যন্ত অপরাধী সাজা পেয়েছে। এর একটা বড় কারণ অপরাধ প্রমাণের জন্য আলামতের অভাব, সেই সাথে আইনের দুর্বলতা। যে হারে এই অপরাধ বাড়ছে, তাতে দুঃখজনকভাবে আমাদের আশেপাশেই যে কেউ ধর্ষণের শিকার হতে পারেন। এমন ভয়াবহ ঘটনার পর আমরা মানসিক বিপর্যয় থেকে অনেক ভুল করতে পারি। ধর্ষিত ব্যক্তিকে সাহায্য করা, …
[Last updated on 19 March 2020] Some random trivial language issues in Bengali and English in local and international context, I keep adding to this post whenever I come across new words and phrases that may have completely different meaning in various local contexts 🙂 Spicy (global)Please do not use the words “spicy” and “hot” …
When the teachers may have separated you from your friends and made you sit far apart, you have to find a way to still communicate urgent matters to your friends during the class! A technic of communication that has to be subtle, discrete, and ideally without sending or receiving any physical object. Yeah, passing a …
[Photo © Abdul Momin] History is a philosophical and political statement or opinion, and it is invariably incomplete. It is never absolute, and will always invoke a range of responses, from outright rejection to enthusiastic support, depending on who the narrator, and who the readers are. We have learned to accept the incompleteness of history …