Shamsad Mortuza

There is a rush hour traffic out there. People after spending a short Eid escapade are frantically returning to the capital as the lockdown tolls the knell of a parting holiday.

Last week, all eyes were fixed on Neymar’s ripped shorts, Badhon’s jewelled blouse or English rogue fans’ red-crosses, when something terrible happened:

When an esteem-ed member of our university’s syndicate board died recently, we requested the government for a replacement.

The institution that one attends for education is often attributed with the honorific title alma mater, literally meaning "generous or nourishing mother". The phrase "alma mater studiorum" (nourishing mother of studies) was first used in 1088 as a motto by the oldest university in the Western world, the University of Bologna.

A female student of mine walked out of her dentist’s chamber at Bailey Road at around 8pm on June 7, 2021.

Normally, you and I would not see fairies or hear them singing. They exist in a world where we fear (or do not care) to tread (anymore). Even if we do, we will not admit it in public.

It reads like a Netflix blurb of a horror movie. A young man took a machete from a street coconut seller, uttered his last words: “please forgive me”, and then slit his own throat in front of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

At a preparatory meeting for ULAB’s planned virtual convocation, I suggested that we use the iconic image of Keanu Reeves dodging many bullets in the Matrix trilogy as our promotional campaign.

During the latest rerun of the biblical David and Goliath narrative in a changed context, the age-old conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines has come alive.

The holiday lethargy has caused me self-loathing. Let me count some of the factors as to why I am beginning to hate myself.

A breath of fresh air: the University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to allow public universities to hold online examinations.

Ah! May Day. It’s here. Our newspapers will carry a close-up shot of hardworking men or women in action (e.g., breaking bricks, carrying loads, or manning the machine) to draw our attention to the tears and sweat of a largely overlooked mass whose discomfort ensures the comfort of the rest.

A good story is hard to find. Niaz Zaman, the editor of The Demoness: The Best Bangladeshi Short Stories, 1971-2021 (Aleph Book Company, 2021), has found 27 “best” short stories to create an appetite for Bangladeshi fiction.

There have been changes in the way we live and the way we die. We have learned to live carefully during this time of the pandemic, yet we have been dying carelessly.

The onslaught of Covid-19 shows no signs of relenting. While the infection-death curve has been arrested by some countries, our one is still climbing, as if it wants to put a flag of our collective irresponsibility at a greater summit.

The cargo vessel involved in a hit and run incident in Narayanganj on Sunday, leading to the capsize of a passenger launch that killed at least 34 people, was seized at a dock in Gazaria, Munshiganj.

Covid-19 is back and it is back with a vengeance, as if to puncture the false confidence we were assuming about the antidotes.

"Why do they even try? They don’t sound like us!” My mother was referring to the “bong” accents emulated by some of the Indian actors who occupy our living rooms every evening. That does not stop these characters from becoming regular guests of our evening party.

News of the pandemic waves of Covid-19 and political waves of the three-fingered protest is making the rounds.

The footage is harrowing. A speech-impaired girl is pushed off a running bus for not being able to pay her fare. She was wearing a note saying that she did not have any money on her.