Being Black In Dhaka

On the busy Mirpur Road of Dhanmondi, students mill around outside a standard university building, converted from a shopping mall. Standing out, yet blending in, among the students are several Somali and Nigerians students—a small but growing body adding to foreign students studying at public and private universities in Dhaka.
10 May 2018

The pitfalls of shortcuts

Very recently, I completed a course on acting at a renowned theatre school in Dhaka. I joined the one-year course with a motive to regain 'myself' after being bogged down with depression and anxiety triggered by multiple factors.
10 May 2018

About Town

A Little Bit of Vietnam
10 May 2018

Fixing a broken marriage

If we look at the history of marriage, it appears that back in the 18th century, marriage was mostly an economic arrangement. Marriage was used to manage wealth through merging properties of two families and then ensuring it through inheritance laws. Marriage also played a vital role in maintaining social class and adhering to the same social group (e.g. Brahman marrying Brahman or rich marrying rich etc.). In
7 May 2018

Ride sharing is a relief but not yet a permanent solution

For as long as anyone growing up in the Noughties can remember, Dhaka has had a traffic problem. In fact, an entire generation did much of their growing up stuck inside various forms of transport on Dhaka's gridlocked roads, waiting, sweating and cursing. The government took steps—building flyovers, introducing stricter policing and enforcement on the roads, uprooting streetside businesses to make space—but to no avail. With a growing economy and expanding purchasing power, more people bought cars and found more reason to go places.
3 May 2018

Are we willing to know more of Dhaka?

The city as we know it is as much a physical space as it is a state of mind. The mindscape—the space we bear in our mind—is constantly in dialogue with the physical city. The real city emerges out of this dialectic. Yet, and quite sadly so, our urban research remains heavily biased towards the physical city, relegating the immaterial associations of the city as secondary, if not outright unimportant.
3 May 2018

About Town

Exploring Self for Better Communication
3 May 2018

A country of famished farmers

As a small farmer, Shyamol's life was never easy. In his 10-decimal land in Rajshahi's Durgapur village under Godagari upazila, Shyamol used to grow rice. Like many other farmers of his village, he inherited that land and his profession from his ancestors. With the crop, he could hardly meet the expenditures of his family of six—his wife, elderly mother and three children. He also had to pay instalments of his debt which he had to take for buying seeds,
3 May 2018

Failing our role?

Doyasona Chakma and Monti Chakma returned just as mysteriously as they disappeared. The two women, both of whom are core elected members of the Hill Women's Federation, were dropped off by their abductors after a month of being held captive.
3 May 2018

MAILBOX

Recently, an alarming news was published in the media that a coal-loaded cargo vessel has been sunk in the Pashur river very near the Sundarbans area. This is the fourth time a water vessel has gone down in the area, which regularly cause serious environmental loss to the mangrove forest. The Sundarbans are the largest natural barrier protecting the people of the southern part of our country from many natural
3 May 2018

A legacy continues

Throughout the world, Bata is often considered a local brand; such is its connection with the masses built over the decades it has operated in various countries.
30 April 2018

Fruit’s pungent smell mistaken for gas leak, prompts panic

The pungent smell of the rotten durian fruit at an Australian university library has been mistaken for a gas leak, prompting an evacuation of the building.
29 April 2018

Qualified, but Rejected

It's 11 am. Mosammat Ayesha rushes to the classroom of grade four to take attendance. After the roll call, she asks the students to open their English grammar book and go through a grammar lesson. While the students fumble through their books, Ayesha quickly moves to the classroom of grade five. There, she again takes the attendance and asks the students to open their mathematics books. Instructing them to solve some arithmetic problems, she returns to the classroom of grade four to help students with grammar lessons.
26 April 2018

How the quota reform movement was shaped by social media

The recent quota reform protests took place as much on the streets of Dhaka as it did online, particularly on Facebook. Pitched battles in the middle of the night resulted as people responded to updates in real time. Events at the University of Dhaka (DU) led to uproar spreading to other universities in the city and other major cities of the country, where the youth took up protests in solidarity as well as a shared demand that the quota system, which reserves
26 April 2018

MAILBOX

This is in reference to a write-up on "Is social media inciting violence in Myanmar?" by Maliha Khan published in Star Weekend on April 13 which explained the controversial role of Facebook in ethnic cleansing atrocities committed against the Rohingya by Myanmar security forces and ultra-nationalist Buddhist communities.
26 April 2018

About Town

Organiser: Retired Armed Forces Officers' Welfare Association (Raowa)
26 April 2018

The man with 100 forest cases... and why he claims he is innocent

Hssan Ali appeared at Tangail Forest Court on January 4, 2018 to take bail in a 'forest case' (no. 405) that was filed in 1998 for felling of trees. He had been charged in absentia on December 27, 2017. The court issued a warrant of arrest. On January 4, he secured a bail to stay out of jail.
26 April 2018

‘Saline drip’ for a 700-year-old banyan tree in India

The world's second largest Banyan tree in Mahabubnagar district of India’s Telangana which is almost dying, is on ‘saline drip’ now as part of the rejuvenation.
21 April 2018

Bank of the bold

Bangladesh International Vote Banking brings you the opportunity to avail dead people votes, double votes, interest-based group votes, and much more, all designed in ways to suit you.
19 April 2018

Blend in or stand out?

Ever wondered why the Scandinavian countries—Denmark, Norway and Sweden—top the World Happiness Report year after year? No? Well, I have. You kind of have to when your country stands 115th on this year's list.
19 April 2018