Rupa shows me the broken glass of a bookshelf in the bedroom, which her son Rakin had shattered by banging his head against it, not half an hour before I entered their home in Mohammadpur last week. He had done something similar last year, which had required 10 stitches on his face. This time, luckily, Rakin had no injuries. His mother was still shaken, the accident a vivid reminder that her world can be turned upside down in a second, though she works hard all day to ensure a regular routine for her autistic son.

“A campus forever linked to liberation" by Md Shahnawaz Khan Chandan in the Star Weekend on March 23 is a laudable effort to glorify the historical monuments of DU. Multilinguist Dr Muhammad Shahidullah had said, "mother, mother language and motherland are favorite and respectable affairs to all". Our mother language, Bangla, was preserved through the historic language movement in 1952 that initiated at

The content of the newspaper stand at 73 Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, a neighbourhood in New York City, is a mirror reflection of one halfway across the world anywhere in Dhaka. In place of the usual NYC newsstand fare, the New York Post or any of the other local tabloids, these stands proudly display an array of newspapers in Bangla.

In the days and weeks following the 2016 presidential elections, reports surfaced about how a small British political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, might have played a pivotal role in Donald Trump's surprise victory. The company claimed to have formulated algorithms to influence American voters using individually targeted political advertisements. It reportedly generated personality profiles of millions of

March 26 is a historical and glorious day for all Bangladeshis as, on this day in 1971, a new history was created by declaring the independence of this country. Innocent Bengalis took up arms to fight against the injustice of the Pakistani junta who were perpetrating genocide. We are among those people of the world who have had to sacrifice a lot for liberation. Ultimately, we achieved liberty but at the cost of a sea

Youth Talks, A skill and personality development workshop

"The city wrapped in starlight, was in deep slumber. The night was as pleasant as a spring night in Dacca could be. The setting was perfect for anything but a bloody holocaust. At around 11:00 pm, the local commander [Dacca] asked permission to advance… everybody looked at his watch. The Operation Searchlight began with great cunningness, surprise, deception and speed combined with shock action…

It was a proud day for many a Bangladeshi when independence was announced, liberation was in the air and heroes were welcomed back home with open arms. In the last four decades or more, some stories—of the Muktijoddhas fighting the Pakistani army, families walking for days to reach safety and the university massacre—have been passed on from one generation to the next. These are true stories that are never to be forgotten.

The recent BS211 crash went down as one of the gravest chapters in Bangladesh's aviation history. But before the dust had settled and the survivors had a chance to process their grief, rampant media speculation turned the spotlight to the conduct of the newsmen themselves.

March 17 is a memorable and remarkable day for Bangladesh and Bangladeshis, as on this day in 1920, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was born. He was the dreamer and designer of independent Bangladesh. He struggled for the hopes and rights of the people of this country throughout his life. He raised his voice against the injustice of the then Pakistani junta and tried to achieve the rights of

Richard Appiah Akoto who used his blackboard to explain computer features and software to his students in the southern Ghana, is earning numerous headlines and worldwide admiration, reports CNN.

French people appreciate their holidays so much that apparently a French baker is fined €3,000 (£2,650) for keeping his business open seven days a week, breaking their labour rules.

Live musical performance

Early morning of March 12, a fire broke out at the Ilias Mollah slum of Mirpur-12, burning down around a thousand shanty settlements. The shanties crammed on the 70-bigha land were home to approximately 25,000 people, most of whom were garments workers. No casualties were reported, save for one elderly woman with burn injuries. The cause of the fire is not yet known. Left homeless, their belongings and savings were destroyed in the course of just four hours. The victims are to be temporarily housed at an under-construction building nearby.

The puppet show starts with a group rehearsing “Aguner Poroshmoni” for Noboborsho celebrations. Safat stands aside, not participating. Turns out Safat has been getting flak from his father for “wasting” time with music. The scene shifts to the landlord of the building walking in on them and telling them that cultural activities are not important. In the middle of all this, Safat is befriended by a guy who later on in

A city that had over 50 canals and lakes only three decades ago, Dhaka has currently lost almost all of its water bodies. Over the years, most of these water bodies have been snatched by land grabbers and some have been used to dump massive quantities of garbage from nearby areas.

Our country is developing quite fast, except for one thing, gender equality. The men of our country do not yet totally support it but do our women support it fully? In our country, it is thought that women can't do everything like men.

I listen in abject horror as my three-year-old comes back from school one day and proclaims that his playtime with his afternoon neighbourhood playmates will now consist of “the boys on one side and girls on the other”. My carefully constructed gender-equality declarations and almost repeated bad gerings over the past few years on his swiftly developing brain seems to have collapsed in one session of rough

Though the government has made an announcement to recognise our gender identity as "Hijras" or "Third Gender" in 2013 and promised to rehabilitate us by appointing 12 of us in government jobs in the first phase, they have failed to keep their promises so far. When we were going through the medical tests for the job, the doctors of the government hospital refused to touch us and instructed their assistants to strip

Hello dear reader. You may be a feminist, a boy, a woman, or just flipping through. We are no longer in a situation where individuals can win by themselves. People need to be organised, and organise themselves, their peoples. Many communities have been organised decades now for their...