What the scheduling fiasco of Ekushey book fair tells us
21 February 2026, 02:05 AM Blowin’ in the Wind
V for Victory, V for Valentine: A mandate is not a licence
14 February 2026, 01:32 AM Blowin’ in the Wind
Education needs decisive actions, not empty promises
31 January 2026, 06:44 AM Blowin’ in the Wind
The day cricket needed a therapist
10 January 2026, 09:00 AM
Election is not the real story, what counts is how it is conducted
27 December 2025, 05:00 AM Blowin’ in the Wind
How Dhaka airport has turned into a game of Ludo
13 December 2025, 04:00 AM Blowin’ in the Wind
Primary teachers’ strike is a mirror held up to Bangladesh
6 December 2025, 02:00 AM Blowin’ in the Wind
Our winter is fading, but the world remains indifferent
22 November 2025, 03:00 AM Blowin’ in the Wind

E-learning: A boon or a bane?

In our Viber group, a departmental colleague shared an excerpt from a student’s exam script. The student wrote down the title of Jhumpa Lahiri’s book “The Interpreter of Maladies” as “The Translator of Disease”.
22 January 2021, 18:00 PM

Consuming facts without flavours

A national newspaper ran a story on January 10 featuring the research expenditure of public and private universities of Bangladesh.
15 January 2021, 18:00 PM

‘A tumultuous and triumphal homecoming’

On January 17, 1972, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
9 January 2021, 18:00 PM

Reimagining the future of education

Getting the news of vaccine was a figurative shot in the arm for the human race plagued by an ever-evolving crown-shaped virus.
1 January 2021, 18:00 PM

World Rankings and Indexes: Like Ducks to Water

Ever since a London based agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) partnered with Times Higher Education to measure “academic excellence” against a host of quality indicators at the beginning of the millennium, universities all over the world have been attracted to the idea like ducks to water.
25 December 2020, 18:00 PM

On shared and contested histories

National Professor Rafiqul Islam, speaking at a virtual event organised by ULAB in remembrance of the martyred intellectuals, mentioned that the job of writing the history of the Liberation War should have been given to the universities from the start and not to the politicians.
18 December 2020, 18:00 PM

The inescapable greed grid of the health sector

I walked out of the doctor’s chamber with my mother when someone took the prescription from me.
11 December 2020, 18:00 PM

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Kitty

A lot of whimpers and whines are coming out of the White House as the sun sets on the Trump presidency. The man in question is convinced that he has been cheated out of power.
4 December 2020, 18:00 PM

On being ‘silly’

On a day like this, 33 years ago, I became a man. To be precise, on November 28, 1987 at 12:10 pm in the emergency ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), I became a man.
27 November 2020, 18:00 PM

The Shame of Being a Man

I woke up with a colleague’s hesitant post on Facebook wishing his friends well on the International Men’s Day. The comment thread is filled with issues ranging from locker room banter to the high theory on the dominant form of masculinity.
20 November 2020, 18:00 PM

Never waste a good crisis

One more circular. One more extension. The opening of the educational institutions is further delayed; this time up to December 19.
13 November 2020, 18:00 PM

An Unnatural Death

Have you ever put your ear to the rail to listen to the rumbling sound of an approaching train? I have. Many of us have.
23 October 2020, 18:00 PM

HSC results without exams: The pros and cons

You have near perfect vision, or 20/20 vision, if you can see the letters of an eye-chart from a 20 feet distance. 20/20 is an exciting cricket game if you can add two ounces of cricket with one ounce of baseball and garnish it with pom-poms.
9 October 2020, 18:00 PM

A game of kabadi against corruption

As the old joke has it, there is no lid in the mouth of hell where the Bengalis are kept.
25 September 2020, 18:00 PM

No onion, no cry

In his Ode to the Onion, the Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda praises onions as “the miracle” that happens under the earth.
18 September 2020, 18:00 PM

A Corpse of Love Doesn’t Sink in Water

The title alludes to a very famous folk song by Abdul Alim, Premer Mora Jole Dobe Na. The song pits true love against so-called flings, suggesting that mere water cannot drown the “body” who is in love.
11 September 2020, 18:00 PM

Rage, rage against the ragging in the campus

English professors are known for being sticklers for rules. Even if I try to disassociate myself from the grammar Nazis, there are times when I have to wonder about the usage of certain words.
4 September 2020, 18:00 PM

Losing a Loved One: When Doves Cry

“And my last ask is: if you’re someone’s sister, the next time you see your brother, please hug him… as tightly as you can, for as long as you want, because that’s all I want to do every time I see those photos. But I will never be able to hug Fahim again.”
21 August 2020, 18:00 PM

He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear

Attending the peace summit on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela in 2018, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quoted both Nelson Mandela and our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
14 August 2020, 18:00 PM

Fostering a research culture in higher education

In an op-ed published on July 27, Prof Syed Saad Andaleeb reviewed the DU annual budget and argued that the dearth of funding should not be blamed for the lack of research.
30 July 2020, 18:00 PM