July 29, 2021
Reflections on University of Dhaka convocation speeches: Part II
The second volume of Dhaka University: The Convocation Speeches, 1948-1970 (Dhaka University Publications, 1989), assembled assiduously by Emeritus Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury, is an...
July 3, 2021
The University of Dhaka and the Birth of Bangladesh
In Dhaka University: the Convocation Speeches, a volume compiled with an introduction by Serajul Islam Choudhury in 1988, we read that DU was established by the British as a "splendid imperial...
May 8, 2021
Translating Rabindranath Tagore’s Song-Lyrics
In the song-lyric numbered 230 in Gitabitan, Rabindranath Tagore’s comprehensive compilation of such verse, we find his delight at capturing the loveliness of the world outside his window in a song...
May 8, 2021
Tagore Songs
Clouds pile upon clouds And the world darkens Why keep me waiting by the door then, All, all alone?
May 1, 2021
A. K. Fazlul Huq’s English Prose
In “Gandhi and Nehru: The Uses of English,” an essay written by Sunil Khilnani from the 2010 collection of essays edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, A Concise History of Indian Literature in...
March 17, 2021
Bangabandhu’s writerly skills
Soon after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Oshomapto Atmojiboni (Unfinished Memoirs)came out in an English translation as well in the original Bangla in 2012, I heard at least a few people...
January 14, 2021
Shashi Tharoor Looks Through A Glass Darkly, For Democracy
This is a must-read book for anyone worried about the vulnerability of democracy in our time and the rise of authoritarian governments everywhere.
January 9, 2021
A Bangladeshi Babu Like No Other
Numair Atif Choudhury’s Babu Bangladesh is a tour de force of a novel. Exuberant, extravagant, learned, zany, ingenious, whimsical, irreverent and provocative, this is a work of amazing merit.
August 15, 2020
July 1, 2020
The road to DU’s opening day
In these pandemic-plagued times, ceremonies commemorating the beginning of the celebrations of the University of Dhaka (or DU) that were to culminate in July 1, 2021 have been scaled down...