Of losses and languages: reviewing Han Kang’s 'Greek Lessons'
There is a sense of inexorable catharsis, and dare I say— spirituality—when the protagonists begin their journey into one another since they alone embody the ideas and predicaments of the text.
9m ago
On rainy days and reading
The fact of the matter was this: the poem had been written, the call had been answered, and as lofty as it sounds—at that moment there I was, as Frank O'Hara put aptly—"the center of all beauty! / writing these poems!/ Imagine!".
10m ago
On mothers and reading
I wonder at how these frugal, accessible pleasures define her daily existence and get elated with the fact that reading takes up a significant space on the shelf
11m ago
How I feel about Virginia Woolf being part-Bengali
Maybe I loved her so because we were daughters of the same soil, to some extent, at least. It made me smile. But I also sneered at myself a little bit, because her soil had also ripped apart mine for over 200 years.
1y ago
Mundanities, magic realism, Bangladesh—Shahidul Zahir’s novellas
The personal space is the same as the political sphere, the individual on the same strand as the collective.
1y ago
Notes of a first-time English teacher
As the white hot sun pierced through the soufflé clouds on an afternoon a lifetime ago, my aunt and I leaned back a little too precariously on our rattan armchairs while talking about the allure of academe.
1y ago
Ode to the book, my forever Valentine
In a particularly American but artsy, cinematic production depicting the friendship between David Lipsky and David Foster Wallace,
2y ago
April 10, 2021
Art world adjusts to lockdown cautiously
With spiralling Covid-19 cases, the government of Bangladesh announced a seven-day countrywide lockdown, starting from April 5. Art galleries and event spaces are monitoring the situation strictly. While most of them have postponed their public programmes, others have chosen to operate cautiously.
April 3, 2021
Shehzad Chowdhury’s “Chaa Porbo” explores a conversation with the self
“Chaa Porbo (Tea Time)”, an exhibition by noted artist Shehzad Chowdhury, is taking place at The Flourist, in Dhaka’s Gulshan 2. Curated by Saria Saguaro, the show features a striking collection of artworks, which were brought to life using tea and the process of cyanotype, during the months of isolation induced by the pandemic.
March 28, 2021
Group exhibition ‘Dui’ explores synchronised encounters
“Dui”, a successor to the exhibition, “Ek”, is the second chapter of the series of exhibitions curated by Taiara Farhana Tareque. Taking place simultaneously over two places in the city— Studio 6/6 and Dwip Gallery, “Dui” portrays two alternative visions of a singular artist, but draws up a merged conversation by bringing in the concept of a particular space and tying it together within the artwork. “The point of synchronicity is actually at in minds of the audience,” Taiara explains.
March 13, 2021
In conversation with Dilara Begum Jolly
Yet, her plethora of meditative sketches on tragic happenings are imbued with a certain sense of surreal sublimity. Though she started out as a traditional painter, Jolly went on to experiment with different areas, including filmmaking, photography and even the postmodernist terrains of performance art.
February 27, 2021
Arcadia Arts Gallery opened with group show of eminent artists
Arcadia Arts Gallery, located at the heart of Banani, opened with an important group show recently. The exhibition, which began on February 16, is showcasing artworks of some of the most eminent artists of the country and beyond, such as Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hasan, SM Sultan, Alakesh Ghosh, Ivy Zaman, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, and Kalidas Karmakar among others. The co-founders of this hub, Khan Rezaul Hoq and Arneeb Chaudhury, are distinguished art collectors.
February 11, 2021
For the love of books
Similar to the mimicry of life by art, sometimes a book in our hands can acutely imitate the arcs of the love story we are in, ourselves—like the time a ghost lover stole a paperback Frankenstein from the neighborhood café as a last minute birthday gift for me, while our alliance reeked of haunted loneliness and painful assertions, or when one of my friends, a doctor by day and an avid reader by night, spoke about his first encounter with Harry Potter and the “cute, sweet girl across the hall.”
February 6, 2021
Tahmid Islam’s ‘Art That Moves’ underway at 138 East
“Art That Moves’, a vibrant exhibition by artist Tahmid Islam, is currently underway at 138 East in Gulshan 1. Tahmid shares his artworks from his social media page, Crazy Creative. This exhibition intrinsically focuses on combining the aesthetic of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film company by Hayao Miyazaki, and internalising it within different moments that are woven in our culture.
January 21, 2021
The Portrait of the Writer as a Critic
The books which are closest to my heart and which evoke a certain sense of otherworldly glee are the ones that are themselves odes to literature, reading, and writing.
November 6, 2018
Vaping or smoking — the lesser evil
Are e-cigarettes the route to diminish the tobacco epidemic? Or is it just choosing the lesser of two evils? Let us look into the details, and shatter the myths relating to the various smoking and vaping trends circulating around our concrete jungle Dhaka.
October 9, 2018
Green is the new black
Even though many claim global warming and the entire concept of climate change to be a hoax, it is very evident how global warming is causing various disrupting changes around us.
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