August 8, 2020
So, you want to kill the university?
When the lockdown was imposed because of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, I shifted to online teaching at a university here in Dhaka.
August 8, 2020
Diary of Pandemic Days
It’s already been several months since we’ve been hurled into the vortex of the coronavirus. The virus lives among us, silent and invisible.
July 5, 2020
Professor, who do you profess to now?
I always wanted to be a professor in English. When the pandemic hit and lockdown began, I ended up being a professor in pandemic.
June 20, 2020
Poetics of Pandemic
Any pandemic is crushing. COVID-19 is no exception. It strains cognition and emotion. It tanks economies. It disrupts communication. It alters psychology. It breeds panic and paranoia.
April 25, 2020
Viral Miseries
I always knew that life is unpredictable. But between February and April this year, I started to discover what it truly means to live an unpredictable life.
March 29, 2020
Coronavirus pandemic: Are we (mis)managing it?
I’m panicked, as is everyone around the world now. We’re faced with an existential threat. A death sentence hovers over us as it has hovered over Wuhan, China, since December 2019.
February 29, 2020
What Makes Good Writing Good?
To answer this question, let me hazard an analogy -- good writing is much like good food. Good writing tickles our senses the way good food does.
January 11, 2020
On Writer’s Block
Fairly recently, I was working with two of my colleagues here in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to propose a panel for a conference in North America.
October 12, 2019
Is Writing a Gift?
If it is, where is this gift coming from? God? Ahem! As off-putting as it might sound, biographies and autobiographies of writers reveal that most so-called gifted writers are scoundrels.
August 24, 2019
Why Is Writing So Difficult to Accomplish?
Writing is a struggle for everyone. If it seems easy, a writer is not doing it right. Because writing is mired in myths and misunderstanding, most writers – aspiring writers, in particular – consider the essential difficulty in writing as a pathology. They feel