
Shahnoor Wahid
PERIPHERALLY YOURS
The writer is Special Supplements Editor, The Daily Star.
PERIPHERALLY YOURS
The writer is Special Supplements Editor, The Daily Star.
The new normal is now normal! Four years back, seeing us sitting at the coffee table with our masks, disposable gloves and sanitiser bottles, people would have chuckled and called us abnormal.
Let us talk about the heroes of the pandemic. We want to remember those extraordinary men and women who have offered selfless services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, knowing very well that they could get infected by the deadly virus.
A recent news update from Carew & Co will uplift the spirit of many of my friends who frequently take to the bottle to release bottled-up emotions.
The date January 10, 1972 will remain etched forever in golden letters in the history of Bangladesh.
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” Oscar Wilde reminded us of this universal truth with these witty words, which are timeless and wholesome at the same time.
A gentleman does not. But a man not so gentle does. A genuine award from a respectable organisation becomes a thing of joy, but an award given by a shady group to a questionable character raises eyebrows.
When a fish gets caught in a net, it curses its luck and tries to free itself from the mesh.
“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realise we cannot eat money.”
Alongside the Bengalis in general, many foreign missionaries who have been living in Bangladesh since the fifties and sixties had joined our War of Liberation in 1971 in their own capacity. We have heard about their heroic contribution and on various occasions paid our tribute that they deserved. I personally met and heard the story of two missionary doyens who defied the threats of the Pakistani military and continued to help the freedom fighters. They did so for the sheer love for the common people of this country irrespective of their religion, cast or creed.
Soon after the creation of Bangladesh, we came to know of the heroic yet risky stand taken by many foreigners, foreign journalists and Christian missionaries in defiance of the Pakistani military threats.