It was not often that I received odd parcels. True, my job at the paper did occasionally warrant a few peculiar hate-mail or rebuttals, but this was nothing of that sort.
You tried to run, didn’t you? Tried to get as far away from everything
Love wears different shades,
Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal’s Instruments of Torture is a powerful literary collection that delves into the psychological and societal torments individuals endure, particularly focusing on themes of beauty standards and the representation of women. Each story in the collection is named after a medieval torture device, serving as a metaphor for the emotional and societal pressures faced by the characters.
Given that the newsfeed these days reads like Yuval Noah Harari on a psychedelic trip, it’s understandable that a brilliant show like Kaos (2024), with its modern depiction of the Greek mythology, complete with not-so-subtle jabs at unequal power structures, corporate greed, and inefficient bureaucracy, would not find enough viewer traction for Netflix to continue investing in it, whereas fluffy, feel-good shows like Bridgerton (2020) and Emily in Paris (2020) continue to go from strength to strength. Sometimes an escape from reality is just what the doctor ordered.
“An Eye and a Leg” has been described as "a darkly humorous and surreal take on the trope of the ‘expiring’ South Asian woman"
BDT 80,000/3200 ft2 — Two-storey building built during the late 1970s with three baths, two verandas, and two garages @ Dhanmondi 33 (also known as Lost Property Lane), Dhaka.
Li’l Del is walking all alone Li’l Del wants to find her way home.
In the contested notion of creating a ‘nation,’ few ideas provoke as much ire among the everyday citizens of a bordered entity as the concept of a space—one that carries with it the weight of instilling an identity.
Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series has captivated pop culture with its bold take on tyranny, sacrifice, and resistance, spanning Katniss Everdeen’s blazing defiance in The Hunger Games (2008) to her final stand in Mockingjay (2010) against Coriolanus Snow’s cold cruelty.
In Gaza, the names of the martyrs slip through silence, lost to a world too distracted to listen
Beyond the celebration of Eid, this book also explores themes of love, loss, and the grief of spending a special occasion without a loved one.
“Mr Speaker Sir, what did Bangalee intend to achieve? What rights did Bangalee want to possess? We do not need to discuss and decide on them now [after independence]. [We] tried to press our demands after the so called 1947 independence. Each of our days and years with Pakistan was an episode of bloodied history; a record of struggle for our rights,” said Tajuddin Ahmad on October 30, 1972 in the Constituent Assembly. He commented on the proposed draft constitution for Bangladesh, which was adopted on November 4, 1972.
Melissa Lozada-Oliva takes us on a bumpy apocalyptic horror ride in her debut novel Candelaria. Spanning across three generations of women, the novel ushers together an unsettled past and an even more bizarre present.
What if our Eid table had a few extra chairs reserved not for guests from our world but from that of the books we’ve loved throughout our life?
With International Women’s Day being celebrated across the world tomorrow, we here at Star Books and Literature decided to take a moment to read and reflect on the many expressions of female rage in both ancient and contemporary literature
Tracing back the events before the Language Movement of 1952, Al Helal presents a detailed account of the events that unfolded during February 1952.
Being a Dhakaite, your Eids in childhood were spent in mournful longings for something to happen.
The panel supplied a critical as well as emotional commentary on the issues of linguistic hegemonisation, power imbalances, the marginalisation of non-Bangali languages and identities, and the aftermath of the revolutionary spirit of July 2024
While core acts of devotion take center stage, qasidas (Islamic odes) and devotional poetry serve as powerful complements, enriching the experience of Ramadan and deepening one’s spiritual reflections
Throughout the session, Mohaiemen’s passionate, spontaneous, and engaging demeanour captivated the audience, fostering a deeper understanding of storytelling through images.
Pre-occupation Palestine had, to use Anglo-American poet WH Auden's words, "marble well-governed cities" full of "vines and olive trees." But Israel and its allies have turned it into "an artificial wilderness"
Saikat Majumdar, a professor of English and Creative Writing at Ashoka University, is a writer whose works delve deep into the intricacies of identity, desire, and the tensions between personal yearnings and institutional expectations.
January 25, 2025 marks the 201st birth anniversary of Michael Madhushudan Dutt
You tell me stories of the sea—of its waves, of how it speaks to you in a language only you can understand—whenever you write back to me.
The cream colored bowl held the steaming, almost translucent yellow broth with traces of white, garnished by an array of green onions slashed in an angle.
The rain began at dusk, its cold fingers tracing the cracked panes of the house like an unwelcome visitor. By midnight, the storm had grown wild, wind howling through the trees, rattling the fragile bones of the dwelling. I stood before the door, my hand trembling on the tarnished brass handle.
It was the shade of the ashwath that vanquished all one’s weariness from the fiery heat of Choitro. Or else it was not possible for fatigue to be eliminated so quickly.
The night after the story got published, Jamal stormed to my home at around 11 PM, drenched in the rain. That was the first and only time Jamal raised his voice against me
One sits silently. Her eyes blink sometimes. Sometimes her lips tremble a little, or they don’t tremble at all.
The large green pond of Dhanmondi Lake was probably the first source of natural water that I had witnessed. It sheltered a huge number of people who have lived,
Sometimes at early dawn / You overpower my eyelids / And won’t let me wake up
We'll put up feigned politicians / And their fake promises instead
Who do I tell, sir? The walls do not listen, The roads do not answer back
It was not often that I received odd parcels. True, my job at the paper did occasionally warrant a few peculiar hate-mail or rebuttals, but this was nothing of that sort.
Given that the newsfeed these days reads like Yuval Noah Harari on a psychedelic trip, it’s understandable that a brilliant show like Kaos (2024), with its modern depiction of the Greek mythology, complete with not-so-subtle jabs at unequal power structures, corporate greed, and inefficient bureaucracy, would not find enough viewer traction for Netflix to continue investing in it, whereas fluffy, feel-good shows like Bridgerton (2020) and Emily in Paris (2020) continue to go from strength to strength. Sometimes an escape from reality is just what the doctor ordered.
Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal’s Instruments of Torture is a powerful literary collection that delves into the psychological and societal torments individuals endure, particularly focusing on themes of beauty standards and the representation of women. Each story in the collection is named after a medieval torture device, serving as a metaphor for the emotional and societal pressures faced by the characters.
“An Eye and a Leg” has been described as "a darkly humorous and surreal take on the trope of the ‘expiring’ South Asian woman"
Li’l Del is walking all alone Li’l Del wants to find her way home.
BDT 80,000/3200 ft2 — Two-storey building built during the late 1970s with three baths, two verandas, and two garages @ Dhanmondi 33 (also known as Lost Property Lane), Dhaka.
Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series has captivated pop culture with its bold take on tyranny, sacrifice, and resistance, spanning Katniss Everdeen’s blazing defiance in The Hunger Games (2008) to her final stand in Mockingjay (2010) against Coriolanus Snow’s cold cruelty.
In the contested notion of creating a ‘nation,’ few ideas provoke as much ire among the everyday citizens of a bordered entity as the concept of a space—one that carries with it the weight of instilling an identity.
