The Birangona in fiction: ‘1971’ and ‘Talaash’
In this addition to this series, following up on the previous installment’s focus on nonfiction narratives of Birangonas’s lives and experiences, we recall Tarashankar Bandopadhyay’s '1971&...
Re-reading ‘The Alchemist’: A book of omens
Before I knew it, I developed a personal relationship with the book. I was glued from beginning till end. I read slowly. Sometimes I read the same section twice. I could not focus on anything else...
The teenage life of a Bangladeshi-American in Tashie Bhuiyan’s ‘Counting Down with You’
Karina’s experiences are conveyed with compassion, emphasising the real issues of gender inequality in South Asian communities. The fact that parents continue to force their dreams on children...
The quiet sacrifices of the NHS
Rachel Clarke reminds us of the intensity of the ongoing tragedy in her autobiographical Breathtaking (Little, Brown, 2021), told from the extraordinary perspective of a palliative care doctor.
Revisiting the lost Jewish communities of Baghdad
Iraq once boasted one of the world’s oldest Jewish communities, encompassing 2,600 years of rich cultural history punctuated with moments of benign tolerance, blatant discrimination, and outright...
Shaheen Chishti’s debut novel ‘The Grand Daughter Project’
Shaheen Chishti, a descendant of the revered Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, and a London-based writer and women’s rights advocate, has just released his debut novel. The Grand Daughter...
Love and feminism in the world of tech
Earlier this week, in a break from work-related correspondence, I sent author Tahmima Anam a personal email. I told her I was writing to her “as a reader” this time, because after months of...
Su’ad Abdul Khabeer on what it means to be Muslim and cool
Su'ad Abdul Khabeer is an Afro Latina Muslim, a hip-hop head, and the originator of the term "Muslim Cool". Through her book, Muslim Cool: Race, Religion,
An essential read on knowledge management
The book, Knowledge Management, Governance and Sustainable Development: Lessons and Insights from Developing Countries (Routledge, 2020), edited by M Aslam Alam, Fakrul Alam, and Dilara Begum, is...
‘Memoirs of Dacca University’: Turning the pages back to the ’40s
The first of July has always been a busy day. With remembrances, special anniversaries and the beginning of a new financial year, the day also reminds us of how fast time passes, as half of the...