Perspective
In search of a therapist navigating the crazy of Dhaka and some more (m)adventures in between
I woke up with a start at 06:09 am that morning on April 10. It was the sharp ring of the alarm clock going off at this ungodly hour that made me jump up.
Time and Space
Winter came early that year. Mid-October, a steady wind appeared and transformed Dhaka into a dust bowl; by November, a fog descended and obscured the moon.
Corrupt development begets corruption
What would we learn sitting in an air-conditioned and well-furnished classroom if the pedagogical practice remains the same—copy-pasted slides from SlideShare with watermarks still on them, exhibiting incompetence and indolence? Which path of knowledge would we be treading on, with a fancy library reading MP3 BCS guides, while a thick layer of dust covers the library books, longing for human touch? With teachers being transmitters of knowledge and students only passive receivers in a high-tech environment, would we not be annulling curiosity and participation—two fundamental qualities of knowledge as observed by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire?
Things we lost to the fire
The distance from Lexington to Astoria is six miles; 1.5 hours by foot. On that crisp fall morning, it took twice that.
perspective / The issue of Kashmir hits close to home
Ahmad Shafi* sensed the unrest in Kashmir before it happened. An MBBS student in Bangladesh, he was in class at Dhaka’s Green Life
Perspective / We are what we remember
When Nana was 24, he saw Muslims slaughtered in prayer. As men prostrated before God, the cold of steel met the warmth of flesh,
perspective / How the ceiling falling on my head taught me something new about commercial property
When the concrete casting of the ceiling at Gausia market broke off and fell on my head last week, I was determined to hold someone
PERSPECTIVE / A Perpetrator’s Prerogative
About a month back, a 20-year-old man—a university student—was accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple girls who came forward on social media. Following the circulation of posts exposing his alleged behavior, he faced, at max, a blast of “angry” emojis and hateful comments.
Raising a feminist son
I listen in abject horror as my three-year-old comes back from school one day and proclaims that his playtime with his afternoon neighbourhood playmates will now consist of “the boys on one side and girls on the other”. My carefully constructed gender-equality declarations and almost repeated bad gerings over the past few years on his swiftly developing brain seems to have collapsed in one session of rough
Search for sight and community in Sydney
Growing up, I was always told to be prepared when embarking on something new. Sometimes, however, there is very little one can do
Being an Unmotherly Mother
Much like buying a free-size robe that needs no trial, motherhood is expected to fit all women who give birth. When it comes to
Innovations for survival and stranger things
We live in parallel worlds—one in which everything seems to happen in a single moment and another in which nothing seems to happen at any moment.
“Act like a girl!”
I am 25 years old, from Bogra. Biologically I am a woman but I cannot declare myself as gender conforming. Nor do I have an exact answer to give when asked whether I am gender non-binary.
Ungendering Hair
As soon as I left college, I decided to keep long hair. Having studied in Cantonment School and College, I never had the leeway to do this thus far. Whenever my hair grew an inch, it attracted the immediate attention of my teachers.
What makes a speech great?
This October, UNESCO recognised Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's March 7 speech as part of the world's documentary heritage. One of the most influential speeches of the country, those 20 minutes at the Ramna Race Course inspired tens of millions of Bangladeshis and laid the seeds for the country's freedom.
The revolutionary concept of width
About two years ago, James May, mop-haired British TV personality and certified automotive encyclopedia-on-legs, was still presenting for Top Gear, the BBC's acclaimed show on cars.
Words, words everywhere, but not one to trust…
The power of words can move a nation to war, or spread the spirit of love and hope, and in-between, arouse a whole range and scale of passions and emotions in men that may change their fortunes forever.
The colonial hangover in academia
The colleges and universities established during the colonial period have, hitherto, contained, concealed and, in many cases, carried out this colonial purpose in the subcontinent.
