The anti-corruption hotline is a much-needed initiative. It allows ordinary citizens to be vigilant in informing the ACC about corrupt activities they have witnessed or been forced to participate in.

“The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.”

It starts with a frenzied explanation of the brilliant idea you just had to your best friend and potential future business partner.

"When I was a volunteer for UNYSAB, a bunch of us were distributing sandals to rickshaw pullers who didn't have any. A group of hijras came along and took the sandals away, but a little while later, they returned and apologised for having done so. Assuming we were NGO workers, they said: 'Rickshaw pullers have parents, children, siblings, a family. We have nobody. Can't you do something for us too?'”

How the young adult genre evolved to gain universal readership

When Gauri Lankesh was killed, all quarters of Indian society condemned the killing except for the prime minister himself. Lankesh was editor of the Kannada weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a secular activist and, most importantly, a staunch critic of Hindutva, the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India.

When the Volkswagen Beetle started plying through the streets of Dhaka in the late '60s, I had little notion of the “big idea” behind the “small” car, whose famous ad proudly stated: “Think small.”

A constant torment, white noise reminding us of our losses and sufferings.

With no psychosocial assistance, Rohingya refugees are vulnerable to life-long PTSD.

As dawn falls on the cramped shelters at Balukhali Refugee Camp, the settlers find twice the company they had yesterday. Some with crying babies, some with bullet wounds, some without families, some without hope—they all huddle inside, outside and everywhere. Each dot in this map represents 600 new arrivals, most of whom have walked a long way from Shah Porir Dwip to find refuse, food and dignity at the “northern camps”.

6th National Youth Theatre Festival

Hospitals being too far away is probably the single-most common problem that health sectors in the developing world are dealing with, and this contributes majorly to infant mortality.

A flood is a familiar drill for Anwar Hossain. He can't keep track of how many times he has dismantled and moved his house. Of the millions who live on the riverine islands, or chars, in the Jamuna, no one lives in one place for more than a few years.

Three years ago, a Bangladeshi woman, let's call her Nila, petitioned the High Court asking for protection of her fundamental right to equality. She had been living in a violent marriage. But as a Hindu in Bangladesh, she has no right to divorce, and no exit route from continuing abuse.

Having a flat nose and small eyes has always been a problem in Bangladesh, but now there is fresh cause for concern for the adivasi people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. As Myanmar broils with trouble, Buddhists in Bangladesh are being used as scapegoats.

"How much money did you pay him in bribes for the papers?” asks an officer with his headphones on, while scribbling down the main points of the reply on a piece of paper. “BDT 1200… and now he wants more?” he further inquires as he briskly takes a sip of instant coffee from a disposable cup.

Our lifestyle changes with the demands of time but what about the values and principles that determine one's personality? Do they belong to any particular era? Are they also changeable? Always speak the truth, respect your elders, do not quarrel with anyone and be kind in your life–are these pieces of advice no longer applicable in this competitive world?

“God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.” ― Voltaire

When buying gifts: You buy what the other person wants. Or get something you can also use.

My first visit to the Grand Canyon was with my wife, as a newly wedded couple several decades ago. I was so fascinated by the majesty and beauty of the vast expanse of red rock and by what must have been the immense power of the meandering river, that I told myself I had to experience this canyon and that river at closer proximity. I questioned myself over the years why I felt that way so compulsively.