Tribute | The Daily Star
  • An album on the poet of politics

    An album on the poet of politics

    My first impression of Bangabandhu dates back to around the mid-sixties. A helicopter service had been in operation between Dhaka

  • Tribute to a Quiet Warrior

    Warriors for women's rights come in all shapes and sizes—some take to the streets, some write poetry, some fight court cases. Another kind of warrior gleans evidence and strives to uncover women's contribution to society and economy. Of them, Simeen Mahmud was one of a kind for the passion and insight with which she researched women's empowerment, and in particular, women's work and labour force participation in Bangladesh.

  • Dr Md Rafiqul Islam

    Remembering a devoted civil servant

    Dr Md Rafiqul Islam, a senior member of BCS (customs) cadre, and a former member, National Board of Revenue, who topped the list of successful BCS examinees (1981 batch), passed away this February 8 due to a cardiac arrest. He was 65.

  • The Power of Love

    Valerie Taylor refuses to accept despair as the final outcome of the ambiguities of life. She proves that nothing makes one incapable of reaching up for the possibilities that confront him or her.

  • Always Remember, Never To Forget: Farewell, Bulbul Sir

    A day after he turned 63 years old, Ahmed Imtiaz Bulbul posted a picture on his social media profile, asking friends and loved ones to remember him, lest they forget. In the photograph, he seemed to be waiting for a flight to his next destination, carrying his passport, all dressed and ready to face challenges as he always had. Little did we know that the photograph depicted his final farewell, with Bangladesh in his heart and music in his smile. That was the last post he had made on the platform.

  • Standing up for truth and justice

    SM Murshed, who was born on January 11, 1911, rose to pre-eminence as a jurist imbued with a deep sense of social justice. His contribution to the field of literature was no less outstanding.

  • Justice Habibur Rahman: A life of subdued greatness

    His would not be an ordinary life. The year was 1952, and the movement demanding Bangla as a state language of erstwhile East

  • Remembering Mrinal Sen, whose films connote courage and consciousness

    Only a handful of Bengali filmmakers are revered in the realm of world cinema whose names are mentioned with legendary directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Luis Bunuel, Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Ousmane Sembene, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Glauber Rocha and others.

  • A towering figure in child healthcare in Bangladesh

    In recent years, a series of studies by the United Nations and World Bank applauded Bangladesh's efforts in curbing child mortality. In Asia, among the least developed and middle-income countries...

  • The real on reel, without sugarcoating

    It was a balmy summer evening in mid-1970s when I first got to see director Mrinal Sen at a get-together in a club set up by my friends in my locality in a south Kolkata suburb. It was at the height of the Naxalite movement and the subjects of discussion with Mrinal-da, as he was popularly called then, were films and politics.

  • A magician with words

    Syed Shamsul Haq's presence in Bangla literature is so all-encompassing and his brilliance so overwhelming in all the branches of creative writing in which he is present that the accolade that he was a literary genius would not in any way overstate his extraordinary talent.

  • Begum Rokeya: A trailblazer in women's rights

    Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, the legendary Bengali writer-activist whose leadership had transformed the lives of thousands of people in this region and beyond, was born on this day in 1880.

  • Tribute to Anwar Hossain: The end of an era

    A pioneer of modern photography in Bangladesh, Anwar Hossain showed forthcoming generations what constituted modern composition.

  • A fearless woman warrior

    The passing away of Bir Protik Taramon Bibi quietly in her home in Rajipur Upazila, at age 61, only 16 days before the commemoration of Victory Day, is truly a tragedy for us.

  • The man and his vision

    Today we all know of Kumudini and its institutions—Kumudini Hospital, Bharateswari Homes, Kumudini Nursing School and College, Kumudini Women's Medical College and Ranada Prasad Shaha University.

  • The passing of another friend

    I wasn't ready for this. Zahin Ahmed, the executive director of Friends in Village Development, Bangladesh, popularly known as FIVDB, breathed his last in a Dhaka hospital on October 27. A cancer survivor, he unfortunately couldn't fend off the virulent infections that kept him in hospital for the previous ten days.

  • November 3, 1975: A day of infamy

    Around midnight of November 3, 1975 a number of army personnel entered the Dhaka Central Jail where the four national leaders, Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, M Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman had been taken only a week after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

  • Weaving the tapestry of folk melodies

    In the shade of the mighty Himalayas, the Torsha, Dhorla and Kaljani Rivers flow gently across the village of Balrampur in Cooch Behar. It was in this peaceful place that Abbasuddin Ahmed, the doyen of folk songs, was born on October 27, 1901 to Zafar Ahmad, a lawyer and Hiramon Nesa.

  • Sher-e-Bangla: A natural leader

    Dr TG Percival Spear of Cambridge University divided leadership into five types: (1) natural, (2) charismatic, (3) rational, (4) of consensus, and (5) by force. According to him, the natural leader is selfless; he is, in fact, not interested in leadership.

  • Legendary Singer Ayub Bachchu

    Adieu, AB

    AB is no more. The nation is in his debt, and there's nothing we can do about it. There are murmured demands for some sort of a national tribute or recognition. If you ask me, a man, who has won over hearts, has no use for medals.

  • Legend Ayub Bachchu

    Memories with the Legend

    The first time I had met Ayub Bachchu was years ago at a recording in a studio called Art of Noise in Shegun Bagicha. The studio belonged to yet another music legend Foad Nasser Babu from the band Feedback.

  • The body is my temple

    It is said that a Baul is a mystic who is guided by his guru to seek divinity in human beings. The guru is like his guardian angel, and music is his way of giving him guidance. It broadens his mind and illuminates his horizon. And as he masters the language of the body, slowly but assuredly,

  • Uri Avnery: The face of exemplary journalism

    Uri Avnery, the Israeli activist-journalist who famously played chess with the Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat, died in Tel Aviv on August 20, at the age of 94.

  • In memory of Imtiaz Habib

    It is with profound sorrow we write this piece about our dear friend Imtiaz Hasan Habib (1949-2018), who died peacefully while asleep in the early morning hours of August 27 at his home in Norfolk, Virginia.

  • Remembering Justice Kamrul Islam

    The news of the unexpected passing away of Justice Kamrul Islam Siddiqui last week was a huge shock to me and many of his colleagues, friends and acquaintances.

  • Rama Chowdhury

    The lonely path that Rama Chowdhury walked

    Jodi tor daak shune keo na ashe, tobe ekla cholo re (If no-one heeds your call - then walk alone). The indomitable Rama Chowdhury, known to many as Ekattuker Janani (Mother of '71), had made this line from the famed Tagore song the guiding ideal of her life.

  • A fearless voice of reason

    Abul Mansur Ahmad excelled in each of his professions as writer, journalist and politician, and such was his honesty that he worked without pitting one profession against the other.

  • Syed Ahmadul Huq: Banglar Rumi and the eclectic traditions of South Asia

    In the creative writings of eminent author Ahmedul Huq, popularly known as “Banglar Rumi” throughout Bangladesh, is a perfect

  • Kuldip Nayar: A Partition storyteller par excellence

    My father, a prolific reader of literature about the historical events connecting India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, was a great admirer of Indian writer-columnist Kuldip Nayar. “Don't miss it,” he would tell me, about Nayar's weekly column published by The Daily Star. I often heard my father say that Muhammad Ali Jinnah used to be called an “ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity”.

  • Some Warriors Wear Saris

    It isn't easy being the writer of the family, especially when your only competition is your grandmother who had written over 100 books in two different languages, like our legacy, our beloved Didu Dr Halima Khatun.

Top