Tribute | The Daily Star

  • 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.

  • Journalism’s guiding light

    For us in The Daily Star, Kuldip Nayar was a guiding spirit and a symbol of the values of the best in the profession. His occasional visits would be occasions for us to learn from his long and vast experience, a learning that would be made easy by his generosity.

  • Kuldip Nayar: Life and work

    Eminent Indian journalist and a regular columnist of The Daily Star, Kuldip Nayar died on August 23, 2018 at a hospital in Delhi, India. He was 95.

  • Farewell to a master: Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul

    VS Naipaul, to use his most common appellation, died at his London home on August 11, six days short of his 86th birthday.

  • Vajpayee's enduring legacy

    If PV Narasimha Rao was the initiator of the process of India's globalisation diplomatically and economically, it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who cemented that process irrevocably.

  • Tajuddin Ahmad's 93rd Birth Anniversary

    A leader ahead of his time

    Tajuddin came much before his time and we are not yet ready to understand him properly.” Professor Sardar Fazlul Karim's famous words aptly describe the key architect of Bangladesh's Liberation War. In the physical absence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tajuddin Ahmad was the key actor, who led the war with remarkable diplomacy to achieve freedom from the Pakistani colonial occupation.

  • Defining Tajuddin's place in history

    Tajuddin Ahmad was the one who filled a crucial void in leadership during Bangladesh's most important nine months in 1971 after Bangabandhu had been taken prisoner by the Pakistani army.

  • Serajul Islam Choudhury - Our Leading Intellectual and Inspiration

    He confronts, challenges, and combats the world with words. But his words become more than words. They morph into weapons in our struggles against oppression and injustice. For him, of course, writing is fighting. But, then, he is more than a combative writer.

  • Begum Sufia Kamal - The lone crusader

    Sufia Kamal, (June 20, 1911–November 20, 1999), lived a long and eventful life. She not only witnessed great cataclysms in history but played a major role in empowering women in an oppressive society.

  • What Bourdain Taught Me

    It was only last month that I found myself in La Fuente Alemana on a busy street in Providencia in Santiago, Chile.

  • Remembering a trailblazer for women's empowerment

    When many prominent leaders of Awami League were imprisoned, including Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,

  • Dr Hafiz GA Siddiqi

    Our beloved VC Sir

    The last time I met Dr Hafiz GA Siddiqi was at a seminar or a conference. VC Sir, as many of us still refer to him, was surrounded by crowds of his former students,

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