Close your eyes and try to see

Shining stars and future of Bangladesh

2009-03-15T15:23:00.002+06:00

Bangladesh is passing a horrible time considering incidents of recent past. Nothing is going right and we are facing all the worse things. Alike most of the countrymen I was also depressed about the whole scenario. A report on Daily Star made me to dream and be hopeful about the future once again. Its about the superb performance of O level and A level students of Bangladesh. just read a part of the report which is given below.

Thirty-four Bangladeshi students secured the highest marks worldwide in thirteen subjects in the GCSE O-level examinations last year while another 19 have obtained the highest marks worldwide in six subjects of the A-level exams during the same period. Two students also obtained A grade in 11 subjects in the 2008 O-level examinations.

I am sheer delighted to see those shining stars who have proved once again the potential of our country. Its now proven that our boys and girls have the worldclass merit and they are the best in many cases. We should inspire and suport them to build up themselves more strong, who in tern is the future of the country. Lets be insipred and work together to build a better Bangladesh.

Congratulations and hats off to all those shining stars.

Observing Pohela boishakh at Ramna

2007-04-14T22:02:00.001+06:00

"Shuvo Noboborsho"
To observe Bangla new year and to see how it is observed I went to Ramna park today. I reached karwan bazar around 10am and found the traffic totally clogged there. So I started walking towards the historic "Ramna Botomul", center of all attraction and the value of the cultural program. The crowd was so thick all around that it was not easy even to walk. When I entered Ramna Park after waiting long in line it was all over. Though the program were finished the crowd were there enjoying the time with dear ones.

Then I went to TSC and Charukola Institute. I found it interesting that most of the people there were like me. They went just to roam around and be a part of the festival. The whole area became a sea of people. There was no vehicle allowed within one kilometer of the "Ramna Botomul". Outside this area the traffic was horrible. I have seen cars and buses not moving an inch from Panthopoth to Chief Advisors office. The situation in other directions would be similar, I guess. I walked for 3 hour from 10 am to 1 pm without any rest.

While roaming around I have taken many snaps. I am finding it difficult to upload those. I have uploaded some in flickr. Here are some more..

The whole area became a sea of people

Drawing tattoo

Signing in the longest bat of the world

Let's be less critical

2007-04-13T23:42:00.000+06:00

I am quite surprised in the reaction of the bloggers concerning present situation of Bangladesh. A unique type of government is running the country which came into power in a very critical situation. During their 3 months in power, they have been enjoying vast public support so far. Though there are few ambiguity and allegation against them, their activities and moves are mostly positive.

But when I come to read posts of fellow Bangladeshi bloggers I became confused. Where those propaganda coming from? Even the most prominent Bangladeshi blogger (Rezwan) seems anxious being far away from his motherland. It's interesting that this type of news is available mostly online. Even newspapers have not published this sort of news that much. Let me assure Rezwan bhai that the practical situation here is quite different than you see online. People here are suffering for the new rules. But in spite of being fad up with the government, they are trying to cope up with the situation. Politicians are not saying anything against the government while their fellow politicians have been detained one after another. So, I think the situation is not that worse.

I think bloggers becoming a bit more critical in analyzing the situation. The blogging arena seems a bit politicized also.

An exceptional independence day

2007-03-26T23:08:00.000+06:00

Today is 37th Independence Day of Bangladesh. This day reminds us that we weren’t free always. Today we remember the thousands of brave souls who died in 1971 just to make us free. They know the value of the word “Freedom”, so they sacrificed everything to have it. Now their beloved country is free; but do we feel the value of it?

I have witnessed 17 independence days, after knowing the meaning of it. But today I feel much different than the other 16. I was thinking about the reasons behind experiencing it exceptional and found the followings-

1. None is shouting around that their leader (Mujib or Zia) is the only inspiration of liberation war.
2. The independence was achieved by the combined contribution of many persons. Not a single time in last 36 years all of them were given the due respect simultaneously. Today in “National Parade” the pictures of Bangabandhu and Mejor Zia were side by side where the former one was bigger in size. There were some other portraits giving the required importance.
3. For a free nation all the citizens should be treated in same scale. Today we are observing our national day with the son of former prime minister and many other main leaders in jail. Today it is proved that our country don’t need leaders who only think about themselves.

IIUPE 2007: a pleasant exhibition and some bitter experience

2007-03-24T21:42:00.000+06:00

IIUPE stands for "International Inter University Photography Exhibition". The exhibition took place at "Shilpokola Academy" from 17 to 23 March. It was organized by NSUPC (North South University Photography Club). I am one of the 200 participants of the exhibition. Though I am not at all qualified in photography, I have great interest in it. With all enthusiasm we founded PSR (Photographic Society of RUET) back at Rajshahi and organized a small exhibition at our campus. When I heard about IIUPE, I couldn't avoid the chance to participate.

Now let's come to the point. How was the exhibition? "Great", everyone visiting it would say without any doubt. The exhibition was wonderful indeed. 500 photos displayed there resemble different views and ideas of amateur student photographers from around the world. The gallery in which the photos were displayed is one of the best in Bangladesh. Hence we must thank the organizers for arranging such a nice exhibition.

So what's wrong with it? Actually in eye of a visitor, there was noting wrong. But from the viewpoint of a participant it was nothing but a bitter experience. We were invited for the opening and closing ceremony just a day before over phone. There was no arrangement for the participants. Ops! There were snacks for all the viewers. But nobody served it; you have to collect the pack yourself. The organizers were busy enjoying themselves. No one even said welcome to the participants who traveled hundreds of kilometers just to attend the occasion. Is it so tough to give value to the guests you invited?

70% discount at Ecstasy

2007-03-24T21:34:00.000+06:00

Yesterday while roaming around at the giant Bashundhara City, a sign surprised me. It was declaring 70% discount. You won't believe it, the shop is "Ecstasy". Established brands other than "Westecs" seldom give discount and they never give more than 50% discount. Even the discount is not for so called selected items; but for all the items they have there.

Everyone there became crazy with the offer, leaving the shop fully loaded. Even the guards had to control the flow of entry to the shop. I coincidentally found the shirt I chose before, which was too expensive than. I bought the shirt for 258 taka which costs 860 taka in normal cases. I can't remember any deal that satisfied me to this extent.

So hurry up! The offer may not last long.

Completing graduation with 1 month in hand

2007-03-23T22:13:00.001+06:00

I have completed my graduation recently. It took 3 years and 11 months to add a degree with my name.

For public university students, it is a dream to complete the course in time. In most cases the dream never come true and it takes about 6 years to complete the course of 4 years. While other universities are burdened with huge session jot, we finished the degree with 1 month in hand. Thanks to our university authority to make the system so speedy and efficient.

In my varsity life, our varsity didn't ever stop for any unexpected incidents. Our class was running even when the blockade by political parties clogged the country. The best engineering university of the country is about 1 year behind us. I feel proud to complete my graduation from such a university.

Thrill of exploring Bangladesh

2006-10-28T23:41:00.000+06:00

On last sunday my article titled "Thrill of exploring Bangladesh" has published on "Star Campus" of The Daily Star.
Click here to read it.

Education: going beyond reach

2006-10-21T22:46:00.000+06:00

Students who cannot afford to buy admission forms should not aspire to study in the university, they would rather enroll at madrassas

Altaf Hossain
VC of Rajshahi University

My heart trembled reading this in Star Magazine. Politicians are used to say this kind of junk. But when head of the second largest university of a country says it, the situation becomes awful. Vice Chancellor of a university is the guardian of the students who must not overlook any of the students. He is the person to ensure enrollment of students according to their merit, not considering their social or economic status. When he looks for financially strong students for the institute we feel helpless.

In most of the public varsities tens of thousands of students sit for the admission tests. The fees they give are used for the expenses of the test. But the total amount is so huge that teachers and officers get a good share from the rest of the money. There can be no reason to increase it further.

In our varsity there are students who struggle to pay the least amount of hall fees. Some of them don't go home during vacations only to save some penny. But they proved their quality coming all they way and becoming an engineering student. We won't see such students in future if the authority makes their path even troublesome. In that case public university, the last hope for poor students will also become a dream for them.

A Hypothesis about getting a Nobel from Bangladesh

2006-10-18T04:53:00.000+06:00

Bangladeshis are known to be great addabaz (gossiper). They like to shout, quarrel and even fight for the sake of meaningless discussions. The discussions are meaningless from the point of view that they have no power to implement anything and the people who are there to implement never count them in. Is the introduction getting big? Let's come to the fact.

For last few days Nobel winning of Dr. Yunus is the hot topic. Dialog between two main political parties comes next on the list in the table of adda (gossip). To dominate such an adda one of my uncle has brought in a hypothesis. That is – "Dr. Yunus was always qualified for the Nobel, but never valued by the westerns. When he got the prize? He got it in such a time when not only political parties but also whole nation looking for an acceptable person to lead the caretaker govt. It is a open matter that Dr. Yunus has a close relation with United States. So the US thought it's high time to put a person they like, in the chair. If he gets a Nobel, he becomes most respected and acceptable to all. Finding no solution in the ongoing talk, the two main parties will offer him the chair. That's how they played the game."

Though my uncle's theory of getting Nobel may not be pleasant, but the prediction is rational. May be many of you has already started to think in this way. So what's your opinion about the hypothesis?

Why foreign consultant?

2006-10-17T15:04:00.000+06:00

In the recent speeches, Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus has pointed out many vital facts. Of them foreign consultancy is one. It is very common to appoint foreign consultants in most of the projects in Bangladesh. It directly implies that our country don't have enough experts in the concerned sectors. But in reality that is not the case. How foreign consultants can give better suggestion in matters like poverty elevation? The fact is, we are dependent on foreign things and believe that everything from abroad is better.

A poor country like Bangladesh can not effort huge amount of money to get some suggestion from outside, having many qualified persons inside. Foreign experts consume much bigger amount of money than our experts. It is also building pressure in our foreign currency reserve. None but we can realize our problems better. So we should come forward to find out the solutions not depending on outsiders suggestion.

Torture of Loudspeakers

2006-10-16T01:55:00.000+06:00

The use of loud speakers is a very common affair in Bangladesh. It is being used in politics, publicity, marketing, religious festivals and every other possible fields. Especially in the month of Ramadan it crosses all the limits. In front of every market there are lots of loudspeakers to advertise and attract customers. But the sounds of those are so noisy and loud that it becomes a torture to the pedestrians. In Chittagong the condition of new market area is worst, considering use of random loud speakers. Shop owners' organizations of New market, Riazuddin bazar and Tama kundi lain using tens of horns with loud sound which ended in a mess. It is intolerable to the buyers who are already tortured by load-shedding and huge rush at markets. The Chittagong city corporation took an initiative to keep the holiness of Ramadan and it is to play holly Quran in all the important traffic circles. This noble initiative also goes in vain because of low quality sound mixed up with noise.

In such ways sound pollution are leaving a bad trace on every of us. The authority should focus on this sector to keep the environment livable. Actually people are unaware of their rights and users are rough in using those. They think it is their right to use loudspeaker of any quality, anywhere they like. If you ask whether they have permission to use those, they will suggest you to put some cotton in your ears if you don't want to listen. That's how it works.

We have a new identity

2006-10-14T00:30:00.000+06:00

At last Dr. Muhammad Yunus has won the Noble price. Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize 2006 "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below". I have been waiting for this day for last few years. We were quite confident about his getting Nobel price in Economics. But he got it in Peace, the one which is more honoured.

I saw the news late, around 10:30pm. I just hold my breath and hear with all my heart. It was quite unbelievable, because we didn't expect it this way. With the remote in hand, I started to see his face in every channel including BBC and CNN. Its realy stunning. For me the news has a greater value. Because Yunus is from Chittagong also. It's a matter of proud that we are from same college, "Chittagong College".

This day is one of the happiest days for our nation since its independence. Dr. Yunus made the nation proud. Dr. Yunus's name will be uttered with "Mother teresa" and "Nelson Mendela", two legend who won Noble peace price. Now we can say we are from Dr. Yunus's country. From today we have a new identity.

Here are some links to this exciting news-

1. Dr. Yunus (as in Grameen bank site)
2. The official declaration.
3. Nobel price winners since 1901

Rackless Orion

2006-10-12T23:31:00.000+06:00

It is in response to the very well written report of "Sharier Khan" published on 8 Oct. It was about the recklessness of "Orion", a present govt backed company. Nepotism is well exercised in almost everywhere in Bangladesh. In case of government deals corruption adds with this. We became used to see these for years. But the mentioned company crossed all the limits and managed to get some huge budget projects including the Jatrabari-Gulistan flyover. As the report says they got the Meghnaghat 450MW power project with no previous experience. Power projects are said to be most complicated to establish. They are also very sensitive and important for national security. Not considering any of these, Orion formed a fresh farm to get the bid. They also made the authority to give them the work with hot link with the top level of government. Still they are unable to start the project. May be for them it is a chance to bag millions of dollars. But it means a lot for a country, which is running with 2000MW power lag. If this kind of corruption happens, the power situation will get even worse. The authority must be strict on their points and shouldn't allow these farms to collapse the system.

Note: I wrote this as a letter to Editor of Daily Star.

After a long time…

2006-09-26T02:48:00.001+06:00

After a long break I am back. Actually it was too tough for me to blog with net so hard to reach. I just didn’t want to go through the hassles. Anyway I am back for the time being as I am enjoying a huge vacation of 40 days for Ramadan. On the vacation I have net on my own pc (dial up though) and I have simply nothing to do but to relax.

Today I recall the first and once ever “Bangladeshi Bloggers meet”. We bloggers from Bangladesh met on February’06. No doubt, one of our aims was to be inspired by others and to boost blogging. Ironically enough I have posted only once since the meet. Wamy also didn’t post anything since the meet. I don’t know if the meet had any influence over us to be away or not. What do you think?

First outing; First SLR

2006-02-17T21:29:00.000+06:00

My first ever snap with a slr cam

At last I snapped some pic with a SLR cam. I along with 2 friends went in outing to Bagha, a historic place about 45km away from Rajshahi. I was very eager to use a SLR and at last got this Viviter, one of the simplest off this kind. It was really different to visit some place only to take snaps, especially when it costs only 80tk!!!

The historic Bagha mosque.

For more pictures keep an eye on my flickr page.

Exploring Bangladesh: Chittagong

2006-02-09T18:10:00.000+06:00

We friends used to visit various cities and places whenever we can. After planning since last year we 7 friends went out to visit Chittagong, along with Cox’s bazar, Saint Martin, Rangamati etc. During our 8 days long tour we enjoyed every minute and experienced various funny and interesting incidence. I’ll try to share those moments and give an outline of the places in my upcoming posts.

Court building: You may wonder, what could be the significance of a court building to tourists. Actually the architectural design of the century old huge building made it a historic place. It is situated above one of the highest hill of the city called “porir pahar”. It would be a thrill if you enter the building. You’ll fell threat of your life, because falling bulky plasters from the roof is very common here. So don’t forget to wear a helmet!!

War Cemetery: It’s a graveyard of the sailors died in the 2nd world war. 775 sailors (I am not sure about the number) of different countries laid in this beautiful memorial park. As far as I know British govt. still takes care of this cemetery of their own. Probably that’s why it looks so neat and clean. If you are looking for a calm dating place it’s a perfect choice.

Sea Beach: There is nothing much to talk about sea beach. You know how it looks like. You’ll visit it doesn’t matter someone advice to visit it or not.

Foy’s Lake: It’s a lake named after a British officer ‘Foy’. Recently it has been given away to a private company and they made an amusement park there. So you’ll get the mini version of ‘Fantasy Kingdom’ and the natural beauty of lake and hill altogether. You’ll enjoy it surely.

I am stopping here. But don’t assume that these are only places to visit in my home city. I only described the places we visited.

First ever “Bangladeshi Bloggers’ meet”

2006-02-07T18:58:00.000+06:00

At last we, bloggers from Bangladesh meet on 4th February at Maqsood’s (the band legend of feedback and a regular blogger) house. You’ll find details about the meet in Rezwan’s post and pictures in shafi’s post. Hasin bhai also posted 10 pics. Wamy bhai posted his observation about the bloggers in a cool way. So bypassing the details I am posting some pictures only.

Shafi, Khaled, Mac bhai and Munshi bhai

Hasan, Arild, Mishu and the photographer

The reporter and Rezwan bhai

DHAKA BLOGGERS MEET

2006-01-27T01:11:00.000+06:00

We are trying to arrange the first ever Bangladeshi blogger meet in Dhaka. Rezwan has took the initiative and i supported him, since we started to discuss this since last November. The date is now finalized, i.e. 4th of February, 2006 Saturday. The main idea is to get to know each other well and discuss about blogs and blogging.

Any active Bangladeshi blogger can participate. We would like to keep this meet in a close informal circle so we will not encourage non-bloggers in the meet. The venue will be a restaurant in Banani, which will be informed via mail before the meet. The tentative timing will be 5PM-7PM evening. Don't worry we will not keep you from your 'Biyer Dawat' at night.

There is no fixed agenda, but strictly no political rhetoric will be
allowed. Techie bloggers can enlighten us with the new developments in internet and blogging. Others can share their personal experiences in blogging etc.

Please contact with Rezwan or me for additional infos. Is there any wifi-internet service available in Banani? It would be great to live blog the event. Your ideas and advices are welcome.
c

Happy!! New Year

2006-01-01T18:16:00.000+06:00

Another year went away and we started saying “Happy New Year” with a fake broad smile in face. It’s not that easy to be happy when the situation of the country is so unsecured and bumpy. Let’s find some purpose to be happy-
1. We accomplished a secured (not that successful) SAARC summit, though hundred thousands of dollar went behind it.
2. The government realized the existence of religious militants, though it took hundreds of booms to be blast to make them believe.
3. RAB and other law enforcing authority halted their so called crossfire, though they have already sent many of them to hell.
4. The most criticized one-way system of education at high school level has been cancelled, though more than million already spent for it.
5. Bangladesh football team showed success reaching semifinal of SAARC football, though they lost in finial badly.

These are only few from the never ending list. You can find many more taking those as clue. Thus we can say “Happy New Year” with a real happy face.

Engineering in private universities

2005-12-26T18:14:00.000+06:00

From the very beginning private universities of our country opted only for the subjects on demand. At first it was very common to form a private varsity with only two subjects: BBA and Computer Science. After some days they moved to Computer science and Engineering (CSE) with the change of trend. This enter to the arena of engineering was almost sound, as the lab facilities for CSE is not that expensive or bulky. But for the last few years those universities launching subjects like Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and Electronic and Communication Engineering (ECE) following the recent boom in mobile and telecommunication industry. Subjects like EEE and ECE demands high-tech labs with bulky and expensive equipments, which most of the private universities can not provide.

In the question of education quality it is rarely satisfactory for few varsities only. Most of the varsities never had their own teachers. Quality engineers can’t be made by those hired teachers. So before allowing private universities to launch engineering subjects responsible authority should ensure sufficient teachers and proper lab facilities there.

Endless Blaming

2005-12-23T18:42:00.000+06:00

The characteristics of politicians of our country is to talk too much and giving objectionable comments. They always blame each other whenever they find an issue. In the issue of recent bomb blasts the leader of the opposition alleged that government is doing all these to move peoples concentration from the recent hike in daily necessary goods and monga. While commenting on the hindu suicide bomber the state-minister for home ministry said it is a hint of emerging hindu fundamentalists in Bangladesh.

Those comments simply depict how blind they are in blaming. The party in power feels released by sifting the responsibility to others. The opposition tries their best to move the failed government aside and to be on the power. In reaching their goals those politicians say anything necessary, be it reliable or not. And that’s how the endless blaming continues.

DV-2007: What will happen if...

2005-11-09T21:06:00.000+06:00

Alike the previous years, DV craze has already spread out all over Bangladesh. You’ll hardly find any public place without a stall or banner related to DV-2007. As, it’s been three years since electronic system has been employed there are not much discussion going around about it. But most of the persons having minimum qualification are applying for it.

This huge amount of people is more than eager to migrate to USA. If all of them are permitted to enter USA, everyone will leave this nasty, poor, corrupted country. So who will run this country, because only the unqualified ones will be left here? Why everyone becoming depressed in spite of being hopeful?

Is there anyone who wanna stay beside this miserable country?

Eid: Happiness amid sufferings and misery

2005-11-05T11:55:00.000+06:00

“Eid Mubarak” That’s what we say with a happy face, no matter we are happy or not. Eid, the biggest festival for Muslims have past with usual religious flavor. But the story behind this happiness is full of sufferings. Here is a example, what I experienced.

I was going to my village on the eve of Eid. To travel 40km it took 4 hours. There were jam on all the exit route of the city, because everyone willing to go home at the same time. On the way we had to cross a river by Ferry and reaching there we found almost 1 km queue. Ops, now what to do? We took a brave decision, getting off the car and send it back. We walked and walked until we reached to the ghat (port) with all the bags carring. We crossed the river by a boat and took a “baby taxi” (a 3 wheeling vehicle, 2 stroke) to reach home. There are people who can’t effort taxi, reserved boat or car. They went through more sufferings to cross only 40km.

This is only an example of sufferings on the road. People faced sufferings in while shopping for Eid. Especially it was hard for people of limited income to cope up with the up going price.

The interesting fact is, we are ready to go through all those misery and we spent whole month of Ramadan planning for this day. We are supposed to be happy on this day. So we made everything ready and left no scope to be unhappy on this day. That’s why we spend a happy Eid always. Otherwise ... !!!

Madrassa system- an informative view

2005-11-01T13:04:00.000+06:00

Due to the recent terrorist attack by some so called Islamic gangs, all the madrassas came under fire. Everyone blaming the students, teachers and the system as a whole no matter they have enough understanding or not. So it became a necessity to know about the system to yell at it or to find the leakages or to modernize it. “Probe”, a renowned news magazine done it for us through the cover story “Madrassas revisited” by Shafiq Rahman. Usually all articles about madrassas are either for or against the system. But this article is unbiased to a great extent. Reading this you will have a clear idea about both Aleya madrassa and Kawmi madrassa along with the origin of both. I liked it, hope you also will.

Related previous post- Madrasa System of Bangladesh: A deeper view

Dial up dilemma

2005-10-31T11:01:00.000+06:00

While I was at dorm, I was upset about absence of net on my computer. I am disappointed even after getting the net on my desk at home. I am trapped by the awful service of dial up internet. I can’t remain online for more than 5 minutes continuously. Either it disconnects or become a standstill, passing no data. That’s how net always betraying with me.

Actually Internet is one of the fields where we can be at the same side with so called developed countries. Here what they see, we also can see and we can get the advantage. But even at this stage we just neither can effort a broadband line nor get a good dial-up line. May be its not fare for a 3rd world country to get the same privilege as 1st world (or even higher, if there is) countries.

Sex ratio – Interesting facts

2005-10-30T23:49:00.000+06:00

While going through the sex ratio found in the World Factbook, I found some interesting fact about sex ratio. By nature we assume that men are stronger than women, so they have the power to survive more than that of women. But the facts don’t support this. There is no country in the world with “at birth sex ratio” more than 1. That means no country give birth to more female child than male child. Even there is no exception of this fact. But if “sex ratio after 65” is considered, about half of the countries have the ratio less than 1. For example Antigua’s sex ratio at birth is 1.05, after 65 it become as low as 0.65. So, it’s totally wrong to assume that men have the living power more than women.

Sex ratio of Bangladesh-
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.17 male(s)/female
total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2004 est.)

Djuice n Unlimited talk

2005-10-30T23:39:00.000+06:00

Djuice, a special series of GrameenPhone has offered free talk with other Djuice numbers for whole night. Djuice were launched aiming the young generation, especially teenagers. But as this offer is on everyone buying Djuice to be on the stream. Particularly folks with girlfriend/boyfriend are passing excellent time all the night!! Some of my friends are talking more than 5 hours continuously. Can you believe it? Sometimes I wonder what are left for them to talk after an hour! Some buddy using this opportunity in finding new friends. Conferencing over cell has got much familiarity. We, friends are used to talk all together, just like having a gossip being in different places. If interested, you can also join with me. Just dial djuice419717!!!!!

Jamtul Bida

2005-10-28T23:56:00.000+06:00

Depending on sighting of moon (if moon is sighted on Thursday) today was Jamtul Bida, the last juma for this holy month of ramadan. Religious Muslims gathered in mosques to pray the last Juma. Especially in the big and important mosques there was a real rush. Thousands of devotees gathered to pray and beg mercy from the almighty. In Chittagong there were risk and threat of terrorist attack in big mosques. RAB and Police were everywhere to secure the mosques. Thanks to Allah, there was no such occurrence.

An advertisement can worth a lot

2005-10-26T00:12:00.000+06:00

This MTV advertisement was canceled by US government. It was aired only ONCE....

Text next to the towers: “2.863 people died”
Text next to the guy: “40 milllion of HIV infected in the world.”

The world united against terrorism. It should also be united against AIDS.

Next to the towers: “2.863 people died”
Next to the kid:: “824 million people starving in the world”.

The world united against terrorism. It should also be united against HUNGER.

Next to the towers: “2.863 people died”
Next to the old man: “630 million of homeless people in the world”.

The world united against terrorism. It should also be united against POVERTY.

Solidarity is needed.
- Help, donate, sponsor -

This advertisement was forbidden, but not everything can be hidden

Thank you...MTV

Homosexuality and Islam

2005-10-19T01:31:00.000+06:00

Homosexuality is always a controversial matter in all countries and religions. Though, in west gays are emerging in the open air, in east its still a taboo. There are very few who talk for it and very few arguments can defend this odd relation. Actually the root of sexual relation lies in the obviousness of reproduction. Men and women feel sexual attraction to each other because of the natural process of reproduction. This is not only true for human but also for every living creature. I don’t know what so wired happen to gays, that don’t follow this nature!!

I don’t have vivid idea about what other religions say about homosexuality and gay marriage. Islam is very strict about sexual relation without marriage, let alone permitting homosexuality. Not only this, this is one of the tokens that symbolize the end of world (by Hadith or saying of our prophet). In this situation how two Muslims can engage on such nasty activity!

All I wrote is old story. An alleged gay marriage in Pakistan brought this discussion in fire again. The news says-

A local media report said the elder man, named as Liaquat Ali, had fallen in love with a local boy called Markeen, "who is now his male bride". It said the boy’s parents were poor and agreed giving their son’s hand in marriage for Rs 40,000. "The marriage was held amid usual pomp and show associated with a tribal wedding," it said.

I came to know about this from a post of Arafat who also linked a spicy article by a Pakistani gay. According to that article, being gay is not that weird and he is accepted normally in his family and society. There are many comments attached to that article where people denied his allegation. I liked the following one-

There is no problem in being gay as far as I am concerned but there is some thing wrong in a Muslim being gay. It is not allowed in Islam and is surely against the laws of nature; it is one of the signs of the end of the world. I don't think you remain a Muslim if you indulge in anything like that. As much as you have right to choose, I would never appreciate anything like this.
Manz, UK

In fact many arguments can be showed and critical analysis can be accomplished regarding homosexuality. But when the question of marriage and religion come there is very little scope to argue. To be more precise, “You may be a gay. But don’t try to make it legal by an Islamic marriage. Islam never allowed and will not allow this kind of relation and marriage. Because Islam is not a religion that changes its rules with the change of time.”

Premarital sex: in context of Bangladesh

2005-10-14T23:56:00.000+06:00

Gone are the days when parents can monitor what magazines we bring home and what TV shows we are allowed to watch. Now, with computers and the internet, teenagers gain access to pornography and can watch it in the privacy of their own rooms.

This is quoted from the cover story “The price of Passion” of weekly magazine of the daily Star. This article focused on the problems and present situation about premarital sex in Bangladesh. The article might not be the best one about it, but it has a vivid view about the matter. Reading this you will get something to think about. Now let’s concentrate on the matter.

Sex is always an obscure and secret matter in our society. Children and adolescents suffer severely in lack of knowledge about sex. There is no proper process for them to know about sex and physical matters. Hence when a 10 year boy ask his parents “From where and how I came to earth?” Parents feel most uneasy and can’t give a satisfactory answer by any means.

Premarital sex is not only prohibited by society but also banned by almost all religion. In spite of this taboo sex before marriage is not so rare. Even in most cases the individuals going through it, approve it as nothing but a sin. But they can’t restrain themselves for various reasons. The difficulty of not being sexually active for an unrealistic long period until they marry is a major reason. Some other takes it as a subsequent step of love. They don’t find anything wrong in it. But in reality it creates problems then making the relation of love more romantic.

Mostly everyone have a different perspective about love, sex and marriage. Love is a divine relation; sex is the physical necessity (expression of love in some viewpoint). About marriage people are more conscious then they are about having sex. Everyone wants to get a virgin life partner, even though he/she isn’t virgin anymore. An example is given in the article of Star-

Ali, a first year university student, admits that he would not marry a girl he himself had had sex with, if that were to happen. "I wouldn't be able to trust a girl who would have sex with me before marriage," he says. "I might be bad for having done it myself, but I wouldn't marry someone who was also bad."

Actually finding a point to end this article is hard. I better end it here with the following funny quote. This is quite funny and made me laugh.

"The mark of a modern man is a thick wallet full of money with a condom in it," claims Himel. This James Bond philosophy allows men to be prepared for sex no matter what the circumstances.

Chander gari (car to moon)

2005-10-13T02:12:00.001+06:00

The Jeep above is commonly called Chander gari in rural areas of Chittagong. The root of the phrase “Chander Gari” is not renowned. Those jeeps were once used by army and when became old they sold it to civilian. Those are very useful in narrow and bumpy roads of Chittagong hill tract. But the picture is not depicting the common scene. Those jeeps used to carry about 30 people on board. 15 inside, 3 in front seat, 7 in the roof, 5 standing (or hanging) in the back, 4 in the bonnet (keeping an extremely narrow view for the driver to look forward). Hard to believe? Yes it is. Even I didn’t believe it till I saw it. Sadly I failed to capture a picture of loaded jeep.

Sprit of Ramadan

2005-10-06T00:19:00.001+06:00

And the great month of Ramadan came to us with much opportunity to pray and purify ourselves. Ramadan is called the month of Holly Quran. We should recite from Quran everyday during this month (at least for 5 minutes, if you are busier the busiest).

Though most people consider it nothing but fasting whole the day. This month has much deeper significance than just fasting. It teaches us-
To have control over our instincts
To think about our life and its destiny
To be kind towards poor and feel their pain
To find out the weakness of our character and sort out those
To speak no evil, hear no evil and do no evil.

We should ponder about those points along with praying and fasting regularly. Here is an inspiring Hadith for you-

Abu Huraira related that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Whoever fasts during Ramadan with faith and seeking his reward from Allah will have his past sins forgiven. Whoever prays during the nights in Ramadan with faith and seeking his reward from Allah will have his past sins forgiven. And he who passes Lailat al-Qadr in prayer with faith and seeking his reward from Allah will have his past sins forgiven (Bukhari, Muslim).

For more click here

Shhh.. Listen, what they say

2005-10-05T02:00:00.000+06:00

We will solve this problem. We are problem-solvers.

Gorge W Bush
US President
(about the humanitarian crisis that has been created by Hurricane Katrina)

Brothers sometimes quarrel with each other, but after a while things get fixed.

M Saifur Rahman
Finance and Planning minister of Bangladesh
(When asked if the recently built up tension between Bangladesh and India would have any impact on the proposed investment of Tata in Bangladesh)

Cause of being reluctant

2005-10-03T23:22:00.000+06:00

This is my only post for the last two months. I didn’t write being reluctant and fed up with the internet! Actually at Rajshahi Internet is rare and the speed is no faster than turtle. The situation made me to sit back. I gave up not only writing blog but also checking emails. To be frank I didn’t miss blogging that much.

However, now I am back to Chittagong at home for a long vacation of Ramadan and Internet is right on my desk. I need not go through any prolonged process just to post a blog or check a simple email. So for the next one month there will be lost of post here. After that I’ll be back to varsity and don’t know I’ll be able to be regular or not.

Experiencing ipad

2005-07-23T12:02:00.000+06:00

At last I found an iPod within the range of my hand. It belongs to my cousin, who just came to Bangladesh on a trip from US. At first sight the question came to my mind is, “What’s so special with it?” But after handling it’s various function I was pleased, its really special. The sound quality was really amazing, though the original headphone wasn’t there. The touch type scrolling system made it handy to surf among hundreds of songs. The one I found is an iPod mini and has a capacity of 4GB. It’s very tiny and extremely slim compared to its capacity. how they encapsulated so many component in this tiny pack?

What you must listen…

2005-07-01T19:44:00.000+06:00

On my blog I have wrote about alternative streams of band music of Bangladesh for a few instances. But this time I wanna introduce an album to you, which can’t be called alternative. It’s the album of Ornob (member of the famous band ‘Bangla’) that rocked me though the album doesn’t fit to the sense ‘rock’ by any means. Those slow type songs have fantastic composition and almost all songs of this album are of sensational lyrics. Those songs have something that you could feel inside you. I can’t make you understand the feeling here. You must buy it (I have bought 3, one for me and 2 as gift to friends), it doesn’t matter which type of music you like. At first those may seem a bit slowish and unusual to you. But after few try you will like it, if you don’t fall in love with those at first try. I can bet on this…
You can download those from net too. But I didn't try it.

Portion of lyrics of two songs of the album

Think positive about your country

2005-06-27T19:26:00.000+06:00

From our very childhood we are familiarized with a concept that is, “Nothing in Bangladesh is good. To find anything better look something from abroad”. This concept has its root to the deepest possible track of our brain. In shopping we look for the ‘made in’ tag before looking for the quality and price. We are ready to pay double or triple if it has a made in usa or japan tag. Ya, product of Japan and USA are better in many cases. But there are cases where Bangladeshi product can be a better choice. Garments product is a bright example for this. In India people also look for the ‘made in’ tag. But it’s to make sure that it has a made in India tag. If they can omit the better choices to promote their country product, why we can’t?

Think deeply and you will find that, this concept is true in every aspect. Even we believe climate of Canada or UAE is better than Bangladesh, having no idea how cold or how hot those countries are. I feel so distressed when folks think that people of western countries have better character and morality than us. Though we have corrupted personnel in offices and police stations, they don’t represent the country as a whole. We should look behind to the villages, where the people are so simple and has moral characters.

Bangladesh is a corrupted poor country. That’s true, but it doesn’t imply that other countries are comparable to heaven. Every country has its own problem; it might not be visible from here. Actually it doesn’t matter what our country don’t have and how worse the situation is, in loving our country. We can’t hate our country because it is burdened with corruption, load shading, poverty etc. We should stop telling ill of our own country and love it as it is.

Courtesy- I got inspiration to write this post from the blog of Sameen. She wrote a very nice post about thoughts of teenagers of Bangladesh. Though the post is much larger than necessary and have some thoughts repeated, it has some points to ponder. Here is some quotable portion of that post-

Maybe the western world has its own materialistic comforts as well as an obvious incentive of social security...and maybe we all love that aspect of it. But if you think of it, the west has its cons too. Just like Bangladesh have its pros. Its just easier to see the pros of the west and the cons of the Desh. But you will only find peace when you look beyond all that.

Dress code

2005-06-24T19:41:00.000+06:00

I found this sticker in the entrance of a renowned food shop “Coopers”. In Bangladesh this kind of dress code is very rare. Even in Sheraton I didn’t find such sticker. But a virtual dress code always exists there. Those prestigious restaurants don’t allow “Lungi”. But they might not find chances to prohibit somebody, because people don’t show courage of going there wearing Lungi. The question comes to mind is, “What’s so wrong with Lungi?”

Dealing with Cop (for the first time)

2005-06-21T13:22:00.000+06:00

The other day, I and my sister went on shopping at a market opposite of Dhaka College. My sister’s car was parked beside the road and the driver was there. After some time I came close to the car and saw a policeman talking to the driver. The cop was looking for papers of the car. Unfortunately the papers were not on the car. He took the driver’s license and I started trying to convince him. He was a constable and was driving the patrol car, where the officer was sitting. From the beginning the cop was not intending to file a case against us. May be his objective was different. When I put my hand into pocket, he whispered, "don’t take out money in open road". After sometime he was convinced and gave a small book and said, "Take this book and give 200 tk inside this". I did so and the problem was solved.

Actually we scream against cops that they take bribe. Yes, they did. But its we who give them bribe. We did crimes (may be not so terrible) and to escape we give bribes. In many cases cops take the chance and force for it. But before blaming the police we should make the habit of following laws.

Talkative Thomas

2005-06-21T12:41:00.000+06:00

Outgoing US Ambassador in Bangladesh Harry K Thomas seems to be very disappointed on the various facts of Bangladesh. On various farewell meetings and conferences he made some speeches, which are about internal matters of our country. On the meeting with Hasina he said that US will do everything to hold a peaceful election. About the killing case of Kibria he said that US is closely observing the progress of the case. Yes US always keep an eye on all the matters of almost all the countries to continue their headship on the world. But it’s awfully beater to hear this kind of poking speeches. Thomas didn’t stop here. He said

if the major political parties do not work together on issues of national interest people will look for an alternative which will not be good

May be he has telepathic power, by which he could know what people will look for.

Mr. Thomas can say anything because he is US ambassador to a poor country. We could do nothing, not even protest his speeches.

Joy of Victory

2005-06-19T22:16:00.000+06:00

After consecutive losses in tests against England, win against Australia in ODI is more than a surprise. The TV room of the dormitory was packed up. I was standing over table tennis table and dancing with every boundary. But when the match finished and Bangladesh won, everyone just got crazy. All started dancing and shouting up to the last limit of their voice. All students came out at road and started dancing blocking the highway, with the music of drums and trumpet. The metal dishes and spoons were there to boost the sound. Congrates to Bangladesh cricket team for this great victory.

Creative equipments to make noice

Danicing in the road with drums

Sudden decision: Some adventure

2005-06-18T22:35:00.000+06:00

Last Thursday we attended the last class of this semester and there was a grand viva called board viva. You know those classes are so boring and Rajshahi is being too hot and humid. But I was determined to stay there for the preparation of the exam, which is gonna start after a week. However, all the planning withered when I came out of the viva board at 5pm. Suddenly going to Dhaka was only thing in my mind. It thought captured me and I became bound to it. I got ready within 5 minutes and rushed to the bus counter. I caught the last bus to Dhaka that evening just by a minute. I was so lucky that I didn’t have to wait for the night coaches.

After getting into the bus I got a bit calm and started thinking what I did? May be that wasn’t a good decision to leave the books just before exam. But the thrill I felt on those minutes is simply amazing. Some sudden decision can bring much joy. Its different to think that even you don’t know what you gonna do on the next hour. There is a thrill of uncertainty and breaking the routine.

Islam’s true spirit: Read it

2005-06-11T13:19:00.000+06:00

Do you have some time and patience? If you have that’s good. But if you don’t have, please manage some time to read this splendid article "Islam’s true spirit". This was published as editorial some days earlier on "The new nation", an English newspaper of Bangladesh.

On this article the editor pointed some very important points about Islam and practical life. He explained some reason why Islam is not harvesting the desired fruit to our life. What he commented about holly Quran is -

It is like a book of prescriptions. But the prescriptions will do no good if they are worn like a charm and not applied.

Why still being Muslim we are suffering? Read the article with patience and think about it. Just try to realize.

Courtesy – Bring your own Shisha

Desk jottings

2005-06-11T13:06:00.000+06:00

The picture may seem to be a museum piece. But it’s simply a desk of our class room. Creative students flourished their thoughts on the table of class room. It is also being used to write critical formulas to have a hint in the exam. You may think that we are guilty students. May be we are. But in that case all educational institutions are on the same grade. Almost all desks of schools, colleges and varsities are loaded with those writings.

From my childhood I am experiencing various kinds of desk writing, at my kindergarten, high school, at college and even now at varsity. First there were only cartoons and toys, then folks became romantic. Table was full of writings like Kuddus + Sokhina. They were dreaming of love, cos they were not mature or brave enough to make it practical. The most complex writings may be found in colleges, as those are written by teenagers. But at university level, pupil diverted to various paths. Most of them leave the habit, but the rest goes on writing their creative ideas on tables. That’s how all tables of all institutions remain packed up by those scribbles.

There are many other types of scribbles. It’s not that, only students write those. Once I saw a gentleman (?!) calculating his expenses in bus seat. There are other types of writings; off them "Bathroom jottings" is worst one. I’ll write about it, may be another day.

My Photoblog: I see through lens

2005-06-05T11:22:00.000+06:00

Though its been so late to inform you, I am feeling excitement that I have a photoblog now. I am posting selected pictures that I capture by my digital camera. There is also a strip at the right side of this site showing gist of the photoblog. You can visit that site from here or directly by the address www.flickr.com/photos/iurifat/. I was really amazed to find Flickr.com a so dedicated site for pictures. This site gives many options to load, send and view pictures.

Too Hot

2005-06-04T13:43:00.001+06:00

Having rest
Originally uploaded by I see through lens.

It’s been too hot at Rajshahi for last few weeks. But the day before yesterday the temperature got highest within the country for this year. Actually this is more about feeling than the reading of the temperature. It became too tough to bear the heat. At night everything starts to radiate heat that has been absorbed all the day.

A poor woman having some rest with her little child at our field
All are waiting for rain. When rain will be dropped?

Opportunity and danger

2005-05-14T01:42:00.000+06:00

Optimist always find opportunity in danger
& Pessimist always find danger in opportunity

Cheer for Mohiuddin, Thanks to Govt.

2005-05-13T23:36:00.000+06:00

Chittagong City Corporation election was held on last 9th May. ABM Mohiuddin of Awami league won, defeating Mir Nasir of BNP by a huge amount of vote. Mohiuddin was in the chair of mayor for last 11 years after being elected in 1994. As far as I observed he is the most successful comparing other two past mayors Mahmudul Islam and Mir Nasir (neither of them elected by pool). Mohiuddin made the city neat and clean than ever before. He founded many hospitals, schools and colleges on behalf of City Corporation. Especially the maternity hospitals served the city people most.

General people was in a fear that, the election may not be fare and unbiased. But government should get the full credit for a fully free and fare election. Government MPs and ministers worker for Nasir but the authority did not allowed them to give impact to the result. This is where they won. Hope the next parliamentary election will be fare and free like this.

Back from Bogra

2005-05-12T22:19:00.000+06:00

Recently we friends went to Bogra, the gateway of north bengal. Actually Its more nice and rich than we expected. Though it can't be compared with Dhaka or Chittagong by any means,its not that odd looking. There are highrise buildings, busy roads, quality food shops and of course iceream parlour, which is not available at Rajshahi. So for someone going from Rajshahi, Bogra is a better one.
Here are some pictures from Bogra.

Van, a traditional transport of rural areas of Bogra

Map of Bangladesh, made up by grasses. Its at the historic place Mohestan gor.

Sign of the accedent our bus went through. A truck hit us by the site. We were all safe.

Impression about Tablig

2005-05-02T21:47:00.000+06:00

In this modern life Muslims loosing their base, being involved with earthly matters intensely. Most of them are not performing the secular duties properly. Most of us agree with it but just do nothing to cure. Even while so called Islamic parties are busy more with politics than Islam, organization like "Tablig" are working on spiritual portion. Their main aim is to congregate Muslims to the main stream of Islam, where "Imaan" (strong belief in only almightily Allah) and "Ibadat" (worshiping, especially Namaz) get the top priority. They discuss about Islam among themselves and beckon others to the holiest path. "Tablig" don’t have strict organizational structure, precise fund, even offices. Mosques are their centre of work and nothing but working in the road of Allah works in their mind, Isn’ it impressive?

Aquire knowlede, kill money

2005-04-30T21:37:00.000+06:00

Three years have passed, and yet the committee members haven’t been able to travel abroad to acquire knowledge. This is unfortunate.

Syed Mehdi Ahmed Rumi
BNP MP and member of PSCTM (Parliamentary standing committee for Telecommunications ministry)

This is more unusual than unfortunate that none of this committee have got the chance to travel abroad. For most of the parliamentary committee members and high officials this kind of travel is an ordinary occurrence. Through these travels, they acquire knowledge from improved countries and propose unrealistic projects. To implement those projects they again ask for foreign farms, foreign consultants, foreign engineers and foreign help of course. For example this very committee is liable for "Teletalk" the new state owned mobile. After spending thousands of dollars and wasting lots of time they only launched 2000 SIM, where another private company sold 200,000 SIM within two month of its launch. That’s how those so called committee acts.

Now let’s see why they are so eager to go abroad. No doubt they will acquire some knowledge. But govt. has to pay too much for this. All the expenses from plain fair to exclusive dinner will be provided from govt. fund. Even sometimes they take their family with the team and shopping get the most emphasize, no doubt. Though we are a poor country, money isn’t a problem. Let’s see how-

Money isn’t any problem. Parliament secretariat or the ministry will give it

GM Fazlul Haque
Chairman of PSCTM

Yup. The govt. fund is there waiting for you. Poor farmers are providing taxes for you. Just utilize those, no matter how other suffers for money. There are govt. servants who are paid 500 tk per month. Actually everyone looks for his comfort and benefit. Not many are there to care for those poor guys and our poor country.

Source: both the quotation are taken from Daily Star, April 08, 2005

Seasonal fruits of Rajshahi

2005-04-30T21:25:00.000+06:00

Rajshahi is famous for seasonal fruits, especially Mango and Litchi. When I first came to Rajshahi I saw jumbo mango hanging within reach of hand and no one caring much, even the children. Not only this, but also the amount of mango a tree can produce was simply hard for me to believe. Rajshahi and sub sequential area produce best quality mango. To be more precise "Chapainawabgonj" is the home of mango. There mango is their main source of income. As I am at town the price of mango is not that low. But at rural areas sometimes the price is as low as 5tk per kg, which is sold about 50tk per kg at markets of Dhaka and Chittagong.

The pictures above and below shows mango and Litchi trees of our campus. There are tens of trees like those. This year production of mango is not that good. But litchi backed it up.

Alternative stream of Bangladeshi bands

2005-04-29T22:05:00.000+06:00

Mr. Arafat Kazi at the same time expressed his involvement with underground bands, and his grief for some specific bands and performers. On the letter published on April 27, he said what is melodious to one may seem noise to other. Mr. Mahfuzul Haque on April 22 said, "They are distorting and destroying the Bangla language." To him pronounce of Bangla of underground performers are in the English accent, so he advised them to sing in English. Mr. Mahfuz seems not so aware of the accent of the world famous English rock bands Iron Maiden and Linkin Park. In listening those, you will find a new idea how to create one’s own accent. This different accent is doing no harm to language, though it may seem odd to some people. "Black’s greatest hit is a song about a rape victim", Arafat said. Don’t know where he found this information as I didn’t find anything like this. Arafat, ‘Mon shudhu mon Cchuwecche’ and ‘guti’ or ‘poth chola’ can’t be measured by same scale as they are sung on completely different background and time.

Few years back bands like Artcell, Criptic fate etc performed only underground. But they are now competing with the traditional stream in full swing. So to term bands like Black and Artcell, alternative may be the proper word then underground. Those bands are welcomed greatly by young generation, although many of them pretend as fan of those just to be in the flow. It’s very much true that many of the lyrics of those alternative bands are not that heart soothing and at many cases not so meaningful. On the other hand there are some golden lyrics produced by traditional bands like LRB, Miles, Souls and Renaissance. But the traditional bands are no doubt going through the worst time. Most of the recently released songs of traditional bands are nothing but junk, with no variation in composition and bad lyrics. In opposition the composition of some alternative bands is just world class. They are composing music which can compete with other subcontinent bands like Jonoon, String, Jal, Silk Route etc. Just listen to the song ‘Sloke’ of ‘Black’, you will find what so different with those. Actually there is no contradictory with traditional and alternative bands. Both streams have their own listeners to keep them up.

Note - I wrote this as a letter to be published in Daily Star. First part of this article may seem gloomy as it contains reference to other published letters. Interested readers can have a glance over those links.

Deprived Children of Bangladesh

2005-04-25T22:43:00.000+06:00

Just look at those faces. Every face clearly depicts the pain of poverty. They don’t have cloths to wear, just a half pant and obviously barefooted.

A girl taking care of her younger one, while no one is there to take care of her. The smile is not for happiness, but for the joy of being before the camera.

Playing just with a tyre. Those children don’t have toys to play with. They just make tyres, papers and anything they get their playing tools.

"Pohela Boishak" in frame

2005-04-16T12:34:00.000+06:00

14th April was the first day of Bangla New Year, which we call "Pohela Boishak". This day has a age old haritage and deep impact on every Banglai heart. We observe the day in fastive mode amid different cultural functions. "Boishaki Mela" is the main attraction of the day. In this fair all sorts of people attend and enjoy the folk songs.
"ADDA" a cultural organization of our varsity organized a clutural program and fair on this day. We enjoyed the day there through various activites. In the function there was arrangement for "Pantha Bhat" with "Elish" in a plate made of soil.

"Pantha Bhat" with "Elish"

A girl dressed up with Sari.

A snap without a camera

2005-04-13T19:55:00.000+06:00

This is a picture of a moonlit night. But this is taken fully indoor and to surprise you most without a camera. Lets explain it to you. I am undergoing through a basic photographic course. In the first class we got primary idea about photography. As a part of this we took picture without a camera, even without a lens.

To take this snap place a photographic white paper on a table (The room must be dark, only dim red light are allowed). Set some grasses over it, with a coin at the corner (coin with illustrate moon). Put a plain transparent glass over it, so that those objects can’t shift aside. Now lit the normal bulbs on for a while and turn it off. Now just wash this paper in hypo and you get a snap without a camera. Isn’t it interesting?

Note - To publish the picture here, I took snap of that picture with a digital camera(!!) as I don’t have a scanner available.

Prottoy: the determination

2005-04-12T21:40:00.000+06:00

Cover of prottoy

At last we have finished the lengthy and laborious task and published the magazine from our varsity. Its name is "Prottoy". The Bangla word ‘Prottoy’ means determination. I might tell the story underneath another day. For now I am presenting my article about blog that is published in the magazine.

Blog: Your window to the world

Do you have something to say to the world? Do you want your views published on the internet? Then "Weblog" (or simply ‘Blog’) is probably the best way to express your thoughts. So let’s know what a blog is? A blog is a personal website used to post your views, ideas and thoughts on a particular subject or on various facts. A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It is often a mixture of what a person experiencing in his life and what is happening on the web. You can publish written essays, associated links, graphics, multimedia and many more on your blog site. Like a good diary, weblogs provide documentation about people, places and events.

Blog has got famous on last few years. Even at the beginning of 1999 the number of weblogs around the world was only 23. By the year 2002 the number claimed over 7,50,000. At present it’s almost impossible to mention a number, as it’s increasing in every minute.

Blogging is like a window to internet. Just by reading some good quality blogs you can know what is happening everywhere and what’s new in the web. For the new users it’s a nice opportunity to be familiarized with Internet. You will get more than what you expect from those.

If someone interested to start his own blog all he has to do is to go to www.blogger.com (there are many other sites like this. But this one is most famous and easier to use) and sign in for a new account. The process is very much simple and similar to opening a new email account. There you have to provide a user name and a nice heading for your site. After doing so you will get your own address on the net like www.userid.blogspot.com (your id will be in the place of userid). Now you want to write something new on your site? It’s also as easy as sending email to your friend. Just sign in to blogger.com with id and password. I think you will get the rest done by yourself. All this is provided absolutely free of cost. Understand that on the Internet, your words may live forever, whether they are self-published or archived on another site. Isn’t it thrilling?

But why you will bother to read or write a blog? Actually it’s all about personal interest. There are science blogs, war blogs, peace blogs, humor blogs, culture blogs and many others to occupy your day. There are blogs about books, blogs about music, blogs about sites and blogs about blogs. All are a click away, waiting for you. There are also blogs written by specialist on different subjects. Reading the views of other ordinary people you will know about different facts from different corners. If you write regularly, your writing improves, your thinking improves. Ideally, you will find your own opinions and ideas worthy of serious consideration.

Actually blog is not indeed suitable for all. Reading blog is strongly recommended for those who want to know about other countries, culture, lifestyle or who want to pass his time reading something amusing. Writing blogs is a step farther. To have your own regular blog, you should have your own perspective and ideas. If you think that you have something to say to the world and you have the potential to do so, than please start your own blog and let us experience your thoughts. We need some strong voice from Bangladesh to speak for us. So give it a whirl.

“Kamal Bhai” : Our legend

2005-03-27T21:08:00.000+06:00

We are used to hear about the bad deeds of student leaders of various varsities, who are known as most violent and dangerous person of the campus. General students always remain watchful if they fall in trap of those monsters.When I came into this campus I found few known faces, which are known as leaders. I thought they are as usual, so kept myself away from them. But gradually I came to learn that leaders of our campus are not that worse. Of them “Kamal Bhai” was a sheer exception. He is the only person who had no record of bad deeds. On first sight I didn’t find anything noteworthy in him. But as I became close to him, I found depth of his character, simplicity of behavior and wideness of his mind. He with his invisible magnet attracted not only the political boys but also all of the students. I wonder if there is any student in our campus who doesn’t know Kamal Bhai and who can speak ill of him. Though I am a non political boy, in few cases I along with others opposed the authority and political parties directly. Kamal Bhai being the most powerful leader could do any harm to me. In steed of this he just made me love him and I simply became his fan! Similarly he got more hundreds of dedicated fans.

Kamal bhai in tears

Recently Kamal Bhai finished his student life, so he has to leave us. So we are to say good bye to our legend against our will. There was nothing but tears to give him a farewell. After his departure the campus seemed most blunt to me. Kamal Bhai may forget us one day. But I swear it is not at all possible for me to forget him.

My digital camera

2005-03-24T19:36:00.000+06:00

I had dreamt of a digital camera for long time. At last I got it. My sister brought a samsung camera for me from Bangkok. It has 16MB of memory with option to add external memory card. It can also be used to capture limited period of video.
So from now on I have wide option to let you see, what seem interesting to me.

Covering the whole campus

2005-03-24T19:29:00.000+06:00

From the beginning of my varsity life I searched for a magazine of our campus. To my utter dismay I found no such publications. Last year we published a magazine from our department and batch celebrating our one year completion here. It was an immediate hit. The overwhelming appreciation of the publication made us interested to publish another one this year. But this time we gonna cover whole campus. We are working hard behind it for last few weeks and it will take another week to have it in hand. Hope it will earn good reputation also.

Lets salute the Martyrs, not the pillars

2005-02-25T12:26:00.000+06:00

21 February was observed as International Mother Language Day. On this day of 1952 Salam, Borkot, Jobbar and others sacrificed their life on the move to declare Bangla as national language. At the loss of those brave lives we are now speak and use Bangla freely. So we must value their sacrifice and remember them with profound respect.

To keep the memory of the martyrs alive a huge monument named “Shaheed Minar” was built at the place of their death. With it’s nice design, this monument is standing proudly and depicting the pain of losing the lives and the joy of getting our mother language as national language simultaneously.

‘Shaheed Minar’ is only a dating place for couples all around the year, except 21st February. It gets thousands of flowers only on this day. People, who rob this with their shoes, walk all the way barefooted to come here. That’s how we used to pay respect those beautiful pillars, while the graves of the martyrs remain almost empty. Not many of us care about those holy graves. What is the value of pleading to those pillars?

Avoid Banglish

2005-02-20T16:15:00.000+06:00

There are hundreds of words in Bangla language that came from other languages. English is dominating of those languages. Though words like chair, school etc have corresponding Bangla words, they are no longer used. Now those words are treasure of our own language. This flow of words from a language to another is very natural. In recent days this flow became a must, because of the on going technological revolution and easy transfer of information.
This flow of words towards Bangla from English has nothing alarming. What is a matter of anxiety is the use of genuine English words in Bangla structured sentence. Some people think that injecting English words while speaking in Bangla present them as smart. They probably don’t know how weird those sentence sounds. Teachers of various schools and colleges like to term this kind of mixture as “Banglish”(Bangla+English). Practicing English is good but as I think Banglish have nothing fruitful with it. We should avoid this kind of mixture and practice our own language as it is. Can’t it be our promise for this year’s mother language day?

Updated Note: This writing is also published in The Daily Star's To the Editor page.

From Pizza Hut

2005-02-19T23:50:00.000+06:00

“Welcome. How many of you sir?” These were the first words for me, on the entrance. I got stunned by the fluency of English and smartness of the waiter and found it same from all the stuffs. A question came to mind about qualification of those boys cleaning the floor, table and speaking English simultaneously. I am talking about my first visit to “Pizza Hut”, the most talked restaurant of Dhaka. You may feel easy to term it a food center rather than a restaurant cos of its friendly and easy environment. “Its decoration, waiters behavior and everything is no different from Pizza Hut of India or other countries” says my brother-in-law and the sponsor of the dinner. The big flag of Bangladesh right at the middle brought some deshi mode, which is a rare scene for any food shop or restaurant. About the food quality, it’s as good as expected. But the beef pizza with chili deserves some praise. You can check it out if you don’t fear extra chili. What everyone fears about ‘Pizza Hut’ is the food price. But from my view they hasn’t fixed any extra value to the menu. Although our bill for 4 persons crossed 1300, complete economical meal for a person can be accomplished within 150. And you can’t expect cheaper offer from a world-class shop.

Late Valentine

2005-02-19T13:10:00.000+06:00

Love is strange, You can curse it and avoid it as much as you want, but at the end of the day it will catch up with you. Like it or hate it, that's love for you.

What I can’t write here...

2005-02-10T13:16:00.001+06:00

When I first started my blog one experienced blogger advised me not to disclose myself in the blog. Then I didn’t find the significance of not disclosing myself or not informing my relatives about my blog. So I announced my dear persons about what a blog is and advised them to read mine. That made me bound in writings. I can’t write about personal and secret facts. I can’t always write whatever comes to my mind. The Black Blog is a blog that remembered me of this shortage. In this blog the author wrote about his personal life openly in a smart way. Yesterday I found this blog and became interested about it.

Actually blogs about problems and high thinking are not always enjoyable. So blogs like Blue Bird Escape and The Black Blog attract me. Here they made blogging an art by just telling about their life, nothing else. I miss this opportunity much, though I may not present it so attractively.

Stadiums misused

2005-02-08T19:23:00.000+06:00

It is a common phenomenon to place political public meetings in playing grounds. Now the politicians got a step ahead to place those in stadiums. BNP being in power utilizing the divisional stadiums for their conferences where Tareq Zia is the main attraction. First they started building toilet in Rajshahi stadium. Then started hollowing out Chittagong stadium for pan dale, which is one of the two international cricket stadiums of Bangladesh. They have also planed to dig a part of Rajshahi stadium to build a so called "Mrittu kup". These will surely postpone the upcoming national athletics and other sporting events scheduled in those stadiums. The ruling party always yells about their contribution to sports and probably this is how they make the contribution. The fact that made me upset is, no one is opposing this and trying to stop them. Can't we do anything to stop the misuse of those stadiums?

Insecure Leaders

2005-02-08T19:12:00.000+06:00

Recently bomb attack on ex finance minister Kibria and his death have brought a big question mark about the security of VIP leaders. Although the leader of the opposition enjoys all protocol and security of a minister, other top opposition leaders don't get any security from the government. Especially in public gatherings and processions there should be some security measures taken. You may say that, these measures can't protect the attack. It's true as cops did nothing to protect the leader of the opposition on 21 august attack, which caused death of Ivi Rahman.

Bomb attacks in public gathering is not a rare case now in Bangladesh. Bomb can bust anywhere anytime. No one can predict about it, even the detectives. Those foolish detectives and so called investigating committees never succeed to find out the criminals involved with those attacks. All those cases just withered away and the leaders are always in danger.

Executive class: now on Road

2005-02-08T13:07:00.000+06:00

The hi-fi Volvo AC buses are plying between Dhaka-Chittagong for about one year. Recently Shohag has introduced buses with a step ahead. The bus has two different classes, normal class and business/executive class. The first two rows contain three seats in steed of four. Those board seats are executive class seats. All other facilities for the normal class and executive class are the same. Here are some exceptional qualities of the service -

All seats of the bus contain 5 switches for body massage. Turning on each switch causes vibration in different part of the seat. Its really interesting and unique feeling.
For each passenger there are options to enjoy digital music of 4 channels. One of them used for the sound of the TV where movies and plays are shown.
The interior of the bus has been decorated keeping similarity with airplane. Especially the design of overhead luggage rack is quite attractive and different from Volvo bus of other services.

Knowing about this service on ads I became interested to make a journey on it and went to Dhaka from Chittagong on a normal class seat. What amazed me was the demand of ticket. You should feel lucky, if you get an executive class seat, though it costs 550tk comparing to normal class costing 370tk. Though busses of more than 10 companies are starting for Dhaka with a gap of an hour only, they nevertheless felt short of passengers. This is where this route differs from others.

Curse on Picserver

2005-02-03T19:01:00.000+06:00

My page is seeming fade without the pictures. All the spaces for pictures are now filled up with bullshit message of picserver. Picserver is out of bandwidth. Please help the free site..... blah blah blah.

Few weeks ago they sent an email to me demanding money to continue posting free pictures. Its a nice way to continue free service with money. Sorrily I can't effort to continue posting pictures paying money. So you won't see pictures here anymore.

If anyone of you have any idea to put free pictures on the site please please let me know. I am eagerly waiting to find a way to post pictures again.

Birthday Experience

2005-01-27T13:39:00.000+06:00

Last 11 January was my birthday. My family has no tradition to observe birthdays formally. So till last year no one wished me happy birthday and I didn't expect either. Last year my close friends here wished me. But this year the circumstances changed completely as my friend circle has got larger.

There was a semester final exam scheduled on the day after my birthday. So as usual I kept myself busy in study and didn't tell anyone about it. But when the clock ticked on zero hour my roommates started shouting "Happy Birthday" and my mobile got busy. I received calls and sms one after another. I got some nice birthday gifts too. Off them one was quite unexpected and surprising for me. It would be better not to mention it here. ;-)

I arranged a party on a fast food shop inviting only the dearest of friends. My friends brought a birthday cake for me. Thus the birthday passed away reminding me that I am getting older!!

Away for Exam

2005-01-27T13:28:00.000+06:00

I am back after the longest break ever, since I started writing here. Actually My semester final exam is going on and I am very serious this time, Because last time my result was a worse one. This time I wanna show that I deserve something better.

I am writing this on vacation for Eid-ul-Azha and will be busy with the exam again. So I may not write blogs very regularly. But I won't give up writing. So keep an eye over the page if you don't hate my scribbles.

Impossed holiday

2004-12-27T13:46:00.000+06:00

There is a trend of imposing the educational institutions to remain closed to celebrate victories. Whenever Bangladesh won any cricket or football match students demand their classes to be suspended as if it is their right. Even students want to keep the istitution closed or to halt the exams to watch matches of world cup. We must celebrate any victory of our country. But we shouldn't utilize it to get some extra benifit.

Today some students impossed a holiday on our varsity. They locked the dormetory gates so that general students can't attend classes. They also successfully got away the teachers from class. So we are missing a day for nothing. Thats how session jot starts.

A long desired Victory

2004-12-27T10:36:00.000+06:00

At last Bangladesh cricket team at last won a match after long time (scoreboard). Yesterday they beat India for the first time on their 100th One Day International match. This is being the first ever victory at home ground will be a historic one.

After the victory hundreds of students of our varsity came out of the dormetories dancing. We covered our whole campus with the victory procession not caring the very cold and chilling weather. Then the excited students went out and started dancing in the highway blocking the trafic for some time. Actually our joy knew no bound then. It was a amazing feeling.

Mathematical Olympiad

2004-12-26T22:15:00.000+06:00

Winner of the competition along with the guests

A mathematics competition named "Mathematical Olympiad" was organized at Rajshahi by Prothom Alo (a leading newspaper of Bangladesh) on last Friday. I was there as an invigilator of the competition and a volunteer of the festival along with some other students of RUET. This was a thrilling experience for me.

There was two part of the occasion. In the first part interested students of different schools and colleges took part in a mathematical competition. The problems there was creative and out of the traditional text book.

Second part of the occasion was a seminar. There famous writer and professor Dr. Mohammed Zafar Iqbal and professor Dr. Kaikobad answered questions of those advanced learners. There school going boys and girls asked questins that even didn't come to my mind.

Dr. Zafar Iqbal is signing the bundles of autograph books

Dr. Kaikobad with my friends

Being Secularist or Religious

2004-12-25T20:12:00.000+06:00

Wamy has written a very nice article about "Why secularism is unreal?". He illustrated the ideas of so called secularism and pointed out weaknesses of the idea. Here are some magnetic parts of that article-

"If you are to promote secularism, you have to eradicate religion not only from state affaires but also from the society itself. There is no other way to achieve it. And there is no way it is going to happen. This is the saddest part.

As for the Muslims, we have the message and we hold the truth. We don't need anything else. We ought to stand firm against anything that is counter to truth. We will fail ourselves both in this world and in the hereafter if we seek solutions of our problems in man-made ideals."

On the comment section of this article there are many comments with different thoughts. On reply to this quoted lines Rezwan wrote this-

"Its ok at micro level. Because the faith that drives a true muslim should be like that. But don't try to impose these on people of other religion or try to change the differences and complexions of the world because you think you are the best. That is called a superiority complex. God has created these differences for a purpose and we should not think anything illogical to counter it."

I am not willing to involed with this critical logical war. I am just enjoying the debate.

Positive facts of Private Universities

2004-12-23T17:52:00.000+06:00

Private universities of Bangladesh are making headlines now and than for their laggings. Newspapers and folks are busy flushing on their shortages. Yes, the have drawbacks. But along with some good quality. Here is a fair try to point out some of those positive facts.

Private universities offer an environment that helps the students to be smart. Smartness is the first fact, where students of private universities are well ahead of those of public universities.
There is no session jot, no politics in those universities. Which make the campus (very tiny though) violence free.
Private universities offer the courses completely in English and the lectures are mostly in English, which is very important to improve the English proficiency.
There are better opportunities to select courses. Where students of public universities just go through some pre selected courses.
Private universities keep their syllabus updated always. They don't want to be back dated.
Public universities have all kind of teachers, good, bad, intellectuals and foolish. Whether private universities select only fine quality part time teachers from those. They also have option to change teachers opting for better options.

As I am not a student of private university, I am not the perfect one to figure out the positive facts. There are other positive facts too. May be you can figure out some.

SIM everywhere

2004-12-23T17:00:00.000+06:00

Recently price of SIM card in Bangladesh decreased radically. Two years ago I bought my GrameenPhone (GP) SIM for 4000 tk and yesterday I bought an AKtel SIM for 130 tk. I bought it to get extra facilities of AKtel that is not available in GP. Anyone with little effort can buy a SIM now. Though he/she have to manage a cell to use the SIM. One may think that cost of using mobile is very reasonable here. But the actual situation is never like it. Subscribers only reducing the price of SIM, while the call cost is all the same.

Tale of a Brave but Failed nation

2004-12-16T18:13:00.000+06:00

Pakistani general signing the surrender paper on 16 December 1971

Today is 16th December, one of the most important days of history of Bangladesh. On this day we won the 9 month long war and liberated ourselves from Pakistan. We then proved that we are a brave nation in the world. After 33 years now we are proving everyday that we are nothing but a failed nation. Here is the tale of a brave nation and a failed nation for you.

A Brave Nation
All Bangladeshi should be proud to be a native of such a nation, a nation of thousands of martyrs who sacrificed their life for their country. They had nothing to depend on, no arms, no training to fight with the trained and well equipped Pakistani army. They only had their life in hand to sacrifice for the better nation for next generation. We must not forget their sacrifice for us, who introduced our nation as a brave nation.

A Failed Nation
We are now observing 33th victory day. Much much could have achieved during these years. But what we see? The situation is not improved as it should have. We are still poor, corrupted mostly and scared of terrorism. There is very little achievement to mention and to be proud of.
We made our country independent to get a better nation. But it is never happened. We failed to lift up ourselves in most of the sectors like economy, industry and politics. Though sad to say, the big industries of Bangladesh are mostly built during Pakistani rulings. We not only failed to build new industries but also failed to keep those running. The whole rail system of Bangladesh is founded by British rulers who deprived us. But our countrymen did nothing to extend the rail network. Those are only few example of failure. Political situation of Bangladesh is going worse every day. And the public security is a matter of mare cry now.

People of Bangladesh still to enjoy the golden fruit of independence

One should not conclude from my writing that Pakistani ruling was better!! It is never like that. The real fact is, we got ourselves independent for a better country. But we failed so badly in most sectors. Braves who fought for us found their dreams just withering away. We are a failed nation now.

A poem on Victory Day

2004-12-16T18:00:00.000+06:00

A day to remember the martyrs
a day to mourn and shade tears.
This day introduce us as brave,
beckon to come out of the cave.
A day to sweep away the tears,
to be happy forgetting all fears.
We promise being unite we stay,
lets enjoy our victory day.

Note: I wrote this poem to send to my friends as SMS. I used to create this kind of peoms now and then.

History learning: English medium style

2004-12-06T13:45:00.000+06:00

Do you have any idea about what kind of book and syllabus English medium schools of Bangladesh use? Though it's hard to believe there is hardly any history book which tells about Bangladesh. Most of the books are Indian with some British books. No wonder those books contain detail about India and Britain. To be fair some schools select books which tells about the whole world. But there you will find hardly a sentence about Bangladesh. They don't know about British oppression, Language movement and Liberation war. I can't understand what is the value of knowing wild people of Africa ignoring the brave warriors who liberated us?

The excuse those schools like to show is that, there is no good history books written in English which illustrates Bangladesh and can be used as text. Some schools of capital like "Scholastica" are vast than many private universities. They have enough resource and quality teachers. Can't they take a initiative themselves to publish a appropriate history book? Aren't there any intellectuals who can write such a book?

Politicians say

2004-11-29T19:53:00.000+06:00

If a person is bad, it is not fair to call him bad directly

M Saifur Rahman
denouncing the Transparency International's ranking of Bangladesh as the world's most corrupt country.

I will need your support and I will work to earn it.

George W Bush
after being re-elected for the second time.

Sunk in songs

2004-11-19T11:30:00.000+06:00

I am totally sunk in songs. Most of the time I used to listen music. My computer is loaded with thousands of songs. Whatever I do in my computer there is always some kind of music playing in background. Among English nowadays I am listening songs of Avril Lavigne most. I liked her songs for her different vocal and lyrics. She became an idle for teenagers (not in Bangladesh though). Habib (son of famous singer Ferdous Wahid) came back with the new album "Maya". I liked this modern folk album for hi-fi composition. The combination of different instruments he used in this album is enough to start a new era.

During this Eid many albums has released. Sadly most of them are just unbearable even to me. James, Hasan once who produced so nice songs, are singing songs, which only making their image downward very rapidly. I really started to hate them. On the other hand new bands like ArtCell, Black, Cryptic fate making craze in new generation. As I noticed the main difference between those new generation band with old generation singers is, new generations making songs with deep care and high class composition. While the old ones just singing some bullshit with ugly lyrics and traditional composition which has no specialty.

Whatever it is I am Sunk in Songs.

Related article – New generation of Bangladeshi bands

Eid Mubarak

2004-11-15T11:50:00.000+06:00

Today is Eid ul Fitr in Bangladesh, the greatest festival for Muslims. I am wishing all of you Eid Mubarak on this day. Have a nice Eid.

"Jakat" could contribute a lot

2004-11-15T11:37:00.000+06:00

For every Muslim having certain amount of wealth or greater must give 2.5% of their wealth to the poor. This is called "Jakat". Generally Jakat is aimed to improve economic position of poor not doing any decrease to that of rich. It's a very nice system if implemented properly. In our country most of the riches distribute Jakat to as many people as they could. So none of them get a handsome amount. They get a cloth or few hundred taka as Jakat and there are not so many to give Jakat. Those have no use in long term. They assume those within few weeks and get back to their previous economical position. But if reaches distribute the amount to only few persons, all of them will get a handsome amount. They could start business using those as capital or buy a rickshaw to earn their livelihood for long term. In this process a poor person can earn lot and improve his/her position rapidly. Not only this, he/she may become able enough to pay Jakat next year. Actually this is the objective of Jakat.

Lailatul Kadr

2004-11-11T01:20:00.000+06:00

There is a night in this month of Ramadan which is more divine than thousands of nights. Unfortunately there is no fixed date of this night, only it is strongly assumed that the night is the night after 26 ramadan. By this calculation tonight is that most valuable night of the year. One should pray his/her best to get mercy from Allah. Tonight everyone become busy to pray. All markets while quite inaccessible yesterday are finding very little visitor tonight. Roads got empty very early then usual. All stood before almightily with all the sins for mercy.

What most of those religious persons don't notice is, these prayers of "Lailatul Kadr" are absolutely "mostahab" (optional). Although, this night has importance more than thousands of nights, all those prayer can not be equal to one farz (what is must to do) prayer. Many Muslims of Bangladesh and subcontinent are giving emphasize to what is not must for them. They are forgetting what they obliged to do and what they should do for extra forgiveness of almighty. So we should fulfill the obligation first then opt for the extra ones.

Official EID Tips

2004-11-10T23:50:00.000+06:00

Every year before Eid there is a trend of taking EID tips. Usually postmen, barbers, cleaners and hawkers request for these tips and mostly they get those. In recent years they started to claim this tips as their right. Especially linemen of telephone board become most eager for this tips. They used to disconnect the phone line for tips. When the subscriber complains for the disconnection, they act as they are working for it and the line comes in order. Then they demand the Eid tips.

This year they made the tips official. The above page is a typed page from telephone office. They circulated this page for convenience of collecting EID tips from subscribers. The page contains name of the collectors of Abrabad area. Seeing this in a regional newspaper of Chittagong the question came to my mind is – Will they give any official receipt for the money they would take??

Perfect Cover

2004-11-09T21:56:00.000+06:00

Courtesy: A box of chocolate

Dying for a digital cam

2004-11-09T00:15:00.000+06:00

I am dying for a digital cam. Last year my auto analog camera went out of order. Since then I am planning to buy a digital camera. As I can't effort so much money I am waiting for chance to request my uncle staying abroad for this. For last few days I have been finding all class sights to capture. Such as –

A poor little girl sleeping in the footpath before a hi-fi shopping centre
My mother counting hundreds of coins that she saved during last year in a clay build bank.
Paddy fields shining in a moonlit night near my grandmother's house at village.

My uncle may come very soon to Bangladesh. I am now searching for the right model to request him. If anyone of you have idea about digital camera please let me know which one will be better.

Who?

2004-11-08T23:50:00.000+06:00

Who? Or Who's there is the common question to face when you push the door bell of a house in a city of Bangladesh. Doesn't matter there is a peephole or not, inhabitants of a house ask this question. Its really awkward for the guest. Interestingly I found very few persons who say their name on reply of this. Most often he/she can't decide what to answer, so they keep mum. Yesterday I went to a friend's house. As usual "Who?" asked the voice from inside, though there is a peephole and video camera there. I answered: "Rifat". The voice questioned the same and I answered the same. She (servant of that house) being confused opened the door at last. May be some of you also fall in similar situations.

Live your Life

2004-11-08T14:06:00.000+06:00

Life is a Book, Study it
Life is a Challenge, Meet it
Life is a Dream, Realize it
Life is a Sorrow, Overcome it
Life is a Tragedy, Face it
Life is a Song, Sing it
Life is a Love, Enjoy it
Life is a Game, Play it
Life is an Adventure, Dare it
Life is a Promise, Fulfill it
Life is a Journey, Complete it

Collected from a memento of a farewell presented to passing students of a college.

Roaming Market to Market

2004-11-07T13:55:00.000+06:00

The biggest religious festival of Muslim Eid is only a week away now. Actually the happiness of Eid spread over the month of Ramadan. Before Eid the markets are getting busy day by day. Everyone is sprinting to finish their desired shopping for upcoming Eid. All want to be dressed with the best being bound by their budget.

I have already finished my shopping for Eid. But I am still passing my lazy times of vacation roaming market to market with friends and cousins. Almost everyday I visit markets. I enjoy the thrilling faces there and many funny situations. Yesterday I came back home after 11 at night. Still there was no place for easy movement in markets and the roads were jam packed with cars. It seems everyone became crazy.

Think before/after you do

2004-11-06T01:35:00.000+06:00

Yesterday first ever flyover of Bangladesh was inaugurated at mohakhali of the capital. The construction of this flyover has completed after more than two year interrupting movement of vehicles badly in that very busy point. The one km long flyover is being made to get rid of all congestion that occurred earlier because of rail crossing. Now after expensing 117 crore Taka the traffic department is thinking about the after effect of this construction. They are saying easy movement of vehicles in this point will make jam both end of the flyover. So they are imposing the city corporation to make other alternative roads to make those points clear. Now the point is, if alternate path is needed why this huge flyover is made taking foreign help? Actually making another rail road to get rid of so long rail though capital might be less expensive then making so many flyovers.

Like this project many projects are taken before which afterward appeared not that effective. The problem is our planner first plan and starts working then think what they have done. This post thinking makes them taking new projects, but doesn't bring that good for us.

Quote

2004-11-06T00:07:00.000+06:00

The terrorists want to destroy our country and so are we.

George bush
US president (before ellection)

Getting ready for the oppression again

2004-11-05T13:42:00.000+06:00

Everything went in vain, all hope withered away. Stupid Bush won again. It really doesn't matter for me how he won and who was to compete. The only think that coming into mind is that world has lost a chance to escape the regime of ugly Bush. My impression about Americans was far better before. Many of us thought, people of America are not in favor of the deeds of bush as they demonstrated against the oppression of Bush against Afganistan and Iraq. But they proved they are all the same. Alas!! God knows what he will do during this term.

Lost thoughts

2004-11-05T13:35:00.000+06:00

I use blog to express my inner thoughts to others and uphold them in net. Its not always easy to express thinking of a topic in a enhanced way. So like this one, most of the blogs may not appear that interesting. For last few days many thoughts came into my mind but all of them just died in infant. That's why it's so late to write something new.

During this gap, I started to think of my blog as my very own window. Now I don't care about readers and what will others think about my blog that much. Its upto you to read those scribble or not.

Name game continues

2004-10-23T23:50:00.000+06:00

Senate of “National University” decided to rename the university as “Ziaur Rahman National University” in a meeting and the proposal was passed unanimously. May be they were all bunch of flatterers so no one opposed this bullshit decision. As an excuse of this rename, they found that National University was a brain child of former president Ziaur Rahman. Interestingly this university was founded in 1992 during the rule of BNP government and they didn’t realize it then. The Senate asked government to take necessary steps. Don’t know how much government will pay to take those necessary steps. This is a clear example of unnecessary steps and expenses, while all universities are suffering from fund shortage.

This not the only example of changing names. This became like a game. One government will change name of some organization or something else when they come to power. When another government comes they again change those or other names. Past Awami League government added the name of “Bangabandhu” (former president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) to as many places as they could. Present government changed some of them and on a similar way adding the name of “Zia”.

There is an easy way to end this “Name Game”. Adding the term “Rahman” everywhere would make it a bit unbiased. Because both the name “Ziaur Rahman” and “Sheikh Mujubur Rahman” contains the term “Rahman”. The authority can take it as a serious consideration.

Misinformation

2004-10-22T01:20:00.000+06:00

I got this email from several persons. This email contains a picture of a paper that contains Arabic writings as an attachment. Before commenting on it lets read the mail first-

Believe In that... !! this is in arabic.. this is what it says..
A young girl had a very serious illness.. nothing could cure her.. On laylet el qadr. the girl was asleep..and in her dream.. Zainub (our prophets (sallah allah ala wa salm) daughter) gave the young girl some water. in the morning when the girl got up her illness had cured.. next to her bed..she found a piece of material saying that she must distribute that to 13 people.. and so she did......
A navy officer sent this letter to 13 people and he was promoted..
A business man recieved this letter and threw it away..not believing in it.. and he lost everything he had within 13 days..
It reached a labourer and he distributed it to 13 people. he was promoted and all his problems were solved within 13 days..
So you must send this email to 13 people for something good to happen to you (inshallah) so people..get sending !! :) dont be lazy.

Now almost all sensible people will be able to figure out that this is simply a misinformation. Someone started this cycle sending emails to some folks. They became frightened in fear of losing their belongings and sent to others. When I got the email there were hundreds of email addresses who forwarded it to the next persons.

I have experience of getting similar leaflet few years ago during praying Juma prayer outside a famous mosque. I neglected that leaflet too and nothing happen to me. So are you gonna believe this?

For the fourth time

2004-10-21T23:41:00.000+06:00

Ya. For the fourth time Bangladesh won the price of being the most corrupted country of the world. Bangladesh ranked last among 146 countries by Transparency International. This time she shared it with Haiti, though that doesn't make much difference.

I wonder why the authority don't give some bribe to Transparency International to improve our position!!