SELFIES are not my speciality. I also tend to avoid weddings, birthday parties or tourist spots. On the other hand, complete strangers handing me their mobile phone and asking me to take a photo, I can cope with. I鈥檝e even saved a few tourists from potential disaster as they risked life and limb to take a picture of themselves in a precarious 鈥業 was there鈥� moment...
AN IRONY points to the gap between what is said and what is implied, or what is expected and what happens in reality. It is a rhetorical technique that is widely used in literature. It creates dramatic effects by presenting contrasts or opposites. What is called dramatic irony is often used in tragedy to illustrate a character鈥檚 ignorance of happenings on one hand and tragic consequences on the other...
THE word 鈥楻azakar鈥� originates from Arabic and translates to 鈥榲olunteer鈥� in English. On August 2, 1971, during the height of Bangladesh鈥檚 liberation war, the then-governor of East Pakistan, Lieutenant General Tikka Khan, issued the East Pakistan Razakars Ordinance. This ordinance called for the creation of a voluntary force to be trained and equipped by the...
AS A navy veteran, the naval battles of Trafalgar and Jutland have always captivated my attention. These pivotal encounters, while defining moments in maritime history, have broader implications that resonate across continents and centuries. Their echoes can be heard in the struggles for freedom across the globe, including Bangladesh鈥檚 relentless...
THE student-led July mass uprising for a democratic political and economic order, which culminated in the ouster of the brutally authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina from power, forcing her to flee the country and take refuge in India, the hegemonic neighbour that patronised Hasina to cling to power without proper people鈥檚 mandate for years, has installed an 鈥榠nterim government鈥�, led by globally known Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, to fix the order 鈥� if not fully democratise the state...
WHEN I was in sixth grade, around twelve years old, I used to attend math tuition with a local teacher. It never bothered me or anyone in my family that I was a young Muslim girl walking more than a mile alone through a predominantly Hindu area to study with a Hindu teacher...
AT LAMA upazila in Bandarban, different companies have been active for a long time in their attempts to grab jum lands and hill ecosystems to establish rubber gardens. One such hill is called 鈥榮oroi hung鈥� 鈥� soroi hill 鈥� in the Mro language. The Lama Rubber Industries Limited exists on 400 acres of forcefully grabbed jum land and hill forest of soroi hung...
AS THE world grapples with the intensifying effects of climate change, countries like Bangladesh stand at the forefront of both vulnerability and leadership in the global environmental struggle. Bangladesh, while contributing only 0.56 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, is disproportionately affected by climate-induced disasters such as...
THE Bangladesh state in 1971 is complex in its functional identity as it was a state in occupation fighting for liberation. The state formation process followed unorthodox routes, incorporating both formal and informal realities in separate and...
DURING the liberation war, people of this land chanted, 鈥榌The River] Padma, Meghna, Jamuna is our destiny (Padma, Meghna, Jamnuna, tomar amar thikana鈥�). Bangladesh 鈥� the birth of the nation...
SECULAR politics represents a decisive ideological stance. Such politics may not be expected to show an infatuation with any religion, religious views, or phenomena. In its firm...
WHILE Bangladesh is set to celebrate the 53rd anniversary of national independence, India that helped Bangladeshis achieve the independence through a bloodied...