Category: English Blog
Against the war
Another February… Another Bookfair
Another February has come which announces the glorious history of our beloved mother tongue Bangla. Who can live without speaking in his mother language? Nobody. And we are the only nation who sacrificed to gain the right of speaking in Bangla. Rafiq, Salam, Jabbar, Barkat, Shafiur and many unknown sacrificed their lives on 21 February in 1952 as the law enforcers fired on processions demanding recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages. In 1997, the UN declared February 21 as the International Mother Language Day.
Click here to know more about 21st February and Bangla Language.
Another magnificent event of this month is the book fair which is widely known as “Omor Ekushey Boimela”. Bangla Academy has been organizing this book fair since 1972. For the whole February, this fair will be the common place for the writers and readers. Releasing new books and seminars on Bangla language is the common everyday event in the fair. Besides the seminars where keynote papers are presented and the Bangla Academy awards are distributed, the academy also organizes cultural programs and discussions every afternoon during the fair. The programs include musical and dance performances along with other forms of stage shows. But the main attraction is still the books, the fresh new books.
I always await for this book fair. Though I can buy book from nearby book shops, but I await the whole year for buying books from this fair. You can’t describe the fair scenario, it’s just great. People are crowded in the stalls, seeking favorite books, writers are busy with giving autographs on their newly released books, books are every where, the air is smelled with the scent of newly printed books. Last several years, in book fair, my closest friend Dipu was with me every time. But this time he is away from Bangladesh. Don’t know how I’ll enjoy book fair this time without him!
Hope like every year people will gather in book fair to celebrate the glorious 21st February. Proud to speak in Bangla.
Make the dream true.
By now everybody is aware that Cox’s Bazaar and Shundorbon are holding the first two places in the recent list of Natural 7 Wonders, competing with the world’s famous places for the last one month. All credit goes to the Bangladeshis who are aware of it and making others aware of it. I heard that even personally some people distributing flyers and handbills for this voting purpose. All initiatives are taking personally till now.
What amazed me most that no company or political party in Bangladesh is seems to be aware of it. Because I never heard any political leader or corporate executive told a simple word about this issue. For the past few years, the advertising media of Bangladesh has been developed a lot. And for this improvement mainly the mobile phone operators worked as catalysts. They have broadcasted so many enthusiastic ads featuring Bangladesh both in tele-media and print-media. Where are they now!
I don’t feel that our political leaders are intellectual enough to put emphasis in this issue (as it is not their power related). Personal attempts are making the Natural 7 Wonders voting process vigorous at this moment, it obviously has limitations in wider range. It is not possible to spread the news for casting votes in each n’ every corner of Bangladesh personally. But this can be done by the Tele-media. The corporates can make lucrative propaganda for making the awareness. In past years, they have made really some patriotic ads. Why don’t they do it now?
India composed a full song dedicated to Tajmohol for making it one of the 7 wonders of world. That song was composed by A. R. Rahman, which influence people more to cast vote for Tajmohol. Why can’t we do something like that! Cox’s Bazaar and Shundorbon are our assets and it is our obligation to bring fame for them. Please, various TV channels, newspapers and corporates are earnestly requested to help our country to exhibit her glory. It is our Bangladesh… it is our pride.
Thank you… Anonymous Donor
A philanthropist will donate $130 million for rebuilding the battered life of Sidr victims in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. The Daily Star
Yeap… some anonymous benevolent person donated 130M USD for the SIDR victims of Bangladesh. This amount is almost equal to 910 Crore Bangladeshi Taka. Obviously a huge amount of money for the SIDR victims. Authorities mentioned that this fund will be used mostly for rehabilitation and reconstruction of schools and shelters while the rest for agriculture and fisheries in the SIDR affected areas. It is also mentioned in the news that IDB (Islamic Development Bank) will support rehabilitation and reconstruction projects after final assessment of the damages done by the devastating cyclone.
Now it’s a great responsibility for our government to use this money in a proper way. Government must take necessary steps so that immediate action is taken to manipulate this money. And my cordial thanks to that anonymous, benevolent, amiable person who give this much amount for the development of Bangladesh. Who ever you are, you are an angel to us! You’ve just give us a light to see the steps towards our dream for a better Bangladesh.
Voter List is in Web
For the first time Bangladesh Election Commission has published a web site containing the complete list of all voters of the country. Any one can access the site through internet. To access the information one has to provide the 17 digits PIN (printed in the back of the slip which was given after taking photograph), birth information (format has been given) and a verification code (printed on below). Take a look on the screen shot I’ve given below.
Main disappointment is there is no link of this site in the Bangladesh Election Commission’s website. As BEC is manipulating this process it is common sense that there should be a link to the Voter List site. Another drawback is that if any information is incorrect then there is no option to make it correct, except a text field which is used for Comments purpose. Probably they put the box to get message from the user for any inconvenience or mistakes. In my case, I saw some severe mistakes and I used the Comment Box to send them feedback about the mistakes. But it has been more than 10 days that I saw the informations were unmodified. I still don’t know how to resolve this.
The bright side is, the whole site is build in Bangla Language. So people will feel comfort to use the site. They also provide the Bangla font that will be required to view the page. Overall Bangladesh is advanced to the recent technical world another step. Hope the site developers will take necessary steps to make the site more matured by giving the users option to make correction in their information. Whatever this is, it is indeed a great job!
Ijtema cut short for biting-chilly weather
In an unprecedented incident, the three-day Biswa Ijtema, ostensibly the second largest yearly congregation of the Muslims, on the bank of Turag River at Tongi was cut short on its inaugural day yesterday due to an inclement weather that had caused deaths of at least three pilgrims. The akheri munajat or the concluding prayers of this year’s ijtema started at 7:55pm ending at 8:15pm yesterday instead of its schedule tomorrow. [The Daily Star; Saturday, January 26, 2008]
For the last two days life in Dhaka as well as else where in Bangladesh is disrupting with chilly wind and drizzles. This includes a foggy and cloudy weather through out the country. Due to this cold spell and inclement weather, the lowest temperature in Dhaka was 15.3 degrees. The difference of minimum and maximum temperature in Dhaka was only 2.4 degrees Celsius.
And yesterday was the beginning of the IJTEMA, second largest religious congregation of the Muslims after hajj, begins today on the bank of the river Turag. This year due to the political stability of Bangladesh, at least three million people from about 58 countries were expected to join. Ijtema plays a significant role in rapid dissemination of Islamic ideals and lessons of the Quran and Sunnah across the globe. Usually Ijtema holds for three days. The last day is known as AAKHERI MUNAZAT’s DAY. In the last day all the Muslims regardless scholars and ordinary people, pray to Allah (the Almighty) for establishing universal peace and strengthening unity, solidarity and fraternity in the Muslim world.
Devotees at the Biswa Ijtema ground use plastic sheets to take cover from the drizzle. The poor conditions led to the congregation’s abrupt end last night. Photo: Anisur Rahman
But the inclement weather wrapped up the whole congregation. The canopies and mats used in Ijtema grounds were damaged in the rain. The devotees collected polythene as an alternative since they were cost-effective. Many of the elderly devotees had to take shelter at various mosques and other places adjacent to the Ijtema ground. But yesterday, after evening the drizzles were turned into rain which made the authorities taking the decision of winding up Ijtema on its inaugural day, considering the sufferings of several lakh pilgrims in a bitter cold weather.
Regarding this, my opinion is that government should take necessary steps to build permanent buildings there on Ijtema ground with the help of the other Muslim countries. As it is obvious that Ijtema will be held in Bangladesh in the upcoming years like the former years, government should provide the devotees with facilities of brick-built cabins instead of canopies. It is a great issue as many Muslims scholars from around the worlds come Bangladesh only for joining Ijtema. So, I think other Muslim countries will come forward to help Bangladesh in this regard.
LabAid Cardiac Hospital – Reality Bites!
Today while I was surfing the WORDPRESS tags (which I often do), I found several post regarding LabAid under the tag Bangladesh. And all of them indicating the dark side of LabAid. That made me curious, why on earth people abhoring LabAid so much. I personally didn’t get any chance to be acquaintanced with LabAid, so I had no idea what services actually they served. For those who don’t have any idea about LabAid, it is a cardiac hospital in Bangladesh. On television they broadcast an aesthetic advertise which surely convince any patient enough to get admitted to LabAid. Watching that ad on TV anyone can be persuaded that LabAid is the #1 cardiac hospital in Bangladesh. But the articles posted in WORDPRESS, redefined LabAid from a completely new angle. They take more than a handsome amount of money as their SERVICE charge, but if it is their SERVICE then where the word HUMANITY will hide itself?
To read the full article please click here. To read posts on other blogs of WORDPRESS regarding LabAid click here.
