Within the last several years this is the first time I am missing the Book Fair in Dhaka… and I am really missing that fair. To be frankly, this is the only fair that allured me. The fascinating well gournished book stalls, the smell of newly publish books, exploring the fair with friends and family… all of those I am terribly missing.
The word "MOTHER" in 30 different languages
And today is February 21… The International Mother Language Day. A memorable day in the history of Bangladesh. It is the 57th anniversary of “Ekushey February” this year. Within this span of time has acquire its own place in online. The number of Bangladeshi bloggers as well as Bangla blogs are increasing day by day. People are now writing their blogs in Bangla. All of these happen because of sacrifices of some great people in 1952. My gratitude to those who sacrificed their lives for establishing Bangla Language on 1952 and to the all languages of this world. Each language is like a soul which has its own fascinating beauty.
Everything can change, but not the language that we carry inside us, like a world more exclusive and final than one’s mother’s womb.
I got these pics from Tushar by mail. These pics actually show some error message from Windows (if it is in Bangla). Well… I am sorry that all the pics are in Bangla. They may be old but hilarious indeed!
I was really busy in the last month, otherwise what is the answer that I haven’t heard about Matt Harding! Whose dancing video has been watched more than 7 millions time only on YouTube. This video has been spreaded through the internet like viral. But unfortunately I came to know this news lately. It wouldn’t be even happened if I did not surf my friend Rafi’s blog.
What is in the video that make it so special? Well to be frankly there is actually nothing. A 31 years guy named Matt is dancing in different places in different countries (to be precisely 42 countries). The dance is just some unique movements of Matt (which anyone hardly can call dance). But if you see the video, I bet you’ll feel happy from inside of your soul. The uncommon dance movement from Matt … the theme of the video … people from all around the world dancing with Matt … the colorful expression of joy … the rich , soothing and vibrant music … all makes an unfathomable feelings.
Oh! Here comes the background music part. If you listen the music keenly you’ll be amazed that that is a Bangla song. Surprised! Well here is the second part of the surprise. This song titled “Praan” is taken from Robi Thakur‘s “Gitanjoli”. And the third part of the surprise is this song was sung by a 17 years old Bangladeshi teen named Palbasha Siddique.
The Bangla lyrics of the song “Praan” is given below.
প্রাণ
ভুলবো না আর সহজেতে
সেই প্রাণে মন উঠবে মেতে
মৃত্যু মাঝে ঢাকা আছে
যে অন্তহীন প্রাণ
বজ্রে তোমার বাজে বাঁশি
সেকি সহজ গান
সেই সুরেতে জাগবো আমি
সেই ঝড় যেন সই আনন্দে
চিত্তবীণার তারে
সপ্তসিন্ধু দশ দিগন্ত
নাচাও যে ঝঙ্কারে
বজ্রে তোমার বাজে বাঁশি
সেকি সহজ গান
সেই সুরেতে জাগবো আমি।
The English pronunciation would be somewhat like following:
Praan
Bhulbona ar shohojete
Shei praan e mon uthbe mete
Mrittu majhe dhaka ache
Je ontohin praan
Bojre tomar baje bashi
Shey ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami
Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde
Chittobinar taare
Shotto-shindhu dosh digonto
Nachao je jhonkare
Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami
The exact meaning of the Bangla word PRAAN in english would be LIFE. But for this video, I think the English term should express more, and the appropriate term will be somewhat like “Stream of Life”. Here is the english meaning of the lyrics: The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and dayruns through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earthin numberless blades of grassand breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birthand of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.
Previously I’ve written a step by step guide for setting the Firefox up for Bangla unicode fonts. That was for Firefox 2. But that guide can also handle Firefox 3 (some of my reader have already done that and I myself also). So if you are using Firefox 3 and can’t see Bangla fonts then click here.
Another common problem is, many users are seeing the Bangla title in the tabs too small too read clearly. This can be fixed if you use Solaiman Lipi as your default Bangla unicode fonts. Click here to download Solaiman Lipi fonts. Another font with which you can resolve this problem can be downloaded from here. Also you can use Siyam Rupali for avoiding this problem. If the problem still exists then go to Vrinda Hacking; download the Vrinda font from there and put it in your Windows’ Font folder replacing the older one. It should make your Bangla look better. (I myself didn’t try with the Vrinda font, because I got the better look with the Solaiman Lipi font and I actually don’t recommend Vrinda.) You also can download a lot of Bangla unicode fonts from Omicronlab.
If you are new to Bangla keyboard or facing problems in writing with Bangla fonts, you can read this article.
If you are done then welcome to Bangla Blogosphere.
I’ve just created another blog. It’s another personal blog of mine. I’ve already have one, why the hell I created another one? Actually it is more likely a memory storage than a blog. I’ve a very simple life (who knows me will agree in this point). But when I saw them back they seem to be the golden days of my tiny life. So why don’t I share them with others? Memories are sweet. They are sweeter when they are reminisced. Bur they are even sweetest when they are shared with others. And this thought allured me to create this blog.
This time I’ve chosen Blogspot for publishing it. Why Blogspot? First – unlike WordPress it allows any templates for using in blog. Secondly (the most important) – I need a URL containing my favorite nick “maqtanim”. This blog is written in Bangla. Because I find it more comfortable to write my past memories in Bangla. No language favors me so much like Bangla to express my exact feelings.
I always prefer WordPress for blogging as it is easy to use and it has some really breathtaking premium themes. Personally I liked Brian Gardner‘s template. But as WordPress doesn’t allow editing CSS layout (in free of cost) in their DOT COM version, I had no chance to use Brian’s marvelous themes in my WordPress blog. Recently I got the XML code of the Revolution Theme (one of the Brian’s Finest creation for wordpress) for Blogger and it took me thinking why I am not using this theme in Blogspot? I’ve polished the CSS layout as my requirements. And… well … I did what I’ve thought. And now the site is up!
I was puzzled to give it a proper name. Then I named it as “Aabjaab”. I saw this word in a book written by Ahsan Habib. Ahsan Habib is a leading cartoonist and the editor of Unmad, the only satire magazine of Bangladesh. What does Aabjaab means? It means totally scrap or trash! I don’t think my life is that much interesting that I can write it in a literary way like the famous writers (actually I am not a writer, not in a slightest chance 😀 ). Which means all my stuffs are just no more than junk!
Enough talking. Now just go to my new blog and give me your feed back. I am eagerly waiting for the first comment in my new blog.
I am writing this post after almost 10 days. A long gap indeed. I was terribly busy with something or you can say nothing! What are those something-nothing stuffs? I’ve just created personal blogs for myself and for my little sister. Another personal blogs? This time the new blog is my Bangla blog, written all through in Bangla. Just take a look at my new blog. I’ve also created another blog for my little sister (she is new in blogosphere). Well, that task was not that much simple. As Blogger gives the opportunity to edit the CSS layout, I took that chance for both of the blogs (though I don’t know CSS that much). I’ve searched the net for appropriate templates. When I finally got them, I found that those templates were not working perfectly and they need some modifications. So be it! I took the templates and modified them according to my own choice. And they have been finished!
An unbearable incident happened within this time too. I got a terrible shock when I found out one of my close person as an impostor. What will be happened to you if you found that your faithful friend was just playing with your faith? The feelings can’t be portrayed. Not only me, he conned other persons of my close circle too! No one have ever been cheated me in such a way in my entire life as he did. Just a shock, a terribly blow for me. To make it worst the incident spread out to almost everyone I know by the grace of internet! Imagine the situation, everyone is contacting me to know whether he is fraud or not. Horrible situation! This incident also causing my delay in writing post to my blog. I pray to Almighty that no one would ever go through this type of situation.
This week I watched a new movie for which I’ve been waiting for months. As in Bangladesh, we have no scope to watch Hollywood’s movies in theater, we used to buy DVDs. But all DVDs don’t have the good quality. So for collecting a better quality of DVD, we sometimes wait for several months after the theatrical release of a movie. I bought the DVD this week. The movie is Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! Two of my favorite actors are in the leading roles- Jim Carrey and Steve Carell. The movie is worth enjoying. If you are an animation movie lover and did not seen it yet, then I’ve one word for you – “Poor chap”! And I am waiting for other five movies: fourth installment of Indiana Jones, Ironman, Kungfu Panda, Speed Racer and Get Smart.
And here comes the penguin. Actually it has no relation with the above incidents. I got a flash game link from Ishmeet’s blog. And from that I am playing this game whenever I am connected to net. This game is about penguins. I’ve scored 320.3 and this is my best score till now. Here is a screen shot of the score at the end of this post. It becomes an addiction for me. I am trying to get rid of it (I’ve not played it from yesterday to till now).
UPDATE: Now we’ve a new Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator named BDBloggerz. All Bangladeshi bloggers are requested to submit their own blogs there.
For the last few weeks who have read and commented my post about Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator, they will be happy to know that Russell has kept his promise. He has launched the Beta version of the Bangladeshi Blog Aggregator. At last it has done. It is just the beginning. This site needs more polishing and needs an enormous way to go. But it can’t go that long without our support. As a Bangladeshi Blogger it is our duty to make a smooth way for this site. Previously some site has been lunched for the same purpose, but they failed to sustain. We hope that this time it will be a successful project.
By setting up the site, Russell did a tremendous job for all of us. We the Bangladeshi Bloggers at last got our own Blog Aggregator. We hope it will not only be a Blog Aggregator but also be a Bloggers Community for Bangladesh. Therefore I am inviting all the bloggers of Bangladeshi origins to join this aggregator.
As the site is in testing mode I have some suggestions (though I’ve mention some key features in my previous post).
As a blog aggregator I think the site needs a 3 columns theme. As a personal site a 2 column site is more suitable than a blog aggregator. Cause it has to show more thing but in less space. User may not have that much patience to scroll through the whole site. 3 sidebars instead of 3 make this job easier.
In the first page the posts are displayed in full length. A full length post does not fit in a blog aggregator. It would be more decorous if only a few lines (as excerpts) for the post (under the post heading) is displayed.
Any one have any design sense so that we’ll have a gorgeous logo and some blog badges for this newly introduced aggregator? So that we can put on them in our own blogs.
As the days go by, we hope more suggestions will come from the bloggers to develop the site.
I am well known as a book worm, at least I knew that. From childhood to till now I am a great enthusiastic of books. I can read my favorite books again and again. No tiredness at all to read them repeatedly. By the way not all books allure me. Suppose the text books. I am not a text book lover (if you knew my academic background then you wouldn’t hesitate to believe 🙂 ). I love adventurous, thriller and comedy books including comics (from Asterix to X-Men). It was hard to believe that I was going to bed at night without a novel or comics. But now it is reality!
Suddenly I have discovered a new of me. Now a days I am always surrounded by text books like “Continuous and Discrete Signals and Systems” by Soliman-Srinath, “Digital Signal Processing” by Proakis, “Signal Processing and Linear Systems” by Lathi and “Analysis of Linear Systems” by Cheng. So what is the secret of being so much text book lover? Well… this semester in AUST, I’ve made a bold movement. “Linear System” is considered to be one of the most tough course subject in entire under-graduation course work of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department. It is not only reason why other teachers are not willing to teach this subject. One of our assistant professor Monjur Morshed (who regularly conducts this course) took this subject to an artistic level. From that point no one is interested to share a subject like this with him. And I’ve chosen this subject to teach the students this semester! The subject is not tough but it is tough to keep pace with Monjur Bhai (as he is conducting other two sections of class from total of four sections) and to hammer out it to students’ thoughts. I don’t know whether my students are studying hard as me. I am always trying to convince them to stick out with the subjects. But you know students are students, they won’t study unless the exam knocks their door. Sometimes my mom wonders seeing my passionate relationship with those textbooks “…whether you’ll seat for exam?”.
I’ve read my last books (of course non-textbook) just a month ago. One of them was a collection of Bangla short stories of Porshuram and the other was “Patriot Game” by Tom Clancy. Woh … I am missing those books terribly. I heard something of Summer Vacation of AUST which’ll probably be started from the next week for a whole week. I am waiting for that vacation … eagerly and anxiously. At least I’ll get touch with my pleasant companions.
