Bangladesh – Page 6 – Adnan's Den

Dhaka: Second Dirtiest City in World

Yeap… You read it right! Dhaka is the second dirtiest city in the whole world. And this ranking has been published by the Forbes. About Dhaka it says, “Lead-poisoned air lands Dhaka, Bangladesh, the No. 2 spot on the list. Traffic congestion in the capital continues to worsen with vehicles emitting fatal amounts of air pollutants daily, including lead. The World Bank-funded Air Quality Management Project aims to help.”

So what’s the big deal? We don’t care of ourselves… isn’t it! All we used to know that Kolkata (city in India) is much more dirty than Dhaka. I personally never visited Kolkata, but from various pictures of Kolkata I can say that Kolkata is much dirtier than Dhaka. But this ranking tells us something different. The present scenario of Burigonga river is very much shocking. Pollution turns water of that river in to black. Carbon Monoxide and Lead emitted by the vehicles are main culprits to cause air pollution in Dhaka.

Is anybody there to take proper steps for surviving Dhaka from a polluted environment? It’s the high time for all of us.

To read the original report published in Forbes, click here. To see the pictures of the ranked cities click here.

Ekushey Boi Mela 2008

Today I went to Bangla Academy Boimela. For the last two weeks I just sorted out a list of books that has to be bought from the fair. As usual my sister helped me in that case. I felt the same emotion that I felt every year in boimela when I entered the entrance gate. All the publishing houses were colored with colorful covers of new as well as old books. It was just like a festival, a festival of books. All the renowned publishing houses were crowded with people as they publishes most of the books written by popular writers. I am one of the fan of Muhammad Zafar Iqbal. And as usual I bought his latest sci-fi and teen-adventure books. I’ve been searching for some old but appealing books that I’ve searched in many places. This time in Bishwashahittya Kendro, I got three of them. These are “Jokey’r Dhon” by Hemendra, “Chadey’r Pahaar” by Bivutybhushon and a story collection of Porshuram.

Unlike other years, Dipu was not with me this year in Boi Mela. Last several years, we just spent hours after hours in Boimela by just comparing the books. Dipu has a good taste in transliterated books. Some times we just bought books by seeing it’s front and rear cover. If we didn’t like the book then we just blaming the author for such a book 🙂 !

I was disappointed by the UNMAD stall. UNMAD is a cartoon magazine like MAD. Every year they brought some really hilarious funny posters and stickers which were sold like hot cakes. But today I didn’t find anything like that in their stall except some copies of their magazine issues.

What ever, I don’t have so much time to write this post, because more than fifteen fresh books are waiting for me. And I can assure that for a few dayz, I’ll not be available in my blog for the same purpose. 🙂

Baashonti Shuveccha – Spring Greetings

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.