Mostafa Shabuj

All-rounder Ritu Moni, who now holds the record for the best bowling figures by a Bangladeshi women cricketer in World Cups thanks to her four for 18 against New Zealand in Melbourne during the World Cup this year, once did not even know that a women’s team existed in Bangladesh.

Pahela Baishakh celebrations are never complete without flowers. Be it for decoration, presenting a bouquet to someone special or gracing the hair of women and children alike, flowers are an indispensable part of the spirit of the festivities.

The once mighty Korotoa now barely flows through Bogura district. Issues like unbridled pollution, a regulator that obstructs natural flow, and gradual decrease in water from upstream have almost chocked the river down, said experts and locals.

The foundry and light engineering industries in Bogura are thriving amid various challenges but they now need more land, easy loans and technological support to position themselves for the next phase of growth and fight off cheap imports, entrepreneurs say.

Those growing up watching Bangladesh Television between the 70s and 90s will fondly remember one programme for daring to be different.

The Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogura, one of five purpose-built cricket grounds established in the lead-up to the 2004 Under-19 World Cup, has hardly been buzzing with cricketing activity as the venue has not hosted an international match since December 2006. It is only when first-class matches take place or some local programmes are held that some noise is heard from the venue.

Looking at the yogurt tubs made by Bogura’s potters, it is difficult to imagine that the ceramics industry once flourished in the region.

Bogura Youth Choir, a renowned socio-cultural organization in the northern districts, observed 43 years of establishment recently.

Students of a primary school and a high school in Santahar municipality area of Adamdighi upazila cannot play sports and games on their school ground as it remains waterlogged for six months a year.

On Sunday, locals in Bogura’s Shajahanpur upazila woke to what seemed to be an absurd sight: bank notes floating in a waterbody near the Khaowra bridge area.

Bogura’s Kahaloo Theatre, an associate of the Bangladesh-Gram Bangla Theatre, organised the Indo - Bangla Drama Festival recently, at the upazila auditorium in Kahaloo.

Tumpa (not her real name) grew up in her maternal grandfather’s house in a small village of Bogura’s Dhunat upazila and was a seventh-grade student at a nearby high school.

Amid all the difficulties of earning a living in a foreign land, an expatriate Bangladeshi in Italy has been contributing immensely to pomology or fruticulture of Bangladesh for the past two years.

Patients are being deprived of proper treatment at Bogura Chest Disease Hospital (CDH) as there is no doctor for chest disease at the 20-bed hospital for nearly 10 months.

While the Bangladesh men’s team are currently participating in cricket’s biggest event -- the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup -- in England, Bangladesh’s women cricketers have been toiling hard at the Shaheed Kamaruzzaman Divisional Stadium in Rajshahi ahead of their tour of South Africa

The curious mind of Sohel Rana has led him to try his hand at growing the purple passion fruit at Rupgram village of Nagaon’s Sapahar upazila.

The required level of moisture content set by the authorities has become another big headache for Boro growers hit by falling prices, as it makes most of them ineligible to sell their produce to the government.

Two government lists of farmers as Boro paddy suppliers are not what they look like. Many of them are anything but farmers. They include shopkeepers, a contractor and even a former city councillor engaged in a profession other than paddy cultivation.

It was late March. Around 3:30pm, the Biramer Pachgachchi Govt Primary School was already closed, an hour too early. So was the nearby Kashirpara Govt Primary School. Both schools face a similar problem --neither the students nor the teachers are much interested in class.

Birdwatchers across Bangladesh already have an abundance of bird species to watch, photograph and marvel at. However, every now and then, one will get lucky enough to find a new addition to our already blossoming flora and fauna.