Mostafa Shabuj

Twenty years ago, Abdul Gafur Sheikh was a poor day-labourer and debt-ridden and found it difficult to feed a family of six.

We barely see cross-disciplinary initiatives that try to understand our media, culture, society and politics. In this wake, Dr Ratan Kumar Roy’s Television in Bangladesh: News and Audiences (Routledge, 2021) offers a rich ethnography of television news practices in Bangladesh, with a foreword by Marcus Banks, Professor of Visual Anthropology at Oxford University.

Fauzia Beethi is not a political figure in her area, but everybody knows her in Bogura’s Dhunat upazila for her philanthropic works.

Around 150 students in Sherpur, Bogura, are making profits by rearing deshi (local breed) chickens at their own rooftops or backyards.

Due to the sharp fall in the number of theatre audience for commercial movies, curtains are being drawn on a 28-year-old cinema hall in Bogura’s Dhunat upazila.

Farmers in various areas of the country are gradually shifting away from legumes in favour of other crops as lentils and pulses have become less profitable now.

A community of weavers in Bogura’s Adamdighi upazila and its adjacent districts use garment waste to make various textile products worth Tk 200 crore annually.

For decades now, a community of weavers in Gaibandha has been producing over 20 varieties of warm clothing items without any modern technology, transportation or banking support.

SR Group has set up a chemical manufacturing plant in Bogura, the largest of its kind in the northern region of the country, at an investment of Tk 850 crore. The project went into operation last month.

Farmers of Bogura’s char areas alongside the Jamuna and Bangali rivers enjoyed good profit amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by cultivating different varieties of pumpkins on the abandoned lands with little investment.

Hundreds of people flock to a mixed fruit garden in Magurartair village of Bogura’s Sherpur upazila every day to see ripe mangoes hanging from their branches as it is uncommon during the winter season.

“I have been playing cricket at the Bogura Shaheed Chandu Stadium since I was eight. My father’s only dream is to see me in the women’s national team. And he tries his best to help me carry on my studies alongside cricket,” said Sraboni Rani Shil, a 14-year-old from the northern district.

The authorities of Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital recently cut off the branches of some trees that were home to a huge number of different species of birds. Amid protests from local environmental activists and conservationists, the director of RMCH admitted to the mistake and said he will refrain from such acts of environmental destruction in the future.

The Department of Archaeology continues to struggle to save one of the country’s and region’s most significant archaeological sites, Mahasthangarh in Bogura, due to the delay in acquiring 393 acres of land in the fort city.

Jackpot Cashew Nuts Industries started producing an assortment of cashew-nut based foods earlier this year in a bid to cash in on the growing demand for heart-healthy snacks.

A 13-year-old girl from a village in Bogura’s Dhunat upazila was abducted, gang raped for more than a month, and then left unconscious by a road on August 24. Her sufferings, however, were still not over.

Around 30,000 artisans from 10 outlying villages of Bogura sadar upazila in Rajshahi are involved in making jewellery with about 66 per cent of them being women and youths who earn between Tk 500 to Tk 4,000 each week from the trade.

Bangladesh national football team forward Mahbubur Rahman Sufil tied the knot with cricketer Zinnat Asia Ortthi on Monday.

While nearly every business sector in Bangladesh has been hit by the fallouts of the coronavirus pandemic, handicrafts have continued faring well in the global market.

Bogura, which has always been a district town known for centuries-old archaeological sites, is also home to around 10,000 families of weavers.