RBR

The mud huts on the foothills of the Garo Pahar are covered with bashor lota (lady’s slipper vine) at this time of the year.

It is a whole new world altogether. Kaptan Bazar is an old and vibrant marketplace.

My love for anything related to tea knows no bounds, be it fancy teapots, tea strainers, the gradation of tea leaves, the dreamy rolling tea gardens, or random roadside tea stalls -- I am obsessed with the beauty and romance in it all.

In the early nineties, while setting up my first home. It became a challenge to decorate my small apartment with limited funds and starting from almost zero.

Bachchu Miah and I have had a thriving business relationship for the last 27 years. I met this young vendor while I was living in Kalabagan and now after 19 years of being in Uttara, the not-so-young-Bachchu still delivers his fresh catch to me.

We, as residents of this bustling metropolis, have never given much thought to what and who defines the city’s economy and culture.

Art galleries in Dhaka hardly hold any exclusive exhibition for sculptures and even if they do, it is mostly as part of mixed media shows. 

Breakfast on the go has a different meaning for the toiling masses of Dhaka. Rickshaw pullers doing early shifts to cash in on school rides, night guards before hitting the beds, street sweepers -- all opt for a quick street breakfast, which is spread out by 6:00am for business.

While buying agro-produce from local bazaars, superstores, or even farmer’s markets, we want to ensure that the products are free from insecticides and other harmful chemicals. To avoid such harmful products, many of us are now opting for organic foods.

At 2,551 metres above sea level on Chandragiri Hills in Nepal, all I could thank for was Dhaka’s Bangabazar.

They are the most underrated professionals in the city. Although we need them ever so frequently, we never appreciate the skills of the handymen until we get trapped in unforeseen situations.

Fuchka carts parked in neighbourhood alleys or in front of city parks and lakes are something synonymous with Dhaka.

The sought-after drink is only available from 9:00pm onwards every day and stays open until 12:30am.

Roy, a pragmatic youth, opted to get a degree in nursing. Moreover, his cousin’s nursing career which started at a government hospital with a healthy salary became his inspiration.

Traffic war for us is a real deal; any trip to anywhere around the city be it in your own car, public bus, or CNG auto-rickshaw, was nothing less than a two-hour horror tale of heat, dust, sound pollution, suffocation, and tiredness.

Tasmina Khan Majles, the talented multidisciplinary artist of Bangladeshi heritage, has taken the brush to channel her inner psyche that is a weave of her conscious and unconscious mind through painting.

“One of the greatest things about being a vagabond is that when you do not have solid plans and are flexible like water, there is a lot of space for opportunities just knocking at your door. And now here I am in beautiful Bangladesh,” she said.

I was feeling a little down the other day and wanted to sit down somewhere quiet and serene to just switch off from the chaos and rejuvenate my mind. What my mood craved was not something Dhaka’s posh cafes would be able to offer.

Arpon Changma’s creations in his restaurant, BBQ Express, combine elements of diverse culinary traditions that originated from different regions and cultures of Bangladesh. With utmost finesse, they craft and promote a “Texas-inspired, Chittagong Hill Tracts influenced” barbecue joint.

The following three recipes all use cheat codes in their execution without taking away the authentic flavour of the original dishes. Try them for your puja luncheon or on any other occasion.