Shahnoor Wahid

One has to appreciate the fact that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman identified population boom as the “foremost national problem” for Bangladesh, even though the size of the population was 7.5 crore in the ‘70s. It amply indicates how farsighted he was in this case as we are burdened with a burgeoning population of over 16 crore today.

The new normal is now normal! Four years back, seeing us sitting at the coffee table with our masks, disposable gloves and sanitiser bottles, people would have chuckled and called us abnormal.

Let us talk about the heroes of the pandemic. We want to remember those extraordinary men and women who have offered selfless services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, knowing very well that they could get infected by the deadly virus.

A recent news update from Carew & Co will uplift the spirit of many of my friends who frequently take to the bottle to release bottled-up emotions.

The date January 10, 1972 will remain etched forever in golden letters in the history of Bangladesh.

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” Oscar Wilde reminded us of this universal truth with these witty words, which are timeless and wholesome at the same time.

A gentleman does not. But a man not so gentle does. A genuine award from a respectable organisation becomes a thing of joy, but an award given by a shady group to a questionable character raises eyebrows.

When a fish gets caught in a net, it curses its luck and tries to free itself from the mesh.

“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realise we cannot eat money.”

Alongside the Bengalis in general, many foreign missionaries who have been living in Bangladesh since the fifties and sixties had joined our War of Liberation in 1971 in their own capacity. We have heard about their heroic contribution and on various occasions paid our tribute that they deserved. I personally met and heard the story of two missionary doyens who defied the threats of the Pakistani military and continued to help the freedom fighters. They did so for the sheer love for the common people of this country irrespective of their religion, cast or creed.

Soon after the creation of Bangladesh, we came to know of the heroic yet risky stand taken by many foreigners, foreign journalists and Christian missionaries in defiance of the Pakistani military threats.

It was J. Edgar Hoover, the apparently puritan FBI Director, who had let his agents secretively investigate the love life of John F.

It was the last act in the bleak drama. And it was written by none other than Providence. The young men who had unleashed mayhem in a restaurant in Gulshan in July this year in the name of Islam and subsequently were killed in the hands of the law enforcers now lie in their eternal sleep in some unidentified graves in the city.

The obsession with a section of youths of the country about “dying” for Islam gives rise to the paradoxical question: How can one

It appears that ISIS is in big trouble in some of the major towns of Syria, where Iraqi and Syrian regular forces and Peshmerga

The cultural construct has evolved slowly over the decades, to display loudly the rich cultural heritage of Bengal before the world. Interestingly, the Pahela Baishakh festival is the only of its kind that has no religious flavour to it. It is hundred percent secular where Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists join spontaneously.

Bangladesh is proving to be unstoppable in achieving success in almost all the sectors of development at the moment. Even the harshest of its critics are taking a back seat now to watch in awe the multi-faceted works going on round the clock that are resulting in increased production in the industries,

NARSINGDI had its share of battles during the long nine months of the Liberation War. Many fighters of the Mukti Bahini were lodged in the deep forests and villages on the two sides of the 30 km road starting at Tarabo, Rupganj.

What if about a hundred of them came with a similar mission? If we analyse the nature of the attacks and their near-perfect execution, we are inclined to believe that the level of preparedness of the French intelligence and police on the ground has been dismal.

The recent visit of Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng to Dhaka no doubt reinvigorated the existing bilateral relations, laying