THE SHELF / 6 books that I read at the end of last year… I hated 5 of them

Who do I tell, sir? The walls do not listen, The roads do not answer back

In Gaza, the names of the martyrs slip through silence, lost to a world too distracted to listen

We'll put up feigned politicians / And their fake promises instead

What if our Eid table had a few extra chairs reserved not for guests from our world but from that of the books we’ve loved throughout our life?

Beyond the celebration of Eid, this book also explores themes of love, loss, and the grief of spending a special occasion without a loved one.

Let us talk about death. Let us talk about funerals.

S.K. Ali and Aisha Saeed (eds.)Amulet Books, 2020

Being a Dhakaite, your Eids in childhood were spent in mournful longings for something to happen.

The panel supplied a critical as well as emotional commentary on the issues of linguistic hegemonisation, power imbalances, the marginalisation of non-Bangali languages and identities, and the aftermath of the revolutionary spirit of July 2024

This was the first poetry competition in the Rohingya camp

While core acts of devotion take center stage, qasidas (Islamic odes) and devotional poetry serve as powerful complements, enriching the experience of Ramadan and deepening one’s spiritual reflections

Beneath the ocean of a cave  Are you not born with bareness?

She told me in her last visit— “Hold on to hope, my child.

Having jotted down the iambic stanzas on the chopping board and collected the veggies alive from the realms of metaphors that smell the labor of her regular gardening records;

I was raised in the old country, back in the old house where all my siblings had grown up long before I was born.

Throughout the session, Mohaiemen’s passionate, spontaneous, and engaging demeanour captivated the audience, fostering a deeper understanding of storytelling through images.

Tell me about this life you live behind the curtain…

What matters when there's a Motherland to defend? 

On the evening of February 10 the curtain fell for the last time on a performance that, over the preceding days, had cast an enchanting spell upon its audience.

Review of ‘Apni Ki Alien Dekhte Chan?’ (Afsar Brothers, 2024) by Wasif Noor