Beyond stereotypes: Rupert Grey’s ‘Homage to Bangladesh’

Rupert Grey, a descendant of Charles Grey and best known professionally as a leading libel and copyright lawyer stood against this statement. “If Bangladesh is a basket case,” Grey tells The Daily Star, “then it is so in the best possible way.” For him, the term collapses under the sheer vitality of the country. A single square metre of a Bangladeshi street, he argues, holds more energy than entire neighbourhoods in London. Where life in England often unfolds in rigid routines, Bangladesh thrives in spontaneity—where a hanging lighter at a tea stall can become a moment of shared choreography.
25 January 2026, 12:24 PM Books & Literature
FLASH FICTION / The rickshaw artist
24 January 2026, 01:52 AM Books & Literature
FLASH FICTION / Pirouette of a phoenix
24 January 2026, 01:48 AM Books & Literature
POETRY / Memories
24 January 2026, 01:36 AM Books & Literature

EDITORIAL / Why read?
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 7 new books to look out for in 2026
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature

INTERVIEW / Reclaiming the unwritten: Kanika Gupta on colonialism, embodiment, and the art of remembering

Gupta shares her insights on reclaiming forgotten histories, reimagining myths, and connecting ancient narratives to contemporary ecological and social concerns.
22 November 2025, 11:51 AM Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / An eco-critical look at Sultan: Reading the manuscript of ‘Sultan Er Krishi Jiggasha’
With the aid of Duniyadari Archive, Pavel Partha’s soon-to-be-published book Sultan Er Krishi Jiggasha is a new addition, which looks at Sultan’s work from an eco-critical perspective.
8 November 2025, 11:43 AM Books & Literature
NEWS REPORT / “Curious love letter”: Wole Soyinka responds after US cancels visa
He responded to the situation with grace, mentioning “I like people who have a sense of humour".
30 October 2025, 10:45 AM Books & Literature

Making a killing out of a killing

A visit to any bookshop today will attest to the reading public’s fascination with crime (and criminals).
11 October 2023, 18:00 PM

Blood, rage and love on the verge of 1971

Reading Rahad Abir’s Bengal Hound, despite the novel being written in English, felt a lot like reading in Bangla. While no two languages can ever truly be compared, there is much to be said about seeing Bangla and Bangladesh through an English language lens.
11 October 2023, 18:00 PM

It’s a Love Story, baby just say yes

Sameer’s mother looked at her husband before quickly stepping in and attempting to defuse the situation. “You know it’s just a heritage thing. We’re not really Biharis".
11 October 2023, 15:55 PM

7 nonfiction books to understand the question of Palestine

We highlight seven nonfictional books that allow us to understand the history and discourse around the struggle better.
10 October 2023, 13:55 PM

Norwegian author Jon Fosse wins the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature

He told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that he was “surprised but also not” to have won.
9 October 2023, 15:55 PM

War still rages on

We might never know how it feels when your whole existence is denied or the loss of homeland, but we can get a little glimpse of their suffering.
9 October 2023, 13:55 PM

Dancing on the pages

This week, then, we're thinking: music and books, music and literature. In print and online, we're dreaming in tunes, dancing with words, daring to merge the two.
8 October 2023, 05:00 AM

Eyeball to eyeball at Lords: A Bangladeshi occasion in a very English setting

35000 spectators turned out amid the colourful shamianas and flags to watch the one (and only) unofficial Test in Dhaka in January, 1977.
7 October 2023, 13:55 PM

“We need writers to know what society will look like in the future”

A large number of contemporary writers in the country think of avoiding politics. But that itself is also a kind of politics—the politics of the status quo.
6 October 2023, 13:38 PM

Poet Asad Chowdhury no more

With the publication of his first collection of poems, Tabak Deya Paan in 1975, Bangla literary scene witnessed the emergence of a powerful new voice.
5 October 2023, 13:55 PM

Music and the space it creates for literature

I cannot, for the life of me, definitively describe what makes music. Growing up in a family where music of any form was not typically paid any reverence, my exposure to it was tunnelled into mainstream pop songs for the longest time.
4 October 2023, 18:00 PM

On music and literature in a Postcolonial context

As someone who is interested in Muslim novels—by which I mean novels written by Muslims about Muslims—I always feel a scholarly tug towards Hanif Kureishi’s The Black Album (Scribner, 1995) when speaking of the at times uneasy but mostly comfortable marriage between music and literature.
4 October 2023, 18:00 PM

Book-Buzz back with its second iteration

Ushinor Majumdar’s book details how, since Partition, the Pakistan military junta had continued to exert unjust power over Bengal and its resident Bengalis.
2 October 2023, 14:00 PM

Snow White: A grim fairy tale

Before The Brothers Grimm published their version of the story, titled Sneewittchen, the original Italian folktale was about a mother’s envy and jealousy towards her own daughter.
30 September 2023, 15:55 PM

Moezzi’s ‘The Rumi Prescription’ and Rumi’s relevance in this manic world

Rumi's spiritual and motivational verses not only empower us to confront life's frustrations and anxieties but also illuminate the path to genuine emotional fulfilment and inner peace.
29 September 2023, 15:55 PM

Twistier than a jilapir pyatch

It’s a truism to say that modern life is complicated, but even a couple of decades ago, it would have been hard to predict the things we are dealing with today.
27 September 2023, 18:00 PM

What you call your own

As an Anglophone writer in Bangladesh, I’ve frequently faced the rather inane question of why I write in English.
27 September 2023, 18:00 PM

Media literacy and the case of overrated classics

In this digital age, we are processing a large amount of information everyday and it’s important to learn media literacy in order to see the bigger picture.
27 September 2023, 15:55 PM

The Hermitage Residency 2023 to be held free of cost at Srimangal

This year, the residency was thrilled to announce, attendance in all classes and workshops is free of cost in order to make their resources and networks accessible to everyone and to eliminate fees as a barrier to entry.
25 September 2023, 13:55 PM

Western Lane: Grief unfolding on squash court

There is more squash in the book than most readers will take a liking to, but the game sometimes works as a metaphor for the bigger picture.
24 September 2023, 15:55 PM