On the morning of July 26, 2018 the “bihari” camps in Mirpur sectors 10 and 11 were gripped by panic as they waited with bated breath for a bulldozer to drive up their alleyways and tear down their homes.

26-year-old Jalal Ahmed represents a rare trend. He is one of very few victims in the country who has managed to send his traffickers—the ones who kidnapped him and forcefully sent him to a jungle in Thailand back in 2013—to jail.

It is the Bangladesh-Myanmar border; the calm of the forest is broken by piercing sounds of gunfire and screams. Everywhere, people are on the run and she too trudges on, heavy, weary steps one at a time, trying to find refuge. She eventually makes it to the forests of Bangladesh only to be stuck indefinitely.

“In Maharashtra of India, 33 people were killed in a road accident, but do they talk about it like the way we do? Whenever something happens in Bangladesh, no matter how insignificant it is, everybody makes a fuss,” commented Bangladesh's shipping minister Shajahan Khan, who is also the executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation.

A group of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists has been playing the role of thugs since the quota reformation movement began. They have repeatedly attempted different ways to foil this legitimate, peaceful protest.

Any moment now, you could be hit by a bus, and die. It seems to be the most unpopular way to say goodbye as you live and breathe in Bangladesh. Even as I type inside my room, there is a chance that a passing bus comes crashing through my wall.

Every other minute, a child drowns in Bangladesh. Sometimes the waters rise creeping up and up until it enters homes, ready to claim small lives that cannot stay afloat.

Moving Spirits Sculpture Exhibition

I was at a park the other day with my friend Tom—who just so happens to be an adult like myself, which neither of us can be blamed for—and the area was infested with the verminous offspring of other adult humans.

Travelling and staying in budget do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can travel all over the world without having to break the bank. What is required is some planning.

In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath writes about a young woman, Esther Greenwood, experiencing the publishing industry on a summer internship, as well as life in New York City, for the first time.

Two weeks ago, Netflix dropped its first Indian original series which has kept everyone on their toes. Sacred Games, an adaptation of the same-titled novel by Vikram Chandra, and directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, premiered on Netflix on July 6.

As our taxi wound its way down the wide avenues of Santiago, our driver, despite his rudimentary English, regaled us with his vacation stories.

It's a bit odd for me as a healthy 30-something-year-old to be writing about death. But having lived through the protracted agony of my mother's death from kidney failure and complications from dialysis, I feel I have some authority on the subject.

There was nothing extraordinary about that day, except that a sudden impulse to walk had gripped me! A nyctophile, I have always cherished the pleasure of walking in the city after dark, but living in Dhaka now, this desire had to remain unfulfilled.

Even though it was monsoon, I watered my rooftop plants before leaving Dhaka during Eid. While travelling in the night coach, I kept worrying about my plant babies. What would happen to them in the absence of water in this sweltering heat and high humidity? Will they survive my seven-day vacation? My fears were confirmed—when I returned, I found that the smaller plants had almost died, while the leaves of the mature ones had turned yellowish.

Manisha Chakma met Pinky for the first time at a tea stall located right outside her college. Like Manisha, Pinky too had left her hometown and arrived in Dhaka in search of a good job and decent life. After a brief chat, numbers were exchanged and over the next few days, Pinky, in Manisha's words, would go on to become a 'hi-hello' friend.

The number of female workers departing Bangladesh is on an upward trajectory, 1,21, 925 in 2017, according to Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) data. The stories of female migrant workers in the Middle East have been well documented as have those of male migrant workers in Europe.

“When I went to the market yesterday, grocers told me that the price of commodities would be increased after Eid-Ul-Adha so I must clear all my dues within August 15,” says Khorsheda Begum, an assistant machine operator of a readymade garment (RMG) factory located in Tongi, Gazipur.

It was with a lot of pomp and flair that the Dhaka Metropolitan Police launched the official “999” helpline last December; but half a year down the line, data shows that only one percent of the calls could be truly served.