Whenever people talk about the greater Bengal, divided in two halves—West Bengal, consisting of 18 districts of India, and East Bengal, which is now Bangladesh—the linguistic commonality along with what many term as 'Bengaliness' creates a myth of cultural affinity and a networked relationship maintained across the national divide.

10 years ago, the Bangladesh women's cricket team embarked upon their first ever Asia Cup journey. The Women in Green were all set to play the opening match of the four-team tournament, taking place in Sri Lanka, against India.

How much does a life cost? For 55-year-old Selim Bepari, who used to work as a driver at a private firm till the evening of June 19, it was equal to the amount he earned in a month—Tk 22,000.

What was supposed to be a festive holiday, turned into a nightmare for Jamalur Hasan. He had arrived home from Dhaka in Kawkhali upazila of Pirojpur district on a seven-day leave to celebrate Eid with his wife, only son and parents. “I went out to the bazaar to buy beef and rice for the Eid feast at around 12 pm. My wife was busy in the kitchen. My son Rakib went out to play with his friends—and that's when it happened,” he recalls.

Deportation of undocumented Bangladeshis from the USA is nothing new. In the last 10 years, the country issued deportation orders for 7,364 Bangladeshis. The period during Bill Clinton's presidency particularly saw over a thousand Bangladeshis being marked for deportation each year.

Rubel Ahmed from Sylhet had gone to the UK on a short-term working holiday visa in 2009 and started working as a chef. After working at several restaurants and starting to send money home, the 26-year-old applied for leave to remain in the UK. Denied, he was detained and sent to Morton hall immigration removal centre in Lincolnshire (with others awaiting deportation) in July 2014, according to UK reports.

The whole world on one hand is trying its level best to curb plastic pollution while on the other hand, using and dumping it mindlessly. While solid plastics only(!) pollutes the environment, microbeads are the latest threat to nature, especially for humans. Products which have microbeads include soaps, toothpaste, facewash,

Sajedul Islam Ratul is a second-year student in Dhaka University's political science department. In a batch of around 120 students, Ratul is the only one who is visually impaired. His journey to Dhaka University, the country's highest seat of learning, from Kishoreganj is an odyssey of overcoming one hurdle after another.

Without effectual resistance, Bangladesh is poised to join the ranks of 31 other nuclear nations of the world with the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. The Government of Bangladesh asks that people be proud of this fact. Yafes Osman, minister of science and technology has stated that this is a historical moment for Bangladesh. Whatever support

Being a dad used to be simple. You had one job to do early on and that involved something similar to that pirate movie line, 'Release the Kraken'. If you know what I mean. Nine months later you were a dad. In the meantime you were running about conquering the world, pillaging the villages and looting gold because that is how

For my grandfather, home lies across August 15, 1948 in a two-storey post office building in the district of Murshidabad—which just so happens to not be in Bangladesh. Large insignias of Trinamool Congress's Jora Ghas Phool line its walls in faded orange, green and white. Probably the last and only fresh coat of paint the house has seen in years.

73-year-old Boidhonath Chondro Shutrodhar is one of the last remaining master carpenters in the country making traditional river boats. Living by the Jamuna river in Pabna, he started working at the age of around 20 under an ustad. In his early days making boats, he would earn just two taka per day.

It was supposed to be a good day for Nepurun Begum. The 50-year-old maid had worked extra hard in the last three months, hoping to please her family on Eid. She has a son and a daughter. They are 25 and 17 years respectively. They are both physically challenged and ever since her husband passed away, 15 years ago, she has been the sole earner of her family.

Newly-wed Munia spent this Eid cooking for, and serving, her in-laws, while pining for her parental home and a glimpse of her parents. When the 28-year-old had approached her husband about visiting her parents, he had simply dismissed the idea. Her first Eid after marriage was thus marked by a huge fight with her husband who chose to prioritise his family and some ill-formed notions of custom over the happiness of his wife and his in-laws.

We have an education system in which student after student—countless of them—write the same definitions as answers. They probably get the same marks too— four out of five, nine out of ten.

In the five years following the collapse of Rana Plaza, Bangladesh has made real and unprecedented progress in improving workers’ health and safety in its garment industry. Now, the “sweatshop business model” of global capitalism is undermining those gains as international clothing brands cut prices paid to supplier factories in Bangladesh, and continue to roam the world looking for the lowest production costs, the most vulnerable workforce, and the weakest, most compliant governments.

It was perhaps Jane Austen that first introduced me to the therapeutic benefits of bathing in thermal waters—a concept which my teenaged self found archaic and strange. As I grew older (and travelled wider), I realised bathing in hot springs is fairly common the world over. The instant I stepped into my first hot spring, I understood why. The almost unbearably warm waters cocooned my body and I felt my muscles unwind. I closed my eyes. It was sublime.

As a solo female Bangladeshi traveller, the reaction I most commonly elicit while I am travelling is along the lines of people saying: “Wow! I have never met a Bangladeshi traveller before”. This makes me sad, because I know many Bangladeshis are keen on travelling, but for many, the expense of foreign trips can be a deterrence. And, well, it doesn't help either that we have a pretty badly-ranked passport.

I often murmur this overused idiom as I pack my bags for a trip to any place. Be it in the country or abroad. The budget woes take hold of me from the conception to execution and to the absolute end of any trip. There have been times, of course, when my soirees out into the wild have been fully paid affairs and I can say without a trace of doubt that if you somehow negate the money worries, travel takes on a

The houses looked like they were made of Lego; the people, like ants. My head was dizzy and I was breathing fast. It was precisely then that I realised that my goal of reaching the 4,200-metre high (13,500 feet) Kyangin Ri peak in the Langtang valley of Nepal—one that I had shamelessly and prematurely boasted about to all my family members and friends prior to leaving Dhaka—was not going to be fulfilled.