The recently concluded Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka will no doubt be remembered for a long time. From the competitiveness of each of the three teams to the drama towards the end of the tri-series, each little element contributed to it being one of the most memorable T20I competitions.

Travel back to the bygone days of the Vijayanagara dynasty. The ruin of the ancient city of Hampi today stands amidst gargantuan boulders. Climb up the 575 steps to the Anjaneya temple to view the sunset and hike atop the Matanga hill for a sublime sunrise, or take a coracle ride across the Tungabhadra river during the wee hours, the only sound breaking the silence being the swish-swash of the oar dipping in the water.

I remember reading the story of Medusa when I was a child. It was a child-friendly, uncomplicated, good vs evil story.

At a time when the city is once again experiencing a surge of mosquitoes, residents are concerned about a resurgence of the diseases they carry. The mosquitoes biting us at all hours of day and night though are largely of the Culex variety, which while bothersome, does not bear disease. Aedes however causes dengue and worryingly, chikungunya, which crippled many in the city for some time last year.

He looked at the people on the boat—he didn't know any of them, but could see from their appearances that most of them were from the Hindu community, fleeing for their lives. It was as if that sad tale—of being forced to leave the land where they were born and brought up—was evident in their expressions.

It was a proud day for many a Bangladeshi when independence was announced, liberation was in the air and heroes were welcomed back home with open arms. In the last four decades or more, some stories—of the Muktijoddhas fighting the Pakistani army, families walking for days to reach safety and the university massacre—have been passed on from one generation to the next. These are true stories that are never to be forgotten.

The recent BS211 crash went down as one of the gravest chapters in Bangladesh's aviation history. But before the dust had settled and the survivors had a chance to process their grief, rampant media speculation turned the spotlight to the conduct of the newsmen themselves.

March 17 is a memorable and remarkable day for Bangladesh and Bangladeshis, as on this day in 1920, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was born. He was the dreamer and designer of independent Bangladesh. He struggled for the hopes and rights of the people of this country throughout his life. He raised his voice against the injustice of the then Pakistani junta and tried to achieve the rights of

"The city wrapped in starlight, was in deep slumber. The night was as pleasant as a spring night in Dacca could be. The setting was perfect for anything but a bloody holocaust. At around 11:00 pm, the local commander [Dacca] asked permission to advance… everybody looked at his watch. The Operation Searchlight began with great cunningness, surprise, deception and speed combined with shock action…

While Dhaka drowns in myriad urban problems, all resulting from some sort of scarcity in resources, the city's sensorium is marked by a glaring superfluity—be it visual, tactile, auditory or olfactory. Our experience of the city is thus unavoidably multi-sensual, yet when it comes to analysing the city the way we derive specialised knowledge about the urban environment depends heavily on disciplines and practices that are essentially visual. We depend on cartography, land surveys, optical geography.

There is no denying the fact that money really can buy happiness. Beggars smile on receiving 15 taka. A mistress smiles when given a 1500-taka box of chocolates. A public official smiles after receiving a 15,000-taka gift of cold hard bank notes. A genuine, crinkly-eyed smile denotes happiness. Money buys that happiness. In this day of instant like-fuelled gratification, we want it now. But the quick way is almost always a scam. Take another person's misery and turn it into money.

Live musical performance

Huddled inside a lavvu, a Sami tent, around a blazing pinewood fire, we binged on coffee and “almost homemade cake”—almost because Knut, our guide for the night, bought the chocolate cake with coconut and sugar dusted on top from a store and sliced it in the kitchen at his home! We learnt from him about the Sami. Historically known as Laps or Laplanders, they are the natives inhabiting, primarily...

"Most children have two whole legs and two whole arms but this little six-year-old that Dinesh was carrying had already lost one leg, the right one from the lower thigh down, and was now about to lose his right arm.” Anuk Arudpragasam's powerful debut novel “The Story of a Brief Marriage” starts with this haunting description of a shrapnel-struck child being brought to a makeshift clinic and about to undergo

Predicting the future is rarely an easy task, but even partial indications of what would happen can give you a significant strategic edge. Hence, we are excited to launch the Business Confidence Index which gives you a sneak peak into what the private sector of Bangladesh is thinking—which industries are businesses most optimistic about? Which sectors may face difficulties? How do they feel about the profitability of their own enterprises? Where do they see the opportunity space for Bangladesh and what are the greatest challenges?

Early morning of March 12, a fire broke out at the Ilias Mollah slum of Mirpur-12, burning down around a thousand shanty settlements. The shanties crammed on the 70-bigha land were home to approximately 25,000 people, most of whom were garments workers. No casualties were reported, save for one elderly woman with burn injuries. The cause of the fire is not yet known. Left homeless, their belongings and savings were destroyed in the course of just four hours. The victims are to be temporarily housed at an under-construction building nearby.

The puppet show starts with a group rehearsing “Aguner Poroshmoni” for Noboborsho celebrations. Safat stands aside, not participating. Turns out Safat has been getting flak from his father for “wasting” time with music. The scene shifts to the landlord of the building walking in on them and telling them that cultural activities are not important. In the middle of all this, Safat is befriended by a guy who later on in

I am not going to parse my words over this one. Bangladesh has practically decriminalised the rape of Jumma women. By “decriminalisation”, I do not mean it from a legal perspective but rather that, by creating an environment of impunity for criminals, the state has made it politically and socially acceptable for anyone to rape Jumma women and not face any consequences for it. This decriminalisation, I argue, is part of a larger political strategy of dispossession of the Jumma people from their land.

A city that had over 50 canals and lakes only three decades ago, Dhaka has currently lost almost all of its water bodies. Over the years, most of these water bodies have been snatched by land grabbers and some have been used to dump massive quantities of garbage from nearby areas.

Sara Ansari is delighted. She can finally drive in her own country thanks to a recent change in reforms in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The changes have just begun to take effect; Sara, however, has been holding a license for a couple of years. She got it from Saudi Arabia's neighbouring country, Bahrain, and would go there every weekend, just to drive around and have a good time.