“God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.” ― Voltaire

When buying gifts: You buy what the other person wants. Or get something you can also use.

My first visit to the Grand Canyon was with my wife, as a newly wedded couple several decades ago. I was so fascinated by the majesty and beauty of the vast expanse of red rock and by what must have been the immense power of the meandering river, that I told myself I had to experience this canyon and that river at closer proximity. I questioned myself over the years why I felt that way so compulsively.

Have you heard of the test that found a certain type of water, that we also drink, could become radioactive in a way? It is the usual water except when heated in a microwave oven it could become a liquid capable of death and mutation. It was killing off plants. What is worse, it was proving to be an utter nuisance by not really turning anyone into a super-powered being. I have read in books how this happens all the time, in all the comic books.

About Town

When it comes to Southeast Asia, tourist destinations popular among Bangladeshis are: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and after the initiation of visa on arrival, Indonesia (Bali, more or less). Vietnam is becoming somewhat popular in recent years. Cambodia and Laos, however, still don't see a sizeable number of Bangladeshi travellers. Surprising, because the former boasts Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world, attracting over two million foreign tourists per year.

It is often said that the book is better than the movie, and it is certainly not every day that a movie improves on the novel that inspired it, or that a masterpiece like Rashōmon springs out of the mind of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and into the hands of Akira Kurosawa to mould into the vivid piece of storytelling and cinematic brilliance that it is. With filmmakers determined to take a shot at breathing new life into literary greats, here are six exciting on-screen adaptations you don't want to miss this fall.

Mrs Rumbold was our class teacher in class five. She was heavy-set, probably in her mid-50s or mid-40s. In the eyes of a 12-year-old, everyone after 20 seems the same age. She had a really white handkerchief which hung smartly from her brown belt.

I have not seen my mother smile in a long time. Not since I was a child—at least, not a heartfelt one. To me, it seemed she was always suffering an imperceptible, incessant anguish.

Sitting under the cool shade of the large chestnut trees by the playground of Notre Dame College, students read, chat and take some rest from their otherwise hectic day. When ripe chestnuts fall, they pick those up promptly, but they never shake these fruits from the trees. The giant Gagan Shirish trees, located opposite the Harrington Building of the college, are home to countless birds—living in an undisturbed, harmonious environment for generations. Every spring, hundreds of flowering trees such as plum, naglingam, magnolia, rose and Ixora bloom and adorn the beautifully landscaped premises. This is how the students, teachers and staff of Notre Dame College, for generations, have been paying respect to the college's natural aesthetics and to Professor Dwijen Sharma, the institution's former teacher and an eminent naturalist, botanist and writer who spent years designing the institution's beautiful landscape and planted most of the trees with his own hands.

There are many versions of the legendary first encounter between Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi and his spiritual mentor Shams of Tabriz. Most describe the moment as Rumi, the religious scholar, sitting by a pond, immersed in his scholarly reading, when Shams, a stranger to him, comes by and asks him what he is doing. “You will not understand,” Rumi is reported to have replied, upon which Shams throws all of Rumi's books in the pond. But the books spring back up dry, defying the laws of physics. At this point, Shams is reported to have said, “But you do not understand.”

Barely three weeks ago, it would have taken someone a little more than 10 minutes to reach Kutupalong camp from the main station in Ukhia. Today, traffic jams on the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf Highway, arising from the increasing number of relief trucks arriving to help out the Rohingyas, has changed the scenario. But despite the admirable support of Bangladeshis for the four lakh-plus Rohingyas who entered Bangladesh in the last one month, many new refugees are still living on just muri and cha.

Firsthand accounts of journalists, aid workers and well-meaning philanthropists flocking to Cox's Bazar in light of the Rohingya refugee influx tell of the enormous civilian efforts to help the refugees.

"No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky"

About Town

It is the year 1971. Standing beside a green paddy field, Yahya Khan and a Razakar are locked in a heated deabate against a Bengali farmer.

Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon—the four elements necessary for life to flourish anywhere. Take one away, the balance is off, and the lovely blue ball floating in space that we call home is likely to become a barren wasteland. The Earth being blue has

Confusion between media, message, and personal bias abound in Zyma Islam's article, "Whimsical, political, subversive: A review of

“Here they learned to Wait. To Watch. To think thoughts and not voice them.” — Arundhati Roy

This year alone has witnessed the DMCH succesfully perform three rare surgeries.