Do women feel safe in offices?

Earlier this month, I was a guest on a podcast titled Not Here For, a series by Kotha Bangladesh, that calls out injustices that we have historically faced and continue to face in this country today.
6 December 2020, 18:00 PM

Understanding The Communal Divide

Theories abound. Bizarre rumours run wild. Apart from extremists on both ends of the spectrum, all rational minds with a heart condemn the divide; yet, it refuses to go away. It’s complex -- at times it gets ugly but, most of the time, a simmering tension over numerous petty differences regarding faith, culture and inexplicable prejudices run deep.
29 November 2020, 18:00 PM

Cultural cartooning: A new look at our everyday life

A new cartoon movement, known as cultural cartooning, has been gaining popularity all over the world. Cultural cartooning brings out the humorous side of our everyday life.
22 November 2020, 18:00 PM

Maulana Bhashani and the transition to secular politics in East Bengal

On March 10, 1947, a day of non-cooperation was observed in the colonial province of Assam.
15 November 2020, 18:00 PM

The Unforgettable Suhrawardys of Bengal

The spectacular socio-cultural efflorescence known by the sobriquet of ‘Bengal Renaissance’ was an extraordinary period from mid- 19th to early 20th century in Bengal.
8 November 2020, 18:00 PM

The cries of Modhupur Garh

“Leaf Storm” or La Hojarasca in Spanish, the debut novella by world renowned Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, was first published in 1955. Largely applauded as the first appearance of Macondo, the imaginary village later made reputed in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Leaf Storm is a litmus test for a number of the themes and characters later to be crystallised in the book that earned the author the Noble Prize in literature.
1 November 2020, 18:00 PM

Sher-e-Bangla: In Search of a National Soul

Sher-e-Bangla was an institution rather than an individual. So say his critics as well as his admirers. And rightly so. But it seems very few have really appreciated the deeper significance of the epithet given him by themselves.
25 October 2020, 18:00 PM

The champion of the Bengali Muslim peasantry

AK Fazlul Haq burst into an all-Indian national political scene through the 1937 elections for the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
25 October 2020, 18:00 PM

The devil rays of Bengal

I was mostly lurking behind the group of marine biologists, young researchers, and local parabiologists scouting the dirt-ridden streets of Chattogram just opposite to the under-construction fisheries ghat.
18 October 2020, 18:00 PM

The early history of Bengali printing

The following account is concerned with Bengali printing before 1800, concentrating on the period after the Battle of Plassey in 1757 when the British East India Company established its control of the province.
11 October 2020, 18:00 PM

Environmental history of Dhaka: An outline

Environment has been key to Dhaka’s birth and rebirth, growth and development as well as its urban predicaments. Recently, Dhaka’s environmental issues have led to public debates drawing a lot of interest.
4 October 2020, 18:00 PM

(De-)Politicising Covid-19 Pandemic? Public Health Perspectives and Lessons Learned

“Please do not politicise this [corona]virus.” This statement of WHO (World Health Organization) chief a few months back provokes concern that there is something problematic in politicising Covid-19.
27 September 2020, 18:00 PM

Learning in the time of Covid-19

COVID-19 has brought death, destruction and disruption everywhere. However,
24 September 2020, 18:00 PM

When the Dufferins visited Dhaka

The failed Indian Rebellion of 1857, which saw the ultimate triumph of the East India Company, nonetheless also led to its demise and the emergence of the last great colonial empire in modern history- the British Empire in India - popularly known today as the British Raj (1858-1947).
20 September 2020, 18:00 PM

Is democracy possible?

Discourse on democracy is so overwhelmingly taken for granted that even the blatant autocrat or invader claims to act in the name of saving or installing democracy.
13 September 2020, 18:00 PM

Bangabandhu: the architect of Bangladesh's foreign policy

We celebrate 2020 as “Mujib Borsho”, to mark our Founding Father Bangabandhu’s birth centenary; we also mourn, and reflect on, his brutal assassination 46 years ago on the 15th August 1975.
6 September 2020, 18:00 PM

ANIS BHAI: TEACHER

Dr. Anisuzzaman’s life was a radiant gift to us, his departure an irreparable loss. The usual metaphors that have been applied (tower of strength, conscience of the nation, a reassuring lighthouse, an iconic intellectual/cultural presence , an institution by himself, a large and shady tree, the embodiment of humanist principles, and so on) may all be applicable.
23 August 2020, 18:00 PM

Decolonising the cities to address flood, rain and water

The city is conceptualised in many different ways – as a body, a machine, an organism, a second nature and now a third or even fourth nature.
16 August 2020, 18:00 PM

An Indefatigable Crusader: Dr Syud Hossain

Syud Hossain was born on June 23, 1888, in Calcutta the son of Nawab Syud Mohammed Azad (1850-1915), who belonged to an illustrious old aristocratic family of Dhaka.
9 August 2020, 18:00 PM

The story of Gauhar Jaan

Gauhar Jaan aka Eileen Yeoward was not Armenian. Here’s why.
7 August 2020, 18:00 PM