The Shelf / The quiet grief of becoming ordinary
19 June 2026, 00:00 AM
The Shelf
What to read / What we’re reading this week
14 May 2026, 00:00 AM
What to read
Book Review: Nonfiction / Fara Dabhoiwala’s history misses the one thing that truly matters
1 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Non-fiction review
Reflection / Harper Lee at 100: An enduring echo of justice
28 April 2026, 20:10 PM
Literature
Tribute / Humayun Azad and the courage to dissent
24 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Books & Literature
Interview / Writing what silence carries: Mohua Chinappa on memory, pain, and inheritance
24 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Features
Not just child’s play: Bengal’s rhymes as cultural memory
13 April 2026, 20:12 PM
Culture
Book Review: Nonfiction / Love, wounds, and the making of ‘Hemingway’s Women’
10 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Books & Literature
An Ekushey Book Fair breaking with tradition
21 September 2025, 13:05 PM
Books & Literature
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / An outlandish jumble of cults, cannibalism, and colonial violence
19 March 2025, 18:00 PM
Books
A novel crisscrossing cultures and time
The Storm is a tale of multiple compelling characters from around the world but all tied back to a crucial time and place in South Asia—a storm based on the real 1970 Bhola cyclone.
18 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Contextualising Islam, the social and the political
The issue of Islam in Bangladesh is complex, sensitive and fraught. It has problematised the sense of national identity of Bangladeshis into a schizophrenic duality driven by the tension between the cultural and religious aspects of their collective personality.
18 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Sahela
It was Ramadan. It was hot. Even though I was sitting inside an air-conditioned car, I could feel the heat. I was dozing and counting minutes and wondering how much time we Dhakites waste everyday in commuting.
12 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Leftover Loyalties
Our weapons were taken away the day the General discovered the note I had written to Aumita. I could sense his disappointment, but luckily he cared more about the indignity of having to give up his arms over a subordinate's love affair with a foreign girl.
12 October 2018, 18:00 PM
In Search of My Nanna's Bungalow
Last weekend I went in search of my Nanna's bungalow. Seventy years ago, during World War II and in the years just after it, my mother and I had stayed with her mother in her bungalow in Erith, a small Thameside port, now part of Greater London.
12 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Two Poems of Al Mahmud
The saga of courage is gradually coming to an end. O poet, once
12 October 2018, 18:00 PM
TWO POEMS
What's the point in counting years, While the intensities are wasted, In bickering, fame and money matters?
12 October 2018, 18:00 PM
The Paradox of Reality
I woke to the sound of a storm--The Wind howled like a wounded animal, Violating the trees. The leaves danced in a manic rhythm, Branches swished to a primal beat: the mighty thunder.
5 October 2018, 18:00 PM
A Grey Torment
After a long day of work, Selim was returning home, tired and disgruntled by the unalterable toils of his life. He longed to reach home, take a lengthy shower, have a good meal and sleep like a log for the next seven hours.
5 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Prey
There was a deafening noise! As soon as the bullets were fired from my rifle, I saw two birds flying away in the sky, dazzling in afternoon sunlight. And the third one fell down like a shooting star under the very tree they were sitting on. But I could barely see it because the bushes there walled off the view.
5 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Colour, or a Lack Thereof
On a lazy weekend midday, Baba should be fast asleep- preferably and effectively. There would be no going out otherwise.
5 October 2018, 18:00 PM
White Tears: A New Look on Life
White Tears is the fifth novel of Hari Kunzru who is a promising writer of the time, easily distinguishable for his consummate writing skills and imaginative boldness.
5 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Fear and loathing in the White House
"Fear" is an important book not only because it raises serious questions about the American president's basic fitness for office, but also because of who the author is.
4 October 2018, 18:00 PM
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's Aranyak (1939): the “Modern,” the “Non-modern” and the Nation-state
Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay is a name entwined with the rural Bengal and its people. He specifically focused on the north-western districts of the undivided Bengal and brought out an amazing portrayal of the simple rustic life and its scenic beauty.
28 September 2018, 18:00 PM
The Bluestocking Salons of Eighteenth-Century Britain
I enjoyed reading my teacher and mentor Fakrul Alam's “The Literary Club of 18th-Century London” (Daily Star, 20 August 2018). Referring to our age-old practice of having literary addas (chatting circles) and London's “The Club” better known as “Literary Club” which Samuel Johnson (1709-84) and Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) founded in 1764, he pointed to a comparable literary tradition of Bengal and Britain.
28 September 2018, 18:00 PM
ALL ROADS LEAD TO GULISTAN
She stood at the edge of the elegant Jinnah Avenue, a stone's throw away from the leafy environs of Government House, the undisputed Queen of the cinemas: Gulistan, the 'rose garden' of Dacca's cinema-loving public.
28 September 2018, 18:00 PM
The short story
Short stories are in. Or is the short story dead? Is it seeing a resurgence? The genre seems to be in need of constant justification despite established and novice writers alike constantly churning out short stories.
27 September 2018, 18:00 PM
The making of motifs
This non-fiction is a comprehensive documentation of the ancient Jamdani motifs, with introductions, sources, explanations, line drawings, images and anecdotes attached to them; making it a holy grail for design students, textile and fashion designers, artisans, weavers, researchers, fashion entrepreneurs and craft enthusiasts.
17 September 2018, 18:00 PM
Just a Temporary Marriage
It had been raining lightly since morning. During the monsoon, the North-Eastern Bengal Haor wetland areas would go under deep water, the water remaining for half of the year. Boats would become the prime mode of transportation.
14 September 2018, 18:00 PM
The Door (Part 2)
It was a common story. A campus that was under the tyrannical rule of a leading political party. Students kneeling down to conformity. A few rebellious ones that refused to obey.
14 September 2018, 18:00 PM