For a few years now, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), the largest state-owned publishing house in the world, has been immensely criticised by civil society for their misprints, factual errors and ideologically inappropriate content.

Little Akib was in the last stages of advanced AIDS. A boy of 12, he looked six years old and was all skin and bones. He breathed his last on Sunday night. “He was fine this morning, talking and getting ready. I fed him as usual,” said his nani.

The fallout since Tazreen shows us that nothing really has changed in the garments industry. As the accounts of the Tazreen workers illustrate, they are left alone to pick up the pieces.

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” —Gabriel García Márquez

"I was so happy when I saw the madam of the house, I told her I'd do whatever she asked of me,” described Moyna. “She took me to a room and asked me if I wanted to shower after my long flight from Bangladesh.” Moyna said yes.

This is a very valid question asked by Star Weekend in its article published on November 17, 2017. Although Bangladesh's two main political parties are led by women, male dominance in the political arena is quite prominent.

“Sometimes I think it is a great mistake to have matter that can think and feel. It complains so. By the same token, though, I suppose that boulders and mountains and moons could be accused of being a little too phlegmatic.”

The Weinstein company announced today that the classic ensemble heist film, Ocean's Eleven, is being remade for the 14th time. While they are still searching for a spare Brad Pitt clone, some of the cast has been revealed.

Blowing in the Wind

About two years ago, James May, mop-haired British TV personality and certified automotive encyclopedia-on-legs, was still presenting for Top Gear, the BBC's acclaimed show on cars.

Behind the scene, in stage terms, is all that goes on behind what you see on stage as the audience. What you see on stage is more like the tip of the iceberg. You see only one-eighth of what it is. The rest of the seven parts of the iceberg remains unseen.

"I feel like I've stumbled upon a new species of something,” marveled Sharbari Ahmed, as she moderated a conversation between Jesse Ball and David Szalay. Ball had just revealed his writing process: one week, first draft, sent to press.

Her Stories: Adventures of Supergirls” is a book of illustrated stories about 21 Bengali women from Ancient Bengal to present-day. This book was produced by The HerStory Foundation. Zareen Mahmud Hosein founded HerStory to focus on the empowerment of women and gender equality through art and documentation.

Once upon a time on the bank of the Fulesshari river, there lived a Supergirl by the name of Chandrabati. It was Chandrabati who started telling the HerStories. Before her time, stories were told about princes, heroes, and rajas, but Chandrabati wrote about heroines, princesses and ranis. This changed everything.

In the immediate aftermath of the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, one of the first acts initiated by Paul Bremer, then de facto ruler of Iraq, was to reduce the rate of corporation tax from 40 to 15 percent.

It has been five years since Reba leaped out of the third floor of the Tazreen garments factory and fractured both her legs. It's been half-a-decade since a rod pierced through Akash's eyebrow, after he smashed a window in an attempt to escape the burning floor. It has also been five years since either of them have had a good night's sleep.

"With their parallel lives, animals offer men a companionship different from any other human exchange. Different because it is a companionship offered to the loneliness of man as a species."

Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury Tutul started the little magazine Shuddhashar in 1990. Fourteen years later, it grew into Shuddhashar, the publishing house, known for bringing about a new wave in the Bangladeshi publishing scene.

The power of words can move a nation to war, or spread the spirit of love and hope, and in-between, arouse a whole range and scale of passions and emotions in men that may change their fortunes forever.

As far as access to internet is concerned, Bangladesh has made decent progress. Going by the latest figures of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), there are more than 79 million internet subscribers in the country.