Rickshaw restrictions: privilege for some, disaster for the puller

For the longest time my vocabulary in Bengali was limited to bame, dane and ekhane. Three little words that proved invaluable when navigating Dhaka traffic from the back of a rickshaw.
9 November 2017

One year and counting…

Dizen Tudu wasn't always a calculative person. There was a time when he could work in the field under the sweltering heat all day and still have enough energy left in him to play with his three boys at home in the evening.
9 November 2017

MAILBOX

An article titled “How effective will the anti-discrimination law be?” published in the Star Weekend has rightly highlighted the social isolation and discriminations faced by the third gender.
9 November 2017

SNAPSHOT

“But some secrets are too delicious not to share.” ― Suzanne Collins
9 November 2017

The promise of municipalities

Bangladesh's towns and cities are infested with problems resulted from uncontrolled population growth and unplanned infrastructural developments.
2 November 2017

Jailed in God's own country

While Bangladeshi trafficked victims and those looking for work have traditionally been found in various parts of Northern India, finding them in the southernmost parts of the country is a relatively new trend.
2 November 2017

How Trump is endangering undocumented Bangladeshi-American youth

A group of undocumented Bangladeshi-Americans are in a fix but there is no talk of it in their country of origin.
2 November 2017

MAILBOX

The article on Alia madrasa based education system published in Star Weekend on October 27, 2017 really drew my attention.
2 November 2017

Lazy man's guide to becoming fit like Hugh Wolverine

We have seen him flex his muscles and unsheathe his claws. Women and men love him with equal intensity.
2 November 2017

About Town

Dhaka International Folk Fest 2017
2 November 2017

Meet the world's most infamous diamond

The world's most infamous little diamond—only the 90th largest in the world—glimmers along a bloody trail from throne to armband, (briefly) a humble paperweight, from brooch to crown, smuggled and secreted, carelessly misplaced or locked away, looted, gifted, exhibited, mocked, cut and, even today, sought by several claimants.
2 November 2017

Where blue birds fly

All the houses in the city have it—an empty patch under the sky.
2 November 2017

Stranger thoughts

The slow but steady permeation of American and British TV into the lives of millennials and post-millennials has been raged at by living-room social scientists ever since Ross and Rachel found out that going back and forth in a relationship before marriage makes for good television.
2 November 2017

“Subodh” artist arrested [SATIRE]

Dhaka, Bangladesh: The police in Dhaka have arrested an artist who they say is the creator of the much-talked-about graffiti series “Subodh,” along with his two alleged collaborators.
2 November 2017

The abandoned mothers

Thirteen-year-old Rupa Akter begs on a foot over-bridge in the capital's Shewrapara area, with her eight-month-old son, Nirob. Akter lives in a makeshift house (if one can call the threadbare tarp tent a house) under the bridge—her unemployed husband left her and married another woman during her pregnancy.
2 November 2017

Xi Jinping bores party into submission, takes over world

Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, has recently been bandied about by serial exaggerators like The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy as the most powerful man in the world.
2 November 2017

The bittersweet magic of “Spirited Away”

I was nine, perhaps eight. In a darkened room where a small television set glowed and sang, I trembled with the knowledge that I was the only person who had ever felt these things. That isn't entirely true, of course, but in my imagination, it had seemed just as good.
26 October 2017

Is BTV obsolete?

BTV, at best, is a nostalgic reminder of the past—of the powerful, yet entertaining serials and dramas of the 70s and 80s—when it was the sole broadcaster of the country.
26 October 2017

The colonial hangover in academia

The colleges and universities established during the colonial period have, hitherto, contained, concealed and, in many cases, carried out this colonial purpose in the subcontinent.
26 October 2017

Not just a one-hour test

University of Dhaka (DU) undergraduate admission tests remind us that you only live once; after all, there is no second chance for test-takers.
26 October 2017