Research should be about pursuing knowledge, not publication numbers
15 August 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
The fine line between moral courage and entitlement
8 August 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
When waiting in line for subsidised food turns deadly
1 August 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
Before Bangladesh adds a third language, it needs the right language policy
25 July 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
What the protest by HSC candidates tells us
18 July 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
Bangladesh must hold its own amid changing geopolitics
11 July 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
Half a million HSC dropouts signal a silent crisis
4 July 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
The institutional push behind academic brain drain
28 June 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
We cannot avoid the moral questions behind the measles and Ad-din crises
20 June 2026
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Blowin’ in the Wind
Will this be the budget that transforms education?
13 June 2026
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Opinion
Toxic spirit and sensationalism
Five students of a private university went to a restaurant at Uttara to get a drink.
12 February 2021
Learning unlearning and relearning
Growing up in the 80s, one of the silliest things we used to do was to play loud music in our cassette decks.
5 February 2021
E-learning: A boon or a bane?
In our Viber group, a departmental colleague shared an excerpt from a student’s exam script. The student wrote down the title of Jhumpa Lahiri’s book “The Interpreter of Maladies” as “The Translator of Disease”.
22 January 2021
Consuming facts without flavours
A national newspaper ran a story on January 10 featuring the research expenditure of public and private universities of Bangladesh.
15 January 2021
‘A tumultuous and triumphal homecoming’
On January 17, 1972, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was featured on the cover of Time magazine.
9 January 2021
Reimagining the future of education
Getting the news of vaccine was a figurative shot in the arm for the human race plagued by an ever-evolving crown-shaped virus.
1 January 2021
World Rankings and Indexes: Like Ducks to Water
Ever since a London based agency Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) partnered with Times Higher Education to measure “academic excellence” against a host of quality indicators at the beginning of the millennium, universities all over the world have been attracted to the idea like ducks to water.
25 December 2020
On shared and contested histories
National Professor Rafiqul Islam, speaking at a virtual event organised by ULAB in remembrance of the martyred intellectuals, mentioned that the job of writing the history of the Liberation War should have been given to the universities from the start and not to the politicians.
18 December 2020
The inescapable greed grid of the health sector
I walked out of the doctor’s chamber with my mother when someone took the prescription from me.
11 December 2020
In Like a Lion, Out Like a Kitty
A lot of whimpers and whines are coming out of the White House as the sun sets on the Trump presidency. The man in question is convinced that he has been cheated out of power.
4 December 2020
On being ‘silly’
On a day like this, 33 years ago, I became a man. To be precise, on November 28, 1987 at 12:10 pm in the emergency ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), I became a man.
27 November 2020
The Shame of Being a Man
I woke up with a colleague’s hesitant post on Facebook wishing his friends well on the International Men’s Day. The comment thread is filled with issues ranging from locker room banter to the high theory on the dominant form of masculinity.
20 November 2020
Never waste a good crisis
One more circular. One more extension. The opening of the educational institutions is further delayed; this time up to December 19.
13 November 2020
An Unnatural Death
Have you ever put your ear to the rail to listen to the rumbling sound of an approaching train? I have. Many of us have.
23 October 2020
HSC results without exams: The pros and cons
You have near perfect vision, or 20/20 vision, if you can see the letters of an eye-chart from a 20 feet distance. 20/20 is an exciting cricket game if you can add two ounces of cricket with one ounce of baseball and garnish it with pom-poms.
9 October 2020
A game of kabadi against corruption
As the old joke has it, there is no lid in the mouth of hell where the Bengalis are kept.
25 September 2020
No onion, no cry
In his Ode to the Onion, the Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda praises onions as “the miracle” that happens under the earth.
18 September 2020
A Corpse of Love Doesn’t Sink in Water
The title alludes to a very famous folk song by Abdul Alim, Premer Mora Jole Dobe Na. The song pits true love against so-called flings, suggesting that mere water cannot drown the “body” who is in love.
11 September 2020
Rage, rage against the ragging in the campus
English professors are known for being sticklers for rules. Even if I try to disassociate myself from the grammar Nazis, there are times when I have to wonder about the usage of certain words.
4 September 2020
Losing a Loved One: When Doves Cry
“And my last ask is: if you’re someone’s sister, the next time you see your brother, please hug him… as tightly as you can, for as long as you want, because that’s all I want to do every time I see those photos. But I will never be able to hug Fahim again.”
21 August 2020