There comes a time when every civilisation faces a conundrum. Without a doubt, it is the thought of what lies ahead.

Culinary knowledge distinguishes man from beast. Not my words! The thought was explicated in a 16th century Mughal text when detailing the workings of Emperor Akbar's kitchen.

How does one put city life within the proverbial parenthesis? In this concluding edition of The Daily Star Anniversary Supplement, we try to capture snippets from what can be termed as “Dhaka living.”

It would not be an understatement that Jazz, as a musical genre, defies all definitions.

For solving the jigsaw puzzle that is history, we look into a wide plethora of heritage items/symbols — from monuments to artworks to chronicles and to even myths for that matter! Another such significant piece of that puzzle is numismatics, the study of coins.

The cuckoo's call is ushering Spring, our favourite season. Once again, the premises of Charukola will fill with activities; cheerful women with garlands around their necks and gerbera blooms neatly tucked behind their ears will become a common sight.

I was introduced to Jibanananda in 1999. In December of the penultimate year of the last millennium, I became 18; Jibanananda Das had just turned 100 in February.

Melody is part of the Bangladeshi DNA, and no melody is complete without an instrument to go with it. Words often do not need a place as the sound of the bamboo flute mingles into the moonlight.

A peacock blue katan with paisley motifs, a blushing girl in her pony tails, and a black teep —that about sums up one of my favourite

Our identity is our truth. But the search for one's identity is anything but easy. It's because identity itself is not as straightforward a

“When they sell, copper turns to gold but when we do, that very same gold becomes dust…”

In today's world, urbanisation is an inescapable reality. In fact, for the first time in history, more than half the world population lives in urban areas.

Just over a decade ago, in 2008, almost half of the world's total population used to live in urban areas. This phenomenon has continued and is expected to gain further momentum in future.

If you look hard at a map of Dhaka city, you may notice a striking similarity with the side profile of a human face. The more you focus, the more you will notice that Uttara resembles the forehead, Mirpur resembles the eyes, Tongi resembles the scalp, Gabtoli resembles the nose, Motijheel resembles the mouth and Keraniganj resembles the throat.

Imagine yourself as an international tourist who just arrived in Dhaka to explore a quintessential city of the Global South. You checked into your hotel somewhere in Banani.

The word “city” comes from the Latin root “civis/civitas”, meaning citizen/citizenship. The expressions “civil/civic/civilisation” owe their pedigree to this Latin origin. Eventually, it came to correspond with the French “urbs”, meaning city in a more physical sense.

Seas have always been instrumental in defining the destiny of the world, be it as a means of transportation or as trade routes or as a hub of resources.

Based on World Economic Forum's (WEF) Inclusive Development Index-2018, Bangladesh ranks 34th, close to China (26th), and ahead of Pakistan (47th) and India (62nd), as of January 22, 2018 (when the IDI was published). One of the major contributors to this growth has been the growth of the start-up arena in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is a labour surplus country. Each year, around 2 million Bangladeshi youth join the labour force while about 200,000 new workers are absorbed into the formal sector. The rest find jobs in the informal sector or become self-employed.

The ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh is entering an important new chapter in its history. Decisions made now by the industry and its leaders could have important long-term ramifications.