The Mughal effect on Bengal is so far-reaching that even to this day, we try to create those culturally illustrious items for ourselves and happily embrace our past to go on in the present. During the Mughal era, alongside the Persian effect that influenced architecture, cuisine, and culture, Benga
A land of diverse landscapes, from majestic green mountains to pristine beaches, Saudi Arabia, is home to beautiful valleys and lush green parks, along with an array of all year-round destinations for travellers to explore. The cloud-shrouded valleys of Taif and the various highlands of the Aseer r
Imagine someone, perhaps inspired by a favourite band or a soulful acoustic song, decides to pick up the guitar. They are excited, full of energy, and can't wait to play the songs they love. A new guitar is bought, lessons are taken, and the journey begins. But after a few months, that same guitar
When there was no internet, computers, and smartphones, words like ‘digital’ or ‘online’ didn’t exist, and kids had unique plans to entertain themselves. They had spacious houses, courtyards, empty compounds, and terraces. There were countless named and unnamed country
Suppose one day you are working on your home, trying to renovate it, and discovering an entire city behind your basement. As unlikely as that sounds, precisely, this is what happened to a man from Turkey. In 1963, a local man in the Cappadocia region of Turkey noticed his chickens disappearing thr
Once upon a time…, no, not a king story, but there were melas, i.e., local fairs, even in big cities of Bangladesh, including Dhaka. The cities had a festive image year-round, from Baishakhi mela to Eid mela to Durga puja mela, and the culture around these used to make Dhaka more colourful t
The Rath Yatra festival of Sri Sri Jagannathdev, a significant religious event for followers of Sanatan Dharma, commenced on July 7. Jagannathdev's chariot journey begins annually on the second tithi of the Shukla Paksha of Chandra Ashadha. The International Krishna Consciousness Sangh (ISKCON) ha
Every year, millions of pilgrims from around the world visit Makkah and Madinah, the two holiest sites in Islam, for Hajj and Umrah. This year, from the 14th to the 19th of June, about 1.83 million Muslims worldwide and more than 85,000 Muslims from Bangladesh alone performed Hajj. Despite the a
Dragons, mystic and terrifying fire breathers, have been in mythologies and folktales worldwide. Often depicted as giant serpents or lizards with dinosaurian prowess, they are subject to human imagination for millennia. Dragon Dolores is modified and adapted across cultures and continents into vari
Just as these verses by Poet Chandidash portray, innumerable hearts have been sold to the timeless elegance and grace of shari over the centuries. Beyond its role as a clothing staple for tasteful women, shari has found itself at the end of an artist's pen as a recurring subject of romanticism and
The priciest sarees woven in the Indian subcontinent are testaments to the craftsmanship of making a saree. One not only needs to know these Sarees, but they need to be styled with grace, aura, and charm to capture the essence of the attire and share it with others. Price is just a tag, but the S
On a beautiful moonlit night, Rabindranath Thakur sat by the balcony of Shilaidaha Kuthibari, drawing inspiration from the moon's serene beauty for his poem or song. The distant yet visible rivers, Padma and Gorai, mesmerized the great poet through the Kuthibari's wooden windows. Daily, he observed
Before the astronomical discoveries, people romanticized the Moon for its mysteriously bejewelled shimmer according to their imaginations. This practice used to be very common among many cultures. The Moon symbolizes love, passion, healing, emotion, intuition, kindness, memories, secrecy, femininit
