Views / Reviews

Spreading Love

Spreading Love

Dr Abu Ishahaq Hossain, a bilingual writer, poet, researcher, translator, lyricist and television programme presenter of Bangladesh, has twenty five books to his credit. While reading his anthologies 'Sense Off Sense' and 'Poet Prophet Lover' one feels going through a mystic experience. He is a sen


The global tapestry: embracing open economy in a shifting world

The global tapestry: embracing open economy in a shifting world

In an era marked by ever-expanding interconnectivity, open economy has evolved from a just theoretical idea to a reality that affects both the future of countries and the lives of individuals. The winds of globalisation have swept across the globe; economies and cultures are now knitted together in

Emotional Afghans, Tagore and Mujtaba Ali

Emotional Afghans, Tagore and Mujtaba Ali

Upon being torn by conflicts let loose by the 'expansionist' nations --- Britain, the Soviet Union and the US --- in the last one-and-half centuries, Afghanistan can now claim to have entered an era of tolerable stability. A putatively milder Taliban government is now in power. The regime assumed p

Revisiting Afghanistan two years after Taliban takeover

Revisiting Afghanistan two years after Taliban takeover

Recently the world was shocked when the Taliban government's Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice closed the Band-e-Amir national park to women, saying female visitors were failing to cover up. The park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, 110 miles west of Kabul, is renowned f

Why we must retain the habit of writing letters

Why we must retain the habit of writing letters

The wide-scale prevalence of the digital communication notwithstanding, people can be located everywhere who will continue to miss the letters written in longhand. Many, however, call it a myth. Because despite the digital form of writing's inability to retain an individual's personal traits, the w

Examining the causes and consequences of wars

Examining the causes and consequences of wars

When I started reading the book it appeared to me like reading a story. The author was narrating an incident of the past that occurred in the eighth century. It was about the reign of Mongols, particularly about the reign of Kublai khan, one of the Mongol emperors who set up his empire in China. Th

The rebellion of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the Rebel Poet

The rebellion of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the Rebel Poet

It was the unwaveringly vocal stance of Kazi Nazrul Islam (May 24, 1899 - Aug 29, 1976) on many sensitive issues of his time in the 1920s to early1940s, which made him a major poet of Bengal. The year was 1929, when Nazrul was accorded a public reception at Albert Hall in Kolkata. He was then 30, w

Tareque Masud's unique style of making movies

Tareque Masud's unique style of making movies

In spite of his being gifted with the potential for emerging as a major film maker of the country, the career of Tareque Masud (Dec 6, 1956- Aug 13, 2011) proved a tragic one. It was cut short by a road accident not far from the capital. Admires of Tareque and the people involved in making better c

Portrait of a lyrical yet inscrutable poet

Portrait of a lyrical yet inscrutable poet

Mohammad Rafiq and his contemporary poets belonged to generation of the 1960s. Despite his camaraderie with the poets of this batch, Rafiq has all through maintained a unique and distinctive character. This generation of the last century witnessed an era of political and cultural turbulence. In fac

Group theatre movement: Dhaka Theatre at fifty

Group theatre movement: Dhaka Theatre at fifty

In the very early years of the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the youths involved in the greater arts became impatient to start doing something new. Their goal was to create something fresh --- and completely free of the vestiges of pre-independence times. Music, painting, literature and a few

Reacting to stock market movements

Reacting to stock market movements

The stock market is a fascinating and often unpredictable world, where fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye. In recent years, Bangladesh's emerging economy has been a hotbed of activity although the country's stock market is yet to be seen as playing a pivotal role in driving the count

Challenges for hybrid and electric cars in Bangladesh

Challenges for hybrid and electric cars in Bangladesh

In the past month, Parlament passed the national budget for 2023-24. The budget saw a lot of 'firsts' in it, one of them being the introduction of carbon tax. CARBON TAX: Under the carbon tax that became effective from July 1, 2023, anyone who owns more than one car in Bangladesh will have to pay