Mahfuzur Rahman A press conference is an ideal event where reporters get the opportunity to assert themselves as journalists in real sense. The duty of a good reporter is to gather information to file a good report from any event…
Category: Literature
Literature circles help develop language, collaboration
Masum Billah A literature circle is an activity in which members meet to discuss and respond to a book that they are all reading.( Daniels 2002). As Cameron et al (2012) explains, literature circles are led mostly by students, while…
Jalebi Uncoiled: The unmaking of human emotions!
Sudhirendar Sharma Festive season reminds me about the transformation the world of sharing seasons’ greetings has gone through. From those days when as teenagers we were made to ferry plateful of sweets across neighboring households to later years when we…
Paul Beatty’s ‘The Sellout’ is first US Booker Prize winner
London (AP/UNB) — Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” a stinging satire of race and class in the United States that has drawn comparisons to Richard Pryor and Mark Twain, won the Man Booker Prize on Tuesday — the first time an…
Magazines that can help us make better food decisions
Danielle Nierenberg When it comes to deciding what is for dinner, eaters’ decisions can be determined by more than taste alone. Food choices affect the environment, the economy, health, social justice, politics, and more. Luckily, there are a number of…
Vice head: Prepare for media bloodbath this year
By David Sillito This year will be a “bloodbath” in the world of media, according to the head of one of the fastest growing digital media businesses, Vice. The youth brand that began as a magazine in Canada is now…
‘Impolite and arrogant’
Dhaka – Bob Dylan’s failure to acknowledge his Nobel Prize in literature is “impolite and arrogant”, according to a member of the body that awards it. The 75-year-old singer was named the shock winner of the prize last week.
Home is where the market is!
Sudhirendar Sharma The universal market places, automotive teller machines and chain coffee shops give a false sense of home, and an unrealistic identity. The universal market places, automotive teller machines and chain coffee shops give a false sense of home,…
Jalebi Uncoiled: You do yours, and mine too!
Sudhirendar Sharma Times may have changed but not for today’s parents whose collective frustration spills out in the open when it comes to discussing their offspring. Unceremonious adages like ‘highly irresponsible’, ‘grossly careless’, ‘poorly empathetic’ and ‘increasingly narcissistic’ are pressed…
Gandhi: My life is my message
Robert J. Burrowes As most of the world ignores or hypocritically celebrates the 147th birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on the International Day of Nonviolence on 2 October, some of us will quietly acknowledge his life by continuing to build…
Syed Shamsul Haq dies at 81
Versatile writer Syed Shamsul Haq passed away at a city hospital on Tuesday evening. He was 81.Haq, who had long been fighting with deadly lung cancer, breathed his last at United Hospital around 5:26, hospital sources said.He left behind his…
Journalist Ataus Samad, recalled, eulogised
Noted journalist and former leader of the journalist community Kamal Lohani said on Monday that the works of Ataus Samad should be preserved as an asset for the development of the journalists’ skills and practical knowledge.
Mathematics may be akin to cooking
Sudhirendar Sharma Cooking and math may have begun as simple and useful crafts but these have evolved into complex and pleasurable arts today. Could there be any similarity between mathematics and cookery? Neither do cooks deal in numbers nor do…
Jalebi uncoiled: Use the abuse, make a choice!
Sudhirendar Sharma Whatever be the reason for Philippine President Duterte to use angry expletives in addressing the US President Obama recently, one thing is clear that ‘abuse’ is trans-national and could be used as a potent weapon at any level.…
World values: Family, work, friends, leisure, religion & politics
Researchers from the Vienna-based Institute for Comparative Survey Research surveyed 86,000 people from 60 countries worldwide during the period from 2010 to 2014 to gain insight into the relative importance of a select set of values. These values were: family,…
No, I’m just looking!
Sudhirendar Sharma Is the iconic secret agent transforming both as a figure of desire as well as the figure who desires?
The inability to think of the unthinkable
Sudhirendar Sharma Public response to climate change is caught between the polarities of widespread denial and overt activism. Like tigers in the Sundarbans, where the beast remains elusive but not its footmarks, climate change is seemingly everywhere and yet found…
China shuts down internet reporting
By Yaqiu Wang/CPJ Northeast Asia Correspondent On July 1, popular internet portal Tencent, in its original news reporting section, published an article on a speech that President Xi Jinping gave the same day at a conference celebrating the 95th anniversary…
“The search for extra-terrestrial life in the Universe” published
One of the most enthralling questions that we often find ourselves asking is that whether there is life beyond Earth or are we just alone in this ever expanding massive Universe? Often times, it is through books, movies and TV…
Brainstorming for generating new ideas
Masum Billah When a group of people meet to generate new ideas around a specific area of interest, this situation can be called brainstorming which employs individual’s interest, time and trying to go deep into a topic or area. People are…
Mahasweta Devi dies in Kolkata at 90
Renowned Bengali author and activist Mahasweta Devi died in a Kolkata nursing home on Thursday, leaving behind a formidable literary legacy that focused on the lives of marginalised communities. The 90-year-old died of cardiac arrest due to multiple-organ failure. She…
Of paradox and possibility
Sudhirendar Sharma While the collective power of many small (apolitical) efforts to bring about change is acknowledged, what gets missed out is the fact that development is inherently a political process. India is a land of paradox: if there is…
The delusion ‘I am not responsible’
Robert J. Burrowes One of the many interesting details to be learned by understanding human psychology is how a person’s unconscious fear works in a myriad of ways to make them believe that they bear no responsibility for a particular…
A spouse for all seasons
Sudhirendar Sharma Let me be honest that I was not ready to encounter upfront what I had only read and heard in the recent past. A light tremor shook me when Peter introduced me to Paul, his ‘husband’, and he…
A bone-dry dystopia
Sudhirendar Sharma To keep some fountains running while million others survive on ‘hydration packs’ is the worst form of inequality that human civilization could usher in the name of progress.
Lament for humanity: A 50-year reflection
Robert J. Burrowes Deeply affected by the death of my two uncles in World War II, on 1 July 1966, the 24th anniversary of the USS Sturgeon sinking of the Japanese prisoner-of-war ship Montevideo Maru which killed the man after…
A critique of human society since the Neolithic Revolution
Robert J. Burrowes There is a long history of social critics and progressive thinkers offering critiques of human society. Among those who are better known, Karl Marx offered a critique of capitalism, anarchists have critiqued the state, Mohandas K. Gandhi…
Syed Shamsul Haq flown to, hospitalised in London
Dhaka – Eminent writer Syed Shamsul Haq was taken to London on Friday for the treatment of his lung disease. President of Jatiya Kabita Parishad Dr.Muhammad Samad told UNB on Saturday that the prolific writer and poet was admitted to…
Tourism minister urges researchers to focus on folk culture
Civil Aviation & Tourism Minster Rashed Khan Menon has urged folk-researchers of the country to come forward and focus on the folklore. Folks will be pulled from the clutches of the market economy. Because of the Bengali nationalism is closely…
Adoring mother tongue with literary creations
By Nava Thakuria Guwahati: Celebrated Kannada writer Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa, wh o is widely regarded as one of modern India’s foremost novelists, opines that the children in schools across India should be taught in mother tongue. Professor Bhyrappa, who was…