Amiya Halder

Amiya Halder works as In-Charge for Daily Star's weekly career supplement Next Step. She has the daunting task of turning dull, sleep inducing articles into interesting content. She often steps in to create info-graphs which happens to be one of her specialties. Amiya has a recurring worry that her arms are too short for taking selfies, rather like the Tyrannosaurs Rex. This IBA student refuses to let her poor selfie taking skills hamper her team building activities. Most of that involves accepting LAN games of NFS and beating the guys most of the times at races. It's called team building exercise and she practices what she edits.

Nobody the Girl

It was the hour of waking on Winter Solstice and yet a radiant sun was rising on the already bustling borough of Colony. From the first glimmer of sunlight on the shortest day of the year, the citizens of Colony would take the Choice, till the World were momentarily plunged under the cover of darkness. Once the sun rose on the new season, a new Commandant would be named.

5y ago

Invoking the “Mantoiyat”

“This is a particularly timely film and in many ways, and perhaps self-contradicting ways, a comforting film.

6y ago

ALTERED CARBON

Although it's been out for over two months, the visually-thrilling, ultra-pulp tech-noir Altered Carbon has enjoyed relatively little fanfare. Created by Shutter Island screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis, Altered Carbon is set in a depraved new world 400 years in the future. Human consciousness now exists on “stacks”, and if you're rich enough, it can be downloaded and

6y ago

Priyabhashini's orchestrations of carbon

That Ferdousi Priyabhashini's driftwood creations are more sentient than inanimate becomes apparent the second you enter Shilpangan, a contemporary art gallery tucked away in a cosy corner of Dhanmondi 13. Her current exhibition, Megher Shongi, is a tribute to the monsoon, her most loved of the six seasons, and the inspiration for her woodwork orchestrations. With boats and boatsmen, long-legged water-birds, and stranded figurines, her characters and forms look like they've emerged straight out of a tempest.

6y ago

Tickle your intellect this Lit Fest

It's that time of the year again—to soak in the muted, winter sun on the dewy early-morning lawn, sipping shatkora and lotkon sherbets as you give up body and soul to rapturous lines of poetry, all eyes and ears for the literary luminaries and cultural icons who grace the grounds of Bangla Academy this weekend-and-a-half as Dhaka Lit Fest (DLF) returns for its third year.

7y ago

Rules of engagement

A nine-to-five workday spent dangerously close with the opposite sex in a sequestered office cubicle makes it painstakingly difficult for things not to get steamy once in a while.

7y ago

Tall, handsome and deathly—the enduring allure of vampires

Growing up, vampires were never quite the James Deans of the undead that they are today. Vampires that I would encounter were middle-aged, had an unwholesome pallor, the same coiffure as Alfalfa from The Little Rascals, and god-awful vaguely-European accents.

7y ago

Phoenix of Longadu

“After the landslide, it became all too clear where the aid was headed. Of course there would be an inclination to send relief to the Bengalis,” says Mrittika Kamal, Director of Terracotta Creatives and one of the curators of Phoenix of Longadu, a charity exhibition, held between October 16 and 19 at Drik Gallery, dedicated to raising funds for the affected families.

7y ago

July 21, 2017

'The Handmaid's Tale' is a dystopia all too familiar

The television adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is perhaps more hyperrealist than dystopian.

July 21, 2017

What kind of communicator are you?

By figuring out how you and those around you communicate, you can say just the right things and have more fruitful discussions.

July 14, 2017

A demographic time bomb?

According to the latest figures released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), around two million youths of working age are unemployed. Young university graduates are struggling the most to secure employment.

July 14, 2017

Want to pick up data science? Brush up on your math first

If you’re considering picking up data science online, but are feeling a little shaky with your stat skills, here are a couple of introductory courses to get you started.

July 14, 2017

The data-driven future is here

Next Step speaks to Cramstack, a data company with its very own business intelligence and analytics platform, about the data revolution in Bangladesh.

July 7, 2017

9 ways to have more effective meetings [INFOGRAPHIC]

If you've ever caught your team looking for an eject button on their conference room chairs, take heart! There are simple ways to make meetings highly productive.

July 7, 2017

Destruction of shops at Rath Mela and the ever-shrinking space for minorities

Last Saturday night, the 400-year-old Rath Mela in Dhamrai, a fair integral to the Hindu Rath Jatra Utsab and the biggest Rath Jatra festival of the country, was shut down by the police over what it called “security concerns”, the fair stalls forcibly dismantled, visibly destroyed, and their owners beaten up.

June 30, 2017

Unusual team building exercises of famous companies [INFOGRAPHIC]

Some of today's most famous bosses use whacky and out-there team building methods to make their companies more cohesive. And considering the success, it must be working!

June 23, 2017

What's the best country to work in? [INFOGRAPHIC]

While every company is different, national statistics for wages, paid holidays, sick leave, compensation, work hours and the world happiness index can be good indicators of what's a good place to work.

June 23, 2017

The single biggest driver of success is challenge

Stephen Filotas, Group Head of Route-to-Market and Customer Management, has spent what he calls “15 very short years” at British American Tobacco (BAT). He shares the biggest lessons he's learned over the years with Next Step during his visit to Bangladesh.