If you’re a straightforward villager like me, you’ll be curious to entertain the foreigner. Before you do there are things to consider. Foreigners have foreign ways; allowances are required. Yet, despite the inherent challenge it’s good to feed one. Even foreigners need to eat.
Importing corporate training modules is fraught with danger. It’s time to recognise the uniqueness and strengths of Bangladeshi corporate culture, and for training providers to tailor sessions accordingly.
Away from the news. Away from the enormity of a planet on the brink. Away from inner restlessness there is yet life. It’s what I learnt in Sylhet.
She's determined and courageous: at the tender age of twelve, Tasmina Aktar from Chak Subolpur village in Naogaon's Dhamoirhat upazila has quite a reputation in horse racing circles. The seventh-grade student is accustomed to placing first or second in any race. As a jockey she's participated in around fifty events. Tasmina is a girl undeterred, happy to compete in a sport usually reserved for men.
For seven generations from the early-eighteenth century, the zamindars of Dighapatia near Natore were landlords of a vast estate,
Morzina Begum from Daktarpara in Rangpur town works in a bidi factory, rolling cheap cigarettes. Aged 75, it's not an ideal
In and around Mathorpara village, in Gaibandha's Shaghata upazila, it's become usual for every newborn child to be welcomed into the world with the planting of a tree. The tradition began three years ago by 28-year-old visual artist Gopal Chandra Barmon, as an extension of a tree-planting hobby carried from boyhood.
In wetland areas of Pirojpur, farming on floating seedbeds called “dhap” is a tradition that spans centuries. Primarily constructed from water hyacinth, the seedbeds that are up to 180 feet long, four feet wide and two feet thick, allow farming in areas otherwise unavailable for regular crops. But this year, the rising cost of floating cultivation has farmers worried.
Initial observation: Deep night as the bus from Dhaka crossed Dinajpur District border. A few minutes later a woman needed to get
Beyond Sitakot in Dinajpur's Nawabganj the sal trees gather. Although unlikely locals believe Nawabganj National Park might be the
Sun-bright, heat-baked, sweat-dripping, glare-straining: is this the scene that greeted Sita when she followed husband Rama into
A burgeoning industry elsewhere, strawberry cultivation is relatively new to the coastal strip south of Cox's Bazar town. Last year
Dhaka, Khulna, Rangpur and Barisal: Mr Zhang likes to travel. “Bangladesh is poor,” he says, interpreted from Mandarin, “but people are very honest, especially in northern villages.”
The choice: facing trial for drug crimes resulting in a penalty of death or facing indefinite detention for no crime based on a secretive bureaucratic process… Which is crueller?
Nurul Amin, 60, of Sagoria Bazar in Burir Char Union of Noakhali's Hatiya Island, spent his younger years pursuing the career of snake charming. From there, like most snake charmers he knows, he switched to dentistry.
Coconuts, jackfruit, fish, papaya and rice… there's generosity to its geography.
“All the hotel rooms in Cox's Bazar are empty,” says Md Azad, manager in-charge at mid-range Hotel Ovisar, located some 100 metres from Laboni Beach.
It was after evening when we sat in the living room ready for adda, a chat that could foreseeably last half the night. Zaharul Islam, 50, had just arrived in the city from his home in Dinajpur's Ghoraghat. He found his way to my place from Gabtoli Bus Stand.
