Andrew Eagle

A Villager’s Guide to Feeding Foreigners

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.

5y ago

Corporate training needs a Bangladeshi spin

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.

5y ago

Life lesson in Sylhet

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.

5y ago

At home in the saddle

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.

6y ago

Natore's princess poet

For seven generations from the early-eighteenth century, the zamindars of Dighapatia near Natore were landlords of a vast estate,

6y ago

When darkness falls

Morzina Begum from Daktarpara in Rangpur town works in a bidi factory, rolling cheap cigarettes. Aged 75, it's not an ideal

6y ago

Bloom and grow, forever

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.

6y ago

Cost of floating farms on the rise

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.

6y ago
January 6, 2018
January 6, 2018

A misplaced focus

Rajshahi Zoo was once a prime recreation facility for city-dwellers and visitors. But since the city corporation took responsibility for its management in 1996, the zoo's grounds have steadily dwindled in size.

January 5, 2018
January 5, 2018

Jhalakathi's ponds face grabbing threat

Public ponds have been part and parcel of Jhalakathi town for centuries. But this heritage is now being lost due to illegal land

January 5, 2018
January 5, 2018

Many struggle with unemployment

When the ashrayan public housing project was developed on four acres in Shailkuria village in Laohati union of Tangail's Delduar

January 4, 2018
January 4, 2018

Historic theatre at risk of eviction

Regular patrons of cultural events, along with performers in Lalmonirhat town, are in anguish over the likely loss of the historic theatre

January 3, 2018
January 3, 2018

Kayaks prove popular

Around four thousand years ago the Inuit, Yup'ik and Aleut peoples of the North American Arctic invented kayaks. Originally constructed of stitched seal skin stretched over a wooden or whalebone frame, the canoe-like boats

January 3, 2018
January 3, 2018

Silk industry flourishes in the hills

Several of the peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are famous for weaving. The production of traditional cloth and woven goods,

January 1, 2018
January 1, 2018

A fuel for the future

A smoky kitchen has long been a health hazard for Bagerhat's villagers, especially housewives and children. Now, a growing number of

December 30, 2017
December 30, 2017

A Briton with a Bangladeshi Heart

In 1960, British citizen and graduate Lucy Helen Frances Holt left the land of her birth and travelled to then East Pakistan to pursue

December 29, 2017
December 29, 2017

Abdullah's medicinal garden blessing for the poor

Understanding the medicinal properties of plants is a world of wisdom, a bank of knowledge which has often been handed down

December 27, 2017
December 27, 2017

Fish made 'fresh' thru adulteration

Fish ready for sale in Jhalakathi's twice-weekly Bargri Hat market couldn't be more attractive. The fish look fresh and shiny; but the