Naveed Mahbub

HUMOROUSLY YOURS

The writer is an engineer at Ford & Qualcomm USA and CEO of IBM & Nokia Siemens Networks Bangladesh turned comedian (by choice), the host of ABC Radio's Good Morning Bangladesh and the founder of Naveed's Comedy Club. E-mail: naveed@naveedmahbub.com

When Harry Met Salary

When Harry met Meghan, two things were set in motion.

4y ago

Heavy New Year

The legendary ball drops at New York City’s Time Square, the Sydney Opera House is all lit up from fireworks as are the Eiffel Tower and many other landmarks around the world, not to mention the countless non-descript ones.

4y ago

The smog was the limit

Everyone knows you are the sharpest officer, but be prepared to put “Maj. (Retd.)” before your name once you hang up your uniform for good. Ok, maybe not. Since you stand out so much from the rest, you’ll advance further, to the rank of Lt. Col., tops. Ok? Now go, finish up your staff college and be happy with “PSC” at the end of your name and stop dreaming of adding an NDC (National Defense College) on your business card.

4y ago

Have None, Will Travel

You want to now pack me up and send me to Timbuktu?” yells Dennis Palmer, sitting at the head of the table in the meeting room.

4y ago

Every breath you take

Neither Pink Floyd nor the Pink Panther had anything to do with Bangladesh’s pink wash, but the good thing is that Bangladesh at least didn’t let India play for a good two days during the first test. In fact, the runs of our boys in the first innings were 0,1,8,1,6,0,0,0,4, which together was perhaps a cryptic message to Robi to once again pick up the team sponsorship.

4y ago

To Cut or Not to Cut

When a cyclone is named Bulbul, chances are people, at least in Bangladesh, won’t take it seriously. And we are Bangladeshis—what freaks us out is not a number 9 signal, but the lowest number

5y ago

Indecent Proposal

A bit more about “special” rooms from my column a few weeks ago, when Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) was in the news for the wrong reasons. It’s room 429, Nazrul Islam Hall.

5y ago

The last and the ludicrous

Hats off to the Ministry of Public Administration for taking the bold step of introducing paternity leave. Better be clear though about the cap on the number of such leaves, else we will have a population explosion 2.0.

5y ago
September 27, 2019
September 27, 2019

What Happens in Fakirapool...

We go gambling in a rickshaw, dreaming of returning in a fifty lakh Taka car and end up returning in a one crore taka jalopy of a bus.

September 20, 2019
September 20, 2019

Double Trouble

Give him a piece of wire, a nut, a bolt and a small sheet of aluminium foil, and MacGyver makes a Mach 2.0 aircraft in the blink of an eye. For us with wide eyes and narrow choices of TV channels (in fact, just one), the man with the blonde mullet (a term I learn many

August 23, 2019
August 23, 2019

For the Fear of…

As our plane makes its final approach in to Chennai Airport, my 7-year-old, who has just recently graduated from flying phobia to the class of thrill seekers, tells me: “Baba, I LOVE rough landings.”

August 17, 2019
August 17, 2019

If It Ain’t Broke…

If anyone on board is getting any relief, well, relatively speaking, it is the tallest couple, aka, Mr and Mrs Giraffe, for at least they have their heads sticking out into the ocean breeze (gusty wind really) while the Aedes carry out their (supposedly) lethal,

June 1, 2019
June 1, 2019

Operation Desert…

When it comes to “blue eyed soul” music, Michael Bolton comes to mind. To the point that the joke among young bachelors is that listening to him is a manifestation of getting jilted or being enamoured head over heels.

May 24, 2019
May 24, 2019

A Dime A Dozen

A little bit of rain and Gulshan Avenue becomes Gulshan River.

May 11, 2019
May 11, 2019

Ramadan Mubarak!

The gentleman in Lakshmipur orders a watch online. When he receives the package, he discovers two Indian onions. I hope he has held on to them, for now that it is Ramadan, he can sell those two onions for more than the price of the watch he had initially ordered.

May 3, 2019
May 3, 2019

Mayday May Day

The captain boasts of taking advantage of the tail wind, the earth’s rotation and the earth’s curvature, but the fact remains that Los Angeles (LAX) to the airline’s hub city takes no less than 16 hours.

April 26, 2019
April 26, 2019

Humanity Shattered

When I check into a hotel, the first thing I do is people watch, and I do so with a smile. I play a game with myself to see if I can guess the reason why this particular person or group of people is at that hotel.

February 17, 2019
February 17, 2019

The Inevitable Second Gear

Remember that story where the resident on the ground floor (let's call him "A") would be woken up in the middle of the night every night by two successive "thud" sounds? The tenant upstairs (let's call him "B") would come home late,