Can our walls make space for our dissent?
The walls of Dhaka city represent the volume and chaos of thousands of people jostling for ever-shrinking space.
3m ago
4 books I was grateful to read this year
It's true, I feel differently about books that I previously disliked or enjoyed reading and books that I want as a physical presence in my life
4m ago
Outliers take centre-stage in Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection
It’s hard not to recall our many conversations about literature as I try to summarise Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection of short stories. They were always short discussions, opening and closing off in spurts, as happens over text. Exclamations over a new essay collection by Zadie Smith, or a new novel by Isabel Allende.
5m ago
Rifat Munim on Bangladeshi fiction: ‘This is a diverse terrain you are going to tread on’
In the foreword, I wanted to capture how I, as a child, grew up listening to different stories: ghost stories, mythical stories from both Sanatana and Islamic religious scriptures, and fairy tales from 'Thakurmar Jhuli', compiled by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. It was a time when there were no boundaries for my imagination.
9m ago
The first semester is your shitty first draft
Like many veterans, I joined a creative writing MFA program because I wanted to evolve as a writer.
10m ago
A glimpse of the Istanbul we don’t know
Here was a woman who was but a dot amidst the throngs of people who watched the Bosphorus Bridge being opened in October 1973, as fireworks erupted over a Turkey that now seamed Asia to Europe.
1y ago
In conversation with South Asia’s preeminent literary agent, Kanishka Gupta
I always tell the authors to make subjective, qualitative decisions. So many of my authors say no to higher offers from publishing houses if they don’t feel comfortable with the publisher or editor.
1y ago
A bookstore is a time machine—Zeenat Book Supply through the ages
Last week, one of Dhaka’s oldest bookstores announced that they will be closing shop after running for 60 years
1y ago
May 24, 2017
Why rape victims stay silent
From the outdated legal concepts under which cases of rape are tried in court, the “medical” tests that are required for proving rape, to the institutions which are supposed to stand by the survivor, it is not surprising that many women are scared or traumatised to even report incidents of sexual violence.
May 15, 2017
The bonds that run deep
In tracing the shifts from joint families of yesteryears to some single-parent households of today, what is happily evident is that the essence of the family remains the same.
May 4, 2017
Calculated cruelty over dowry
The fact that 13 women have been killed and 17 physically abused over dowry in Bangladesh in January and February of 2017 does little to rattle us. Neither do the figures of 107 deaths, five suicides, and 94 physical abuse victims in all of 2016.
April 29, 2017
When the blackboard comes to life
Looking up information on underprivileged children's education in Bangladesh, I found a picture online of a classroom that looked far
April 6, 2017
Widening the playing field
The internet is abound with stories of how sports can, and is, changing the world. How it helps build physical fitness and traits of teamwork, respect, and resilience.
March 30, 2017
THIS IS HOW THE SONG LIVES ON
Bill Condon's 2017 rendition of The Beauty and the Beast ends with a song by Céline Dion. “How does a moment last forever?
March 30, 2017
THE GRE TEST: NOT AS SCARY AS YOU THINK
Contrary to horror stories narrated by some standardised test veterans, the GRE isn't designed to rob you of your sleep and social life weeks before you sit for the test.
March 21, 2017
On resilience and hope in Bengali verse
As a student of English literature, “Eshob pore ki hobe?” is a question I've had to face on a near-daily basis.
March 9, 2017
The faces of Sexism
"They said that the divorce rate in Bangladesh is so high because women these days are getting too educated, which gives them the independence to leave their husbands when they are abused physically or refrained from an activity; this wouldn't be allowed in earlier times."
February 26, 2017
The language of hurt
A recent video circulating on Facebook, created for February 21, starts with a living room scene in a well-off household. A young girl of about eight or nine years – a house maid with bedraggled hair and a tired face – walks past her employer's daughter who is roughly as old as her.
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