Star Weekend
‘Like a morning after a nuclear attack’
A World Bank team that visited different areas of war-torn Bangladesh in June 1971 likened Kushtia to a bombed-out “WWII German town”.
Fear of sexual harassment triggering child marriage: survey
A recent survey by Plan International Bangladesh found that fear of sexual harassment and social exclusion are the major reasons behind parents marrying off their daughter at an early age.
For the Love of Tea
My baby boy snatches my empty tea mug from me and starts licking it. He was given the last few drops of tea from the mug and now he wants more. He puts his hand inside the mug, gets the boiled tea dust into his fist, inserts them in his mouth and starts chewing furiously.
Court Corner / SC forms committee against sexual harassment
The Supreme Court administration has formed a five-member committee to receive complaints of sexual harassment on court premises, conduct inquiry into them and make necessary recommendations to this effect.
UK-listed cybersecurity firm Avast in merger talks with NortonLifeLock
London-listed cybersecurity firm Avast is in advanced talks with US rival NortonLifeLock Inc about a merger that would create a clear leader in consumer security software.
THE FUTURE IS CENSORED
Ignoring the concerns of journalists and rights defenders, the Digital Security Act was passed in the parliament on September 19, 2019. It is known both at home and abroad to be draconian, antithetical to freedom of speech and democracy.
Why we need weekend magazines
So it has finally happened. Hard as it is to accept it, the Star Weekend magazine is about to close the curtain after an impressive run of 23 years.
THE LAST HUSTLE
The soft light of the setting sun illuminates the entire section every time I walk in, mostly because I AM ALWAYS LATE. On one side white balloons hang, on another side a dart board.
Two Meetings and a Funeral
“This movie is basically a war against forgetting,” explains one of the main protagonists at the end of Two Meetings and a Funeral, Naeem Mohaiemen’s mesmerising three-channel film about political ideals, the gigantic state architecture built to house them, and the Non-Aligned Movement.
Joker hits theaters
A mainstream Hollywood psychological thriller opening to an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival and then clinching its loftiest accolade so far, the Golden Lion, is not a run-of-the-mill incident in the global cinematic landscape.
Youth against fear and injustice
The public universities, old and new, are in quite a sorry state. It seems that these institutions exist only to offer support for the government’s misrule.
A long, hard look at our teachers
For months, our public universities have been erupting in protests, with students demanding some very basic things: vice-chancellors who are not corrupt, teachers who cannot bribe their way into the university, student political wings who do not extort or oppress (or murder), effective sexual harassment policies, and freedom of expression.
Corrupt development begets corruption
What would we learn sitting in an air-conditioned and well-furnished classroom if the pedagogical practice remains the same—copy-pasted slides from SlideShare with watermarks still on them, exhibiting incompetence and indolence? Which path of knowledge would we be treading on, with a fancy library reading MP3 BCS guides, while a thick layer of dust covers the library books, longing for human touch? With teachers being transmitters of knowledge and students only passive receivers in a high-tech environment, would we not be annulling curiosity and participation—two fundamental qualities of knowledge as observed by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire?
TERROR RISING
The latest, but probably not the last, victim of this culture of impunity is Abrar Fahad, a second-year student of the electrical and electronic engineering department of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (BUET).
How to buy a used car for the first time without going up in flames
I love cars, which is an understatement. Growing up, I spent more time browsing cars than visiting dubious websites where boys think they will learn to become men.
Who am I?
The packing began months ahead of time, even before they had officially decided to move, even before tickets were purchased, even before the children could talk to their school and tell their friends that they were leaving home yet again.
On Kabir Singh A three-hour dose of Stockholm syndrome
About one-third of the way through in Kabir Singh, which is now out on Netflix, the protagonist (Shahid Kapoor) charges into a college campus with his girlfriend Preeti (Kiara Advani).
Vacation in Alaska: Flight seeing tour of the Denali Mountains
Alaska may not fit the bill for what most people envision as a vacation, but it has been on my family’s bucket list for a long time.