::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Letters

Wise Words of Bengal

The cover story titled "Wise words of Bengal" published on April 13,2012 reads very well. I thank the Star for offering the readers a chance to know a lot about Bangla Probad (proverb). The young and the old will gain much out of it.

It was an excellent journalistic article and I would like to congratulate to the Star for publishing this piece.


	Quamrul Hassan, Woman with Bird 2, 1977. Image: Courtesy

Abul Ashraf Noor
Dhaka

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Culture varies from society to society and literature is its most important ingredient. Every society has its own form of literature, based on its individual cultural milieu. The people of Bengali-descent have a distinct culture, which is different as compared to the West.

Our folk literature is the reflection of our village-life. The foundation of this literature lies with the knowledge, values and norms of the villages. It is the story of villagers who live below the poverty line. Despite having such a rich heritage, we still aren't familiar with it due to the influence of the Western culture.

I thank the Star for publishing a cover story on April 13, 2012, on the importance of our literature. It's worth mentioning that there isn't a lot of scope to study Bengali literature in our country. We have to find ways to cultivate our own literature.

Md NasirUddin
University of Rajshahi

Change in politics

At least certain changes have come to our politics; particularly in the BNP's stratregies. It should be observed that the party declared very few hartals in the last three years, as compared to the past. It's a positive sign and gives hope to the people of Bangladesh. Our political parties make many promises before elections but once they assume power they don't fulfill them. They spend majority of their time getting back at their political rivals. Sometimes the language they use to attack each other is appalling.

They have to keep in mind that their political future depends upon common people. We hope some day they will realise this and bring changes in their policies. The recent change in strategy by the BNP is positive and I hope it helps to bring about a new era in politics. The time has come to work together for the nation's interest.

Anwoy Karmaker
Jahangirnagar University

Photo: Amirul Rajiv

The Working Mother

The story titled 'The Working Mother' which was published last week was a very enlightening one indeed. Despite having progressed a lot since independence, the travails of working mothers are often not heeded to. While reports suggest an increase in the number of women in the workforce, matters such as 'maternity leave' and other cases require nationwide recognition. Mothers working abroad have the luxury of keeping baby-sitters or leaving their children in a day-care school, in the case of Bangladesh, however, women continue to suffer. Concerned authorities should take this matter seriously and bring changes as early as possible.

Nilofer Ahmed
Mirpur, Dhaka

No More Spelling Mistakes

A few days ago while surfing channels to see if there was anything worth watching, I stumbled upon a programme called "Spelling Bee". I was very impressed by the performance of the participants who were spelling out difficult words in front of the judges. I think it is an event which can help students to overcome their spelling mistakes and help them enrich their vocabulary. I would like to thank The Daily Star and Channel-I for arranging such an event.

Sharmin Akther
Chittagong College

TV Commercial

At present almost all the Bangladeshi channels are showing a new commercial regarding the activation of inactivated sim-cards. The particular advertisement shows that some young boys and girls are collecting money at a shopping mall from the public in order to look for their missing friend. At the end, the friends find the missing person and go out to have lunch with the money they collected. I have found this particular advertisement hurtful since its insulting to those people who are involved in humanitarian work by collecting money from the public.

I understand that advertisements have their own strategies and that a lot of thinking goes behind each concept, but I think this ad devalues the emotions of real aid workers.

Anwoy Karmaker
Mirpur, Dhaka

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