AN ACTIVIST'S TALE

When all his colleagues used to enjoy lazy weekends after five days of rigorous work, Nuruddin Ahmed, a young computer engineer never took a break. He had to redouble his energy to work for his brainchild shorob.com that has become a platform of young thinkers, writers and activists. Through shorob.com he has been chasing his dream to develop a society of open minds where positive thinking, aspiring activism and pluralistic approach to all thoughts and ideas are ensured. With a huge collection of online educative materials, e-books with several publications, offline community activities and a network of young thinkers, writers and entrepreneurs, Nurrudin has already gone across a significant milestone to reach his vision.    

Nuruddin Ahmed the founder of award winning blog shorob.com says, "When I took the initiative in 2011, I never thought that it would be like a mediocre blog site full of political debates, scandals and plagiarised articles. Rather I had tried to develop a platform where youngsters of our country will share positive initiatives, original ideas and information in Bengali for developing our inner self." 

Thanks to Nuruddin's efforts shorob.com has become a platform for creative youngsters. Its rich and innovative educational materials lure learners who want to learn computer programming, photography, infographics, and different skills which are not taught in our traditional schools and colleges. Its open platform for discussion and exchanging views gives the chance to young thinkers and activists to raise their voice against injustices and human rights violation. Its Bengali e-books on difficult topics of mathematics and science have made them easier and accessible for hundreds and thousands of young learners.

As a form of recognition, Nuruddin's shorob.com won the prestigious Social Media for Empowerment Award in 2014, conferred by Digital Empowerment Foundation. Nuruddin shares his experience, "All that I had done for shorob.com and the contributions of shorob's writers, developers and contributors are voluntary. We work only for our vision and nothing else. So, when we receive this kind of recognition it really inspires us a lot."

Nuruddin, with his innovative ideas, made shorob.com much more than a blog. Through this website, he has published the first Bengali e-book on mathematics in 2012. Thanks to Nuruddin's mentoring, many ideas of community activism published in shorob.com such as campaign to rehabilitate Rana Plaza victims, projects on recycling have come into fruition. Shorob.com has been organising monthly discussion sessions called 'shorob shor' for aspiring young writers on a wide range of topics. 

After passing B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from BUET Nuruddin is now pursuing his Masters in Public Policy at Central European University. Regarding his future plan, Nuruddin says, " I want to create a strong community of writers, thinkers and activists who will be able to guide our nation in the future."