HUMOROUSLY YOURS
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.
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.
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.
HUMOROUSLY YOURS / 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.
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
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.
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.
WWKS
Not sure if there is a direct correlation between the plummeting of gold imports in India and the fact that there is once again another
Cat Fight
Samsung halts the production of the Samsung Note 7 smart phone after the incidents of battery explosions. Sigh, I wished this cause and effect applied to all the armaments companies in the world – we'd at least see the end of war in Syria.
The Bay of Pigs
This is the first time in my life I have a roommate. Well, we're not exactly sharing a room, we're sharing a two bedroom apartment with our own rooms. This is grad school in Michigan.
Yo Homie!
“You must be serious – waking me up to show me this? When we fly back to Detroit, I'll wake you up at the sight of every Continental, Northwest, Southwest, American, US Airways, Delta and TWA aircraft on the tarmac with a scream: 'Look! Those are all from the US!'”
Eid Moooobarak!
Barack Obama graduates from Harvard. Mark Zuckerberg drops out of Harvard. To cover all bases in order to succeed, I graduate from BUET and University of Michigan but drop out of Berkeley.
Armed Conflict
Luck has it that this particular airline doesn't provide the option for online check-in at Dhaka Airport. I am thus relegated to
Veilbook
I walk to the southern part of Torrey Pines Beach in San Diego, California. Only when I thought that this part of the beach is a
Rome wasn't destroyed in a day
I jump out of my skin as the motorbike honks for me to move sideways. By reflex, I try to step aside, only to realise that there is no room but a not-so-welcoming drain. A further realisation that I am on the sidewalk (footpath) as the motorbike behind me is honking for me to give way. If food can take over the footpath with food stalls, so can motorbikes with their foot pedals. Humans, make way.
Animal Kingdom
I hope Donald Trump doesn't get wind of this border. If so, he will surely be itching to build a wall and halt, once and for all, humans crossing it in both directions. But has he accounted for quadrupeds?
Friends Forever
It's the first day of graduate classes at a brand new university, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. It's a brand new country, the US of A.