There is chaos and dissent in every corner and no one seems to have a grip on anything.
This arrest is particularly jarring, even in this current environment where arbitrary murder cases are being filed against suspected AL sympathisers or beneficiaries.
There is a staggering lack of empathy, respect, and compassion in our society, which has seeped into many of our young people.
Let us recap some of the most critical lessons of 2024 as we look forward to 2025.
You didn’t expect someone like Andrew, who would have turned only 50 this December 16, to exit the world so abruptly.
We are now going through times of extreme anxiety caused by economic uncertainty, rapid social change, and complex global issues.
How many of those injured during the July-August uprising, like Abdullah, are still fighting for their lives?
The euphoria of August 5, and the momentous days leading up to it, especially since July 15, are now being overshadowed by a cloud of uncertainty.
It could be over who gets to play in the field that day or who should be occupying the alleys to intimidate passersby. It could be because the harassment of a girl was protested. Or because a 'proposal' was rejected. It could be just about anything that can trigger brutality in a youngster.
It was an expression of outrage against the apparent acceptability of anti-woman rhetoric, racial discrimination, religious intolerance and insularity, diseases that keep thriving across the globe.
Aging and quirkiness are like Siamese twins and can seldom be separated. This is why as you grow older you will inadvertently acquire a good dose of crankiness and a bucketful of eccentricities that the young (and cruel) will snicker about behind your back.
I think the biggest lesson we learnt in 2016 is that we have been living in a bubble of delusion - about the kind of world we live in.
Idon't know what I would be going through if I had been a Hindu resident of Brahmanbaria's Nasirnagar, and now recently of Bochaganj, Dinajpur, where at least 20 Hindu houses have been torched, if my house or that of my Hindu relatives or neighbours had been attacked by a few hundred frenzied men who unleashed their hatred by vandalising, looting and setting everything on fire.
Perhaps we were a bit delusional in thinking that there was a consensus regarding the fact that child marriage, that is marriage of a girl under 18, would be considered a social evil that should be completely shunned in our country.
It is perhaps the greatest environmental love story of all. Saalumarada Thimmakka, a day labourer and Bekal Chikkayya, a cattle herder, both from Hulikal village in Bangalore district, defying all the taunts from society for being childless, decided to plant trees and treat them like their children.
It may be prohibited by law (Dowry prohibition Act, 1980) but demanding dowry for deigning to marry a girl from a less fortunate family is considered a normal entitlement of males in society.
While cracking my spine as casually as a game of 'bursting the bubble wrap', my physiotherapist tells me that the future looks really bright for members of his profession. Intrigued, I ask why.
Remember Suraiya Akter Risha? The eighth grader of an English medium school in Dhaka, who was stabbed by her stalker, a man who
