Rising Star of the Weeek

Zuhayr Reaz Kabbya

Our rising star of the week is about toreach the age of 11 in this July. We're talking about the most lovable cha Acter in the immensely popular mega-serial Ekannoborty. Jumping around, annoying others, and playing the BOSS over the domestic help Ratan! It seemed that he simply played his own character.....no hesitations. His way of acting showed how comfortable he was with it. Yes, you have guessed it right. Our star this week is none other than Kabbya. Anyone who used to watch the serial must have loved this little boy.

Zuhayr Reaz Kabbya is the eldest son of Dr.Reaz Mobarak and Mrs. Annie Reaz. He has a younger brother. Kabbya is studying in the fourth standard, and I'm sure you can't guess his favorite subjects in class. They are Geography, History (quite unusual isn't it?) and Science. He doesn't like to study English, neither literature nor language.

When Kabbya was asked how he started working in the serial, he said "I used to tell my uncle (Anisul Huq) to write about me, and then he wrote Ekannoborty." Lucky boy indeed!

One thing that's common among the young stars is that they actually lose interest in acting in dramas after doing one or two projects (remember our RS Srima?) "I'm not interested in acting as I get bored on the sets. One has to wait for hours for a shot. Though at the beginning I was very excited and had lots of fun, but later I got tired waiting for my turn to come!" It really shows that kids don't like to stay idle for a long time! " But I'll act if I get any good chances". "Everyone used to love me on the set, specially Opi Aunty (Opi Karim)"

To the question " How does it feel to be famous?" the reply was "I'm not that famous". How modest! There are many people around who love his acting, and his friends must have told him they thought he was fantastic, we said. His modest reply was "They don't even watch the drama! They usually don't watch our local channels. They get bored watching the 30 minutes serial! They always watch Cartoon Network." "But yes, when I go to my village in Savar, people do recognize me and sometimes in Dhaka also. Some even takes photographs with me." How does it feel to be famous and is he proud of himself? His shy reply was "Who doesn't like to be famous? But it's not good to be too proud of oneself" A very well said answer!

Kabbya has seven to eight close friends both at home and school. He is interested in drawing also and took part in a competition organized by the British Council. "I got 3rd prize in the competition, but it was long time back". When asked about his pets, he said " I had birds but they all died. I wish to have a goat or a cow". His favorite foods are Burgers, Pizza "and all sorts of junk foods" he concluded.

It's sad that we are no longer watching Kabbya as the serial ended. He is not doing any more projects till now except working in an ad, but we would really want to have Kabbya back in more serials. I'm sure that everybody is looking forward to find more out of this talented kid. So Kabbya, don't disappoint your fans, come back on our TV screens! Do think about it. Best wishes for the bright future of our rising star of the week.

By Syeda Nafiza Ahmed

All aboard

Have you ever travelled by a public bus in Bangladesh? If not, then you have missed out on so much 'fun'. What kind of 'fun'? Well, allow me to explain.

From the very moment that you decide to board a public bus the action begins. As you approach the bus you will find a shabbily dressed man yelling at the top of his voice: "Farmgate, Shahbagh, Gulistan". Just as you are about to board the bus, another shabbily dressed man will grab hold of your hand and say: "Arey bhai, amar bus'e uthen. Amarta taratari jaabe." At this point of time you will become the victim of a tug-of-war match, as the two shabbily dressed men will exercise their strength to have you as a passenger. The victorious man will haul you to a seat of his bus and assure you that the bus will depart "immediately". However, in typical Bengali style, "immediately" will mean a prolonged wait of at least a few minutes.

Once the bus starts moving, another form of entertainment awaits you. As the conductor collects the fare you will hear 'gaalis.' (i.e. expletives) being exchanged between your fellow passengers and the conductor. The reason for such expletives is that the conductor apparently charges fares according to his whims. If you can learn a few of these 'gaalis' and write them in your Bengali O-Level examination, you will surely get an "A", and do your Bengali teacher proud!

For those of you who are presently having a merry time with your boy/girlfriend, you will learn an invaluable lesson from public buses. That is because from your seat you will notice various messages written overhead and one of those messages will be: "Obhab jokhon dorjay daray, bhalobasha janala diye palai." Translated into English this means that when poverty knocks on the door, love escapes through the window! Therefore, for all those Romeo's and Juliet's out there, public buses provide the moral lesson that one should not get into a romantic relationship without being financially secure.

Lazy men will also benefit from travelling by a public bus, as there is a message for them too. The message is: "Porisrom shoubhager chabikathi", which when translated into English means that hard work is the key to a good fortune. After seeing this message, lazy men in all likelihood will begin to work day and night. After all, even lazy men want to have: a house, a car, and a flashy cell-phone with a "Beder meye Josna" ringtone.

Some of the other entertaining messages that one will find in a public bus are: bebohari bongsher porichoy (behaviour tells about family background), raakhe Allah mare ke (with God protecting us, who dares kill us), shuk nay re pagol (there is no such thing as happiness, you loon) and Chacha, Dhaka koto dur (Uncle, how far is Dhaka).

The best part of riding a public bus in Dhaka City is when the bus stops at a traffic light. Invariably, all kinds of flyers will come in flying through the windows. Can you guess what the content of these flyers is about? Well, they are about how a certain company can help to improve your conjugal life.

They provide 100% guarantees that they can deal with any sort of problem. Trust me, some of the problems that they claim to cure are quite shocking indeed.

So, there you have it. After a journey on a public bus you will be able to experience tug-of-war, learn various kinds of expletives, get a few moral lessons and finally you will be able to improve your conjugal life.

Now that is an enticing prospect, right? Therefore, without further delay, hop on a public bus. It will turn out to be an experience that you will cherish forever!

By Sayeed Mahmud Nizam

Imposing Fines

In the school, fines are often imposed for various reasons. Absence is a very common reason for imposing fines. Once this step was taken to prevent students from being absent in my school. Soon the procedure was banned because the teachers became disgusted of collecting so much in terms of fines (the fine wasn't taken with the monthly fee; the teachers had to collect it from the students). Still, some teachers often become disgusted of pupils who don't come to school regularly and announce that there should be at least 50 taka fine for being absent for each day. Before bringing out the result of the 1st term examination, the teachers made a statistics on students' absence. The student who gained first position has been absent for 44 days while the total tenure has been 88 days! Now on that teacher's opinion, this student should give a fine of 55*40=2200 taka (the statistic says that I have been absent for 23 days. Then I should've given 1150 taka as a fine). Hmm, now let me think. What's the monthly payment for the school?

In other countries, people are fined for various reasons. For example, polluting the environment and breaking rules (mainly traffic rules) are some common reasons for imposing fines. Those people have to spend a vast amount of money for only spitting or dropping waste materials on the road. Well, Bangladesh has a very good opportunity of earning money by initiating these rules. Who cares? Only in Cantonment can I see a clean environment and a disciplined traffic situation. Now I can write a funny story. Once in the editorial of The Daily Star, someone complained that the military police didn't allow him to enter the cantonment because he didn't have the stickers on his car. Now it is a rule in our country that every vehicle should have those stickers on them. The military police caught him for breaking a rule and the lawbreaker complained against the police ('I was busy, I didn't get time for putting it blab blab blab'). Now if this wasn't Bangladesh he would've been fined a nice amount of money.

I'll end this article by giving the most peculiar example of imposing fines I've ever seen. Our school has recently opened an English Medium section and pupils are being encouraged to speak English all the time. One more Bangla word and they'll fine us 10 taka only. I'm now wondering why those brave martyrs gave up their life in 1952…

By Fahmina Nahid

Campus news
Certificate Awarding Ceremony of BAFShaheen English Medium School

The glorious day of the fifth Certificate Awarding ceremony of BAF SEMS arrived on the 12th of April at the BAF Falcon Hall. Air Vice-Marshal Fakhrul Azam, Chief of the Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force was the chief guest on this special occasion.

Uday Tawheed Islam delivered the valedictory speech on behalf of the graduating students. The students who obtained outstanding results in O'Levels were also accorded a reception in the same ceremony. Iftekhar Alam Tanvi, Tawfik Mohammed, Shamsul Arif, Rezaul Haque and Ruhi-al-Jawwad were on this merit list, and hence they expressed their heartfelt gratitude for the invaluable guidance provided by the principal and teachers. Their speeches were followed by the distribution of certificates among the graduating students and COAS's crests among the outstanding achievers of this year by the Chief Guest.

The ceremony was followed by a cultural function, which showcased the budding talent of the SEMS artistes.

BAF SEMS reaches the quarterfinal of English Parliamentary Debate on BTV.

Shaheen English Medium School debate team won the second round of the 6th National English Parliamentary debate held on 19th April 2004 on BTV. The SEMS team was on the government side and Scholastica was on the opposition.

By Latif Rayan