An eid like no other

Perhaps one of the most clichéd comments about Eid nowadays is that Eid itself is clichéd. People endlessly whine on TVs, newspapers and everywhere else on how it is not fun anymore, like it was in the good old days (well of course good old days were 'good' in the first place). Nevertheless, I believe this year's Eid has been very different from the rest... so at least you can quit complaining for the time being.

The build-up: While the people were preparing for their Eid, an all-important dialogue for the sake of the beloved motherland was taking place between the two major political parties. The tension boiled down to the day before the Eid, when a decision was expected, and suddenly there was a bit of confusion and suspense. It was not until midday of the 'official Eid' that the (failed) result of the dialogue was officially announced. Our politicians time well when it comes to delivering bad news, but then again, was there ever a good news?

Three times the fun: Over the past few years, a certain group in our country has been celebrating Eid with Saudi Arabia. As it happens to be, our geographical locations are different, and the Saudis never decided to celebrate Eid with us, and so we are left with two Eid days every Eid. But this year, another group has sprouted who has claimed to see the moon when it was not sighted anywhere in the subcontinent. Even NASA's Hubble telescope would have been proud of such a sighting, which was almost impossible according to astronomical calculations. End result: A record breaking three Eids in one Eid!

The conclusion: A roaring build-up, and a triple powered Eid must have a grand conclusion; and no one was disappointed. After the then ruling party officially handed over power to the president on the 27th, the two parties engaged in a celebratory clash all over the country. The broke every windshield within 'it-paatkel' range, burnt down vehicles, markets, and whatever else they could lay their hands upon.

The clashes continued to the following day, and the police had their 'Real Eid' after five years. Not only could they beat up all those on the streets without caring about which party, but they also had a fun time watching free fights during their breaks.

So a pretty long festival season is finally over. The people who have left will be back, the traffic jams will be back, and we will all look forward to the korbani Eid in two months' time. With hopes of an even more eventful Eid next time, I'm signing off with a belated...
Eid Mubarak!

By Tausif Salim

We recently caught up with Mostofa Sarwar Farooki a student of the world University of Mistakes; more popularly known for his story telling abilities through his films Bachelor, Choroibhati etc. and his breakthrough drama Sixty Nine.

Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (MSF), as you would guess is extremely creative and has interesting philosophies regarding everything life has to offer or suffer. When we asked him which university he graduated from he replied, “ I am still a student of the WORLD UNIVERSITY OF MISTAKES, of which Tagore and Nazrul were proud students!” MSF was joking, but he admitted that his lessons of life were learnt from the mistakes that he made and as you would expect he is a man who is not shy to admit his mistakes.

“I am a jack of all trades and master of none, that's why I understand perceptions of people from different courses of life”. He has tried his trade in cricket, football, business and music before finally becoming a storyteller.

When we asked him about inspiration behind filmmaking he gave us an instinctive answer: “girls”. When asked to elaborate, he said “If you have to get girls or if you want someone to love you, you must have some qualities in you and since I didn't have any such qualities, I took to film making.” Not that this means that failure in other careers means that you can excel in filmmaking; it only means that he took a little time to discover his filmmaking skills.

MSF is a very interesting character with a gift for gab. He collaborated with Channel One to launch a program, which releases breakthrough films by first time film-makers, and obviously the films go through some are critiqued before being screened. The program is called Chabial Uthsab.

With digital technology it's pretty cheap nowadays to shoot a film on video and show it to producers and then eventually earn an investment for a film.

Back in the days it was rather difficult as it had to be shot in 35-mm camera. MSF believes that talent doesn't stay under the pillow, if someone has talent it will eventually come out.

When we asked him about what direction a film enthusiast should follow he said that since Bangladesh doesn't have a proper film making school, the best option is to assist a filmmaker for sometime and after that one can be on one's own. Film, however, is an art learnt through trial and error. To be a good filmmaker you must absolutely love films and watch loads of them but even that wont guarantee that one can become a gem of a film-maker. It's about instinct MSF likens the learning process to jumping into a pond to learn to swim.

His favourite films include Bachelor, Carom, No Mans Land, Kothai Pabo Toray etc.

He also mentioned that one of his most favourite film called Mad_e in Bangladesh may be released anytime soon. Mad_e in Bangladesh is a greyscale film that offers many shades unlike black and white picture.

MSF's ad-making skills is good too, his ads include Grameen Phones Ma, Premiere Cement etc and some good ones are yet to come. He does ad films for money besides as he interestingly said that ad film is his extra-marital affair and his real life is films.

MSF has had a tough life in the beginning, he was into drugs and an intermediate drop out.

The purpose of mentioning this is that he can be seen as an inspiration because there was a time when he was a drop out, his dad suffered a huge blow in business but yet he came out and showed what he could do. This tells us what will power can do! Perhaps some people who are in that sort of a condition can take this to be an inspiration.

People who are interested to model for Mostofa Sarwar Farooki can submit their portfolio made by professional photographers and submit it to Nova Computers, Aziz Supermarket, Shahbagh.
Hoping for the release of Mad_e in Bangladesh soon!

By Taskin Rahman

For many people, giving up food and water is not the only thing to worry about during Ramadan. A lot of people wouldn't like to admit it but there are some habits, which are even harder to let go of at this time. For instance, if you were a smoker, then you would know the pain of not touching a cigarette for almost 12 hours.

Non-smokers would never understand the pain smokers go through. Sure, smoking is a bad habit, and I am not even advocating the case that you should be allowed to smoke, but I am suggesting smokers should use this time to their advantage. Even now that Ramadan is gone, it's not too late to try kicking the habit anyway.

Let's look at the Ramadan scenario first. You have sehri somewhere around five in the morning, and after that your day passes slowly with increasing frequency of pangs of hunger till iftar. So for the duration of almost 12 hours, you are not smoking.

After iftar, most smokers I know can't wait to go outside for a smoke. Now this is understandable, but if you can just go a further five to six hours without smoking, then you can see that you haven't smoked the entire day.

Saying this is a lot easier than actually doing it, I know. In fact, all smokers would say in unison that it simply can't be done in a day!

Even Rome wasn't built in a day, but instead of cutting down drastically what you can do is slowly decrease the number of cigarettes you smoke with each passing.

Let's say, if you smoke 20 cigarettes a day, you can decrease one every day, and if my theory works, then you will quit smoking in less than a month. However, it's probably best if you figured out your own decreasing rate since nobody knows you better than yourself.

Many people think that smokers are unaware of the dangers posed by this habit. But the truth is, these are people who are most aware of them!

So instead of criticising them let's try to help them out. Let's encourage the reduction of the number of cigarettes per day.

If anyone thinks I have no idea what I am talking about, then I should mention that I am a smoker too, and although I haven't tried out my pet theory on myself, my friend left smoking this way and left us all inspired. The least you can do is give it a shot. It might just work!

By Asifur Rahman Khan

Plastics Not quite what you think

Catching the morning summer class was very tough, as I had to struggle with the devil inside me and refrain myself from slipping back into my fantasy world. But once in the class, I knew the next hour and a half would be a wonderful time since there's a lot of entertainment for me. And it was not the teacher whom I was eyeing on, but it's definitely the plastics!

If you are not familiar with the term, then I would suggest you to watch 'Mean Girls' starring Lindsay Lohan, where you'll get an elaborate definition. Plastics enter in a group, sometimes three (which is a company) and sometimes in five (the last two have to do all the work for the first three). In the ancient times when the king or queen used to enter and sit on their thrones, there was some background sound, making others aware of their presence. As history has repeated, when the plastics enter, the jingling sound of their anklets are enough even for the teacher to look at the door.

These girls are normally desperate 'wannabe' types with their queen bee always sitting in the middle. It is she who makes the decisions (mostly the dumb ones), and the rest blindly obeys. I always thought that these happen in movies or in stories, but never have I thought that I'll also encounter such people.

I once got the 'privilege' to sit beside them and the queen bee spoke to me. It was few minutes' conversation and all the time we talked I didn't quite get what she tried to say. I figured out she wanted to know whether I have any girlfriend; when the answer came negative she gave me a stare, rather it was a glare! The next moment I saw the plastics few feet away from me. I also found something surprising. It's their clothes; often they wear clothes of the same colour and most of these girls have a hunk of a boyfriend. Is it some kind of an equation where girl who is a plastic with a peanut size brain will add up with a heavy built boyfriend equaling a complete love story, I really wonder?

But no matter how much you try, you will experience this sort of people in your life, the sooner the better. They have the free will to make their decisions, to change their personality, so we shouldn't feel bothered. For the girls I would say it's better to observe rather than to be on the same shoe!

By Gold-digger