Buddy Day

Is it only me, or is the world gone overboard with friendship day? Whatever, friendship day is like “the” vital day in our lives, (especially for single people, now you don’t have to be miserable for not being able to celebrate valentine’s day). Though we cry over the money we spend for the presents, the smile on our friend’s face makes us stop whining!

As far as the history of the is concerned it is said that in 1935 the first Sunday of August was proclaimed as the people try their best to thank all those special angels called friends in their lives from the bottom of their hearts. Are you confused what to give? Then this might help ya!

Friendship Bands
The most common gift that you can give. It can be found in Hallmark, Archie’s, Etcetera, etc. If you are “into” hand-made stuff, then you should try making one! Go wild with your creativity!!

Flowers
Fresh Flowers are the best and the easiest way to convey emotions and hence they make a wonderful gift for friends! Yellow Roses are officially recognized as the Friendship Day flowers, but you can always pick different colours and kinds!

Show Pieces
Cute and attractive showpieces are another extremely popular Friendship Day Gift. Depending upon your choice one can go in for glass, metals, wood or crystal show pieces. Besides, making a delightful Friendship Day Gift, decorative pieces help to create beautiful memories.

Chocolates
Go in for a hamper of your friend's favorite chocolate to bring that million-dollar smile on his/her face. A zestful idea would be to make a decorated friendship basket consisting of your friend's favorite gift items like chocolates, candy, cookies, a bunch of flowers, etc.

Soft Toys
Soft Toys make a cute Friendship gift. If your friend is the “mushy, soft and kiddy” type, then this is the perfect gift! You can always go in for your friends favorite cartoon character to leave a lasting impression.

Photo Frames and Photo Albums
Photo frames and photo albums are a much sought after Friendship Day Gift. You may place a picture of you along with your friend or pictures of good time spend together to create beautiful reminiscences!

Diaries, cards
This is the place that you can go fanatical with your creativity! Make a diary with all the real-life quotes and memories, and stick pictures take autographs, write jokes, etc.

As for the card, you can make it and write you original quote or you always buy one from the stores, just make sure it looks nice!!

Now if you are heavy on cash you can buy these:

Perfume
You can never be wrong with perfume! Whether it’s for a girl or a guy, it’s the “purrrfekkt” gift!

Cell phones
Just go to Eastern Plaza and choose what set you can give; make sure your friend really wants that set!

Wristwatches
Fast Track or Titan; they always are an elegant gift!

And you can always invite your closest buddies over for a sleep over! Watch some movies and pig out on popcorn, chocolate and all forms of unhealthy food! Bring some blankets on the roof and watch the stars.

Ring up a radio station and dedicate a song to you friend…

Enjoy Friendship Day everyone… And make the most of it!

By Alavy Kijait Reza

The week in re(ar)view

The 'filmy' life
Some people want to live a movie life. Generally it follows that you get the girl, you beat up the villain and in the end ride off into the sunset. And then there are people who actually live the movie life. Some people also want to live the life of the villain and what's great for them is that in real life they can get away with their misdeeds. Well, most of them anyway.

A special tribunal in Dhaka on July 26 sentenced Dhaka City Corporation's pro-BNP ward commissioner and film actor Monwar Hossain Dipjol to 17 years' rigorous imprisonment for possessing illegal firearms and ammunition.

Now those of you who are Bangla film aficionados (all three of you) will know that Dipjol is a big shot actor who likes to play the guy who kidnaps heroines and murders innocent children and puppies. In the movies he gets to be dead. IN real life, he becomes a mayor. But at least now he goes to the slammer.

Get rich quick scheme no. 1: Start an NGO
An NGO is great business considering how you can get all kinds of development loans and then develop your bank account. So, to curb too much self-development (as too much of anything is thought to be bad), the government issued a rule that NGOs had to spend 50pc fund in visible development. This was to ensure transparency in receiving and spending foreign funds.

The original plan directed NGOs to spend at least 50 percent of their foreign funds on visible developments like building and upkeep of roads, schools and culverts and excavation or re-excavation of canals. It angered and irritated NGO activists.

On July 26, the Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Affairs Bureau decided that it was not a well-developed idea. So they developed a plan to scrap it. And now it's back to development of personal bank accounts.

Biman to get more aircraft to sit still on runways
Biman Bangladesh Airlines, a public limited company since 23 July, is thinking about leasing a number of large aircraft in a bid to bring Biman out of the woods. Question is, why? People don't really want to ride Biman, they do so when they absolutely have to and there is no donkey willing to carry them on its back all the way to across the border.

Now if only Biman finds a way to make their trips more enjoyable than travelling by donkey.

Phone locked
Recent telecom tactics involved a lot of price slashing resulting in quite low tariffs for phone calls. We can only hope that competition makes it go lower to the point that rates are set in negative numbers (i.e they pay us to talk). Unfortunately someone is putting a stop to that ever happening. The telecoms watchdog of the country has decided to set a comprehensive tariff plan for all cellphone operators, asking them to keep call charges between Tk 2 and Tk 0.25 a minute.

The Cinderella effect
The Election Commission (EC) is apprehending that women of families with persuasions of religious conservatism might avoid visiting voter registration centres to have their photographs taken for the voter list on grounds of 'religious restrictions'.

So if they want to vote maybe they can show a picture of their shoes and match it with the corresponding picture on voting day. Now which girl does want to be like Cinderella?

By Gokhra and Mood Dude

Beauty: My life's ruined! I have candles, dishes and clocks as friends stalking me and I finally came to realize my husband's an animal!

Cinderella: What are you complaining about? Mine still drive's an orange stinking pumpkin and is obsessed about shoes.

Snow White: Oh yeah! My husband wants me to wear red lipstick all the time and leaves me at home with seven little ones who are not even mine!

Mermaid: Mine's a huge pervert; he wants me to wear fish net stockings and sea shells!

Sleeping Beauty: All of you are dumb. I just pretend I am asleep.

By Adnan M. S. Fakir
(Inspired from a Comic Strip)

As Friendship Day approaches, we think a lot about the friends we have, and suddenly realize what significant roles they play in our lives. In most cases, a single person has many friends. Interestingly, however, there are only a startling few that he/she will trust with all their heart. We decided, therefore, to ask people why this is so.

“Yeah, I have loads of friends, but I consider only two as truly close friends. This is because these two have been my friends for the last 12 years, and are still with me now studying in Malaysia.” Manar. Age: 18. Malaysia.

“I have two really good friends. I guess we're such good friends because I hang out with them more than any of the others. Sometimes, we are on the same team in sports at school.” Ishraq Hassan. Age: 8. Douglas Street Elementary School. Nova Scotia, Canada.

“I cannot be good friends with everyone. But I can name six people that are really close friends of mine. All six of them are unique in different ways. However, each possesses qualities I deeply admire; qualities I wish I possessed myself! For example, one of my friends has a patient and understanding mentality. Another one is simply extremely fun to be with! It is such qualities that make these friends so close to me.” Rittika Shamsuddin. Age: 17. The Aga Khan School, Dhaka.

“Of all the friends I have, there are three that I hang out with almost all the time. I've known them the longest, and we have many interests in common. For example, we all like playing video games a lot. So we'd turn up at each other's houses frequently. That's how we've become so close.” Irteza Hassan. Age: 16. Cobeqoid Educational Centre. Nova Scotia, Canada.

“I should say there are about five or six people with whom I spend much more time with than any others. So I reckon those are my closest friends. We have been close for quite some time, and have gotten to know each other so well, that they are almost like parents to me.” Shafayat Sohail. Age: 17. St. Michael's School. Wales, United Kingdom.

“I'm friendly with many people, but there are only two I can truly consider my closest friends. This is because we share many common qualities. Often it turns out that we are thinking the very same thing at the same time! As a result, these friends understand me much better than any other friends of mine do. So we don't feel uncomfortable sharing our deepest thoughts, opinions, and secrets with each other things I would share with no one else.” Sadia Shahid. Age: 18. The Aga Khan School, Dhaka.

By Iftikhar Azam