Life's Lyrics
Italy beckons Bangladeshis
Ten years' back my two daughters and I took a vacation to Venice, Italy. I was the only earning member, both girls were students.
Music for therapy
Samia Mahbub Ahmad, a beautiful lady sang with us on the same stage in the Nazrul Mela held in Washington DC in September 2018. I had listened to her twice before, once in the Omni auditorium and another time in the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre (IGCC), on both counts in Dhaka.
Dreams do come true!
For some, dreams come true whilst for some, they don't. Take for example, my own self. As a child, I watched a procession of cinema actresses entering our house and leaving them.
Life's lyrics / Farzeen Huq
Farzeen Huq is my friend from Holy Cross school days, 1970 to be exact. We were catching up in London where she lives, I admired her beautiful garden and every corner of her home had an exquisite piece of furniture which caught my fancy.
Archiva
It was around the year 2003, Indian crooner Anuradha Padwal was going to have a live performance in the prestigious Dhaka Club and I was to host the show.
A Product of Abbasuddin Shongeet Academy
He sat there in the rickshaw, his mother holding him firmly on her lap, as the rickshaw travelled the inner roads with potholes in Banani.
Life's lyrics / Nazrul Convention 17
Anandale Washington DC had not seen so many beautiful men and women together, all dressed in colourful sarees and matching kurtas! Fall is a colourful time in USA, the leaves start taking different hues, from pale orange to deep crimson, from a subtle green to a bright spinach colour.
A true Tagorean
We had a mutual friend named Manjur Karim. Whenever he called Chanchal Khan, he would say, “Hello Chanchal, Ami shudurer o piyashi” (I have a thirst for that yonder), and both would burst into laughter.
A man who's a mentor to many
Harold Rasheed went to Wales for his schooling, he stayed in a boarding school all his life. He and his wife Shampa Reza were decided that their sons were not to be sent off to boarding schools. With his sister Leapie on board , thus started the school in Sylhet named AnadaNiketan. The students were their two sons, Leapie's daughter and Ryan and Shameem's son Sabeth. By year 2001 Anadaniketan was well established as a school in Sylhet.
Professor Dr. Halima Khatun
Third of July 2018 was a sad day in the lives of the Bangladeshis. It lost one of its national figures, Professor Dr. Halima Khatun, a language movement soldier. August 25 marks her birthday, she was born in the year 1933.
Twenty years of Bongo Mela, USA
Twenty years is indeed a long time to continue an organization and take all the leading roles, specially in North America where life is a rat race. Even in that race, someone wins, someone stays in the fast lane to take the right exit and reach the destination in mind.
Afia Dil of San Diego
Association with Professor Afia Dil dates back to August of 1947, when Abbasuddin Ahmed had migrated to erstwhile East Pakistan. He had rented the home of Afia's mom, Safura Begum, a pioneer of women's education herself.
Nazrul Teertho in Kolkata
After returning from World War II the famous poet Kazi Nazrul Islam resided in Kolkata and neighboring areas till 1972. It was his seat of work, his city of fame. In 2014, the West Bengal Government built an archive in the name of Nazrul Islam. The Urdu phrase that comes to my mind when I see this memorial structure titled `Nazrul Teertho' is: Der se, durast se.
Darkness Persists
An artist, when he teaches, becomes the leader of the youth who are learning not only music; but also a code of conduct which they can adhere to throughout their lives, and draw strength from the words and tunes of the poets. Simply uttering the words, without the deeper meaning influencing the soul is like parrot chatter.
Story of a Bangladeshi opera singer
Before writing about Shabana Tajwar, I had not known about any Bangladeshi opera singer, in fact I didn't know any opera singer at all. Up, close and personal, I have known some Western singers, but they are not opera singers. However, I have heard about opera training, that it is very extensive like Eastern classical music and to be an opera singer of repute you have to train for many years.
Kazi Nazrul Islam - Harbinger of inter-community harmony
In his memoirs Abbasuddin Ahmed has touched upon the efforts of the administration in Cooch Bihar, India in raising a nation with inter-community harmony. He wrote that in his college he had to choose a room-mate either Hindu, if he was a Muslim and vice versa. Inter-community stresses are evident in all parts of the world. Seldom do we find agents who dedicate their own lives to exemplify the glory of fusion.
Hope is always the impetus to march forward
I was quite surprised to read a newspaper advertisement in The Daily Star newspaper. It was asking for names of employers who hired domestic help and had kept them for more than ten years, looking after them like a family member, giving them treatment, medicine, holidays and helping them in difficult times and assisting in teaching them or their family members.
Pohela Baisakh in local schools
The Pohela Baisakh (beginning of the Bangla New Year) is being observed in all schools. It takes me back to my own school life in Holy Cross School Dhaka, where we had observed such festivities and it formed the basis of memorizing long poems by Tagore and Nazrul, discovering them through their songs and learning to wear the white saris with red borders. Over the years, the festivities started increasing and the wearing of bangles, application of