Bazar of Bangladesh

A Bazar of Bangladesh

So you take your first spoonful of biriyani and the taste hits you harder than a nuclear bomb? Ever wondered what made it so delicious? The best kind of rice, the best kind of spice and the best of meat combined together makes the best biriyani. Guess where you can find all of these?

At a bazar of course. 

A bazar is the local name of the market place where you can find all the groceries you need. From the freshest of fruits to the freshest of vegetables, what not. Right now, we will try to understand the whole concept of bazar as a whole.

The market complex is actually in an open space. There are small stalls all over this complex arranged in neat rows and open in all sides. The owner sits in the middle and displays his goods around him. You can actually bargain here literally. There are a lot instances where you can get a 500 taka product for only 120 taka. 

How the atheists turned me into a Believer

NOTE: I wrote this piece back when I was still a Muslim. I have, since then, left my religion and do not agree to most or all of what is written here. However, these posts are very much part of my life and helps understand the changes I went through. That's why, I am against deleting them. 

Our beliefs are heavily rooted in our birth and so is our choice of religion. Instead of choice, I shall say it is more of a command. I am Muslim because my parents are Muslims, my friend is a Hindu because her parents were Hindus. My love for Islam used to be just that – I used to love Islam because I taught to not because I actually wanted. Then one day, I met a bunch of atheists over social media and my thoughts and beliefs changed.

I was young and like other youngsters of my generation, I was hooked with Facebook. I was constantly on the web, liking different posts, chatting with friends and what not. Facebook recommends some pages one may like at one corner of the screen. That was how I came to know of the popular (or should I say notorious) group called Atheist Republic.

Auchin Pakhi (Dream Bird) by Hasan Azizul Haque

The exposition of the story is about this poor father and his son, who live well under the poverty line at a time when strikes were fairly common. The time period is clearly not mentioned but I am guessing it is during the liberation war or during one of the many events that leads up to it. The father was the only earning member of the family who worked as a school master at a local school and barely made enough money to lead a comfortable life let alone dream about luxuries as obtaining a pet.

The story is told in third person limited narrative where the father was the main narrator. The main character’s family consisted of only himself, his wife and their only son, Babul. Now they may be living under poverty due all this strikes and the husband’s not-so-much earning, but the man surely was a doting father as he tries to fulfill all his son’s wishes; sometimes even going for extreme measures for that. For example, when he bought that chandana bird for his son. Now, owning a pet might not seem like a big deal but under the circumstances of the family’s poor financial situation, buying a bird and taking care of it was quite a deal as it meant that they will now have lesser food and money to buy other stuff. Now, it is not clearly mentioned but implied that the father’s job is currently on hiatus because of all the strikes. So, just like the atmosphere of the story, the mood of the characters were kind of restless all throughout.

Should private universities in Bangladesh teach their students morality?

Topic: Should private universities in Bangladesh teach their students morality?

My answer: Yes.

In fact, I believe morality should never even be out of our system. I do not mean that there should another extra subject on morality. That would be awful, because as human beings we like to learn things and enjoy doing it when we are not under some kind pressure of exams and stuff. What I am suggesting is to instill the sense of morality subconsciously, like hanging posters and fliers here and there on walls or notice boards, so that one can some moral values while walking or doing whatever they are doing. It should be like a reminder, not something forced upon the students.

I also do not support some extra free classes where there is a certain teacher teaching us morality. That would be nothing different from normal classes. But, if necessary, the universities can arrange some sessions where different people can discuss what morality is and what should be about it; though I believe that would not be much fruitful since everyone has their own opinions.

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

George and Lydia Hadley are the anxious and tired parents of two young children called Peter and Wendy. They live in high-tech house called the Happylife Home, where they various machines and gadgets to do their daily biddings as simple as brushing teeth or tying shoelaces. Things go wrong when the father of the house tries to bring an abrupt change to his children’s habits.

Here is my version of the analysis of the story:

• Written in third person limited narrative from George’s point of view.
• The protagonists are George Hadley and his wife, Lydia Hadley.
• I am a bit confused about the antagonists. They may be the children; or the extraordinary mind-controlled machine in the nursery; or it can be the Hadley’s too much affection for their children and making them spoilt. I am guessing, the antagonists are the kids.
• The genre is Science Fiction with some psychological horror undertone.
• No definite situational irony present. The ending was foreshadowed by the father’s actions.
• The rising action starts right from the first line, when Lydia shows concern about her children’s imagination with George.
• The falling action begins when George abruptly switches off all the machines in the whole house in hopes of getting a normal life and for the betterment of his children.
• The climax is when Peter and Wendy lock their parents in the veldt (the part of their imagination that shows the African savannah). The most disturbing part of the whole story is that the two children have hated their parents for a long time and they have killed them in their imagination a lot more times before the ultimate action and they were very chilled about it.
• The denouement of the story is when Dr. McClean, the psychologist comes over to accompany the Hadleys to a vacation and finds out the horrible truth.

Remarks: Overall the story is very grim and the tone of the story was dreadful right from the beginning. The writer does a brilliant job at creating a dark and disturbing atmosphere from the very first line. Even though the ending is expected, it sends a chill up our spine nevertheless, and I believe that is what the author intended to do in the first place. 

Rain by Somerset Maugham

Dr. Alec Macphail sets sail for the west with his wife and on the ship they befriend the Davidsons, who happen to be Christian missionaries. On the way, they get stuck on a monsoon-clad Samoan island called the Pago-Pago, where they have to rent a small room in order to stay. Their fellow renters were the Davidsons and a woman known by Sadie Thompson. The story speaks of the sense of morality, sin and temptation through the various mentioned characters. Here is my version of the analysis of the story:

• The protagonists of the story are the Macphails and the Davidsons.
• It does not have a clear antagonist. But it is not a person. Perhaps, the tension between Mr. Davidson and Ms. Thompson is the main antagonist and also Davidson’s extremist behavior.
• The story is told in third person limited narrative from Dr. Macphail’s viewpoint.
• It falls in the genre of Realism as there was no mention of any technology or supernatural entities or any fantastical beasts. It is about a few people coping up with each other in an unfriendly climate.
• The story takes about fifty-one pages to tell us about sin and morality, but the main rising action begins with the introduction of Ms. Thompson, as she is one of the most important central characters. Her lifestyle was against the principle of the Davidsons and that is where things start to fall apart.
• The falling action is when Ms. Thompson is threatened with imprisonment (it is not clearly mentioned but alluded to) in San Francisco. She begins to act hysterical and begs for Davidson’s company to comfort her.
• The story has a very clear climax. Davison suicides near the end of the story. It is literally mentioned why he did it but the Maugham gives strong allusion that he gave into temptation for Ms. Thompson in the end. His strong sense of justice (sinner must be punished) and guilt makes him do that.
• I do not know if it counts as a situational irony but I was not expecting the ending like this. Yes, the things he did to Ms. Thompson and the natives sort of make it obvious that he would die, but I thought he might be killed by the natives or Ms. Thompson or Dr. Macphail (who was losing his patience with the missionary’s rash feats). So, in the end when Davidson cuts his own throat for shame and guilt, I was surprised. So, even if it is not a major irony, it is definitely a plot twist for me.
• The story has a clear denouement – Davison dies, his wife and the Macphails mourn and Ms. Thompson has her ultimate revenge. Thus this grim story is nicely wrapped up.

The Post Office by Rabindranath Tagore

Here is my thoughts and review of the play The Post Office by one of the best Asian playwrights, Rabindranath Tagore. This is purely my opinion and in no way do I claim that this is the accurate interpretation.

  

At first read, the play felt short and utterly pointless. On the surface, this is some escapist play where the central character – a sick young boy – uses his high imagination and optimism to escape from his prison-like situation. But being aware of the fact that Tagore tends to use a lot of symbolism in his writing and the last act showed that this play is much more than that. It is packed with various symbols here and there.

The play consists of a total of two acts. In the first act we learn that Amal, a young little boy adopted by Madhav, is suffering from a terrible disease which requires him to be locked up in his room away from the so-called “autumn wind and sun” in order to cure his sickness. But Amal is a playful little boy and being confined in a room is like a prison to him. So, to escape from this, he uses his imagination and befriends different people, who happens to be passing by his window. This sounds like a simple story about children and their imagination. But it much more than that.

Pygmalion Act IV & V by George Bernard Shaw

Here are my thoughts about the final two acts of this clever and witty little play.

Up until this point I was wondering the relevance of the title to the play. Pygmalion was an old Greek myth about a creator falling in love with his creation. Reading the first three acts, I assumed that Higgins will fall in love with Eliza and that will be all. But I was thoroughly wrong and completely impressed and amazed at how the events took a different turn.

The conflict of the play is supposed to be whether Eliza becomes a lady or not. But apparently that is not the case as the acts continue even after her success at some lavish party. The play shows several conflicts such as, the differences of economic classes, commercialism, the good and the evil of wealth, the idea of nobility and freedom. The part of Eliza’s training and whether she is successful or not is just a subplot to the play giving it more depth and helps it proceed.

The fourth act begins with the trio entering Higgins’ lab after a tiresome evening party where apparently Eliza performs a good work at presenting herself as a lady with her impeccable speech and mannerism. But Higgins’ indifference to Eliza’s success and calling her hard work a boring challenge is not only rude to Eliza but also the audience because at this point, we grow fond of Eliza’s character and her maturity. So Higgins’ inconsiderate attitude provokes our dislike towards him. Shaw is clever in depicting what the audience feel through Eliza as she, finally succumbing to her rage, throws slippers at his face, much to the amusement and satisfaction of the audience.

Pygmalion Act II & III by George Bernard Shaw

So, here we are passed poetry and into drama. The first play we have to read and review is the interesting and witty play by George Bernard Shaw. Here is what I think of this play.

Act-II

The scene opens inside the laboratory of the renowned Henry Higgins. It was late cold morning (since the fire was alit). The playwright pays attention to the details to describe the setting.

Judging by the instruments and equipment in the lab, we get the feeling that Higgins is interested in music (due to the presence of the piano, the tuning forks and the organ pipes) and anatomy (life-size image of the left side of human skull). He also had a sweet tooth (fruits and chocolate on the piano). He also liked to read newspapers.

The presence of some mention-able portraits and the absence of paintings kind of show that he is interested in those decorations for something more than their artistic value only. All the furniture stacked in his room are somehow related to phonetics. So, we assume that Higgins is pretty serious about his job.

The scene consists of five characters. They are Henry Higgins, the linguist; Colonel Pickering, Higgins’ fellow linguist and a friend; Mrs. Pearce, the housekeeper; Liza or Eliza Doolittle, the flower-girl mentioned in the first scene and Alfred Doolittle, Liza’s poor father and a foil to our main character Higgins.

Pygmalion Act I by George Bernard Shaw

So, here we are passed poetry and into drama. The first play we have to read and review is the interesting and witty play by George Bernard Shaw. Here is what I think of this play.

George Bernard Shaw was a prominent playwright of the twentieth century whose main focus of the plays were different social discrepancies and equality of human beings, especially feminism. Such influences were clearly visible in the first act of his play Pygmalion. Here, he shows that human beings constantly jump into conclusions without proper understanding of the situation. Also he makes us believe that a lady or gentleman is distinguished from the lower class (of old British system) was through a flawless and genial speech. Since both this traits are found in the character of the Note-taker or Henry Higgins, we assume that he is the main character or hero of this play.

The play starts with a dark rainy setting. Two ladies stand in the rain waiting for someone called Freddy to bring them a cab. At first, the dialogues given by the two ladies, one mother and one daughter, give the allusion that Freddy might be their servant. But the way Freddy spoke back at them clearly states that he is a relative and later the mother admits that he is his son. The daughter, on the other hand, clearly is an example of the pride and haughtiness present within the British upper class. This is shown via her impatient attitude and rude behavior though calling herself a lady all the time.

How poems become popular

How do poems gain popularity? What makes them feel special? Why do people enjoy certain types of poetry?

To answer these questions, we were provided with five different popular poems and we had analyse them to find out the secret behind their fame. Read along to see find what I think on this matter.

The poems are...

I.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size

But when I start to tell them,

They think I'm telling lies.

I say,

It's in the reach of my arms

The span of my hips,

The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

I walk into a room

Just as cool as you please,

And to a man,

The fellows stand or

Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,

A hive of honey bees.

I say,

It's the fire in my eyes,

And the flash of my teeth,

The swing in my waist,

And the joy in my feet.

I'm a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That's me.

How love makes us see the change of English literature

Literature changes with time. To explain it to us, our professor decided to give us three poems that talks about love using metaphors. The catch is that each poem is from a different century and each poem has a gap of about a couple of centuries between their publishing dates.

We had to read each poem and explain how they were different from each other and also note how English literature changed over time. Read along. Also note that, these are solely my thoughts and not exactly what the poems mean.

Here are the poems...

Poem I: Poem from circa 1600

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire,

But harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat

Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,

And feel my flames augmented manifold?

What more miraculous thing may be told,

That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,

And ice, which is congeal's with senseless cold,

Should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,

That it can alter all the course of kind.

I Ask You by Billy Collins

Being a student of English, I have to take the course of Literature. The first and important aspect of Literature is Poetry and this is the very first poem we have to analyse. I decided to share what I think of this poem with you guys. Hope it is helpful to you.

First stanza

• The whole stanza is one big rhetorical question, where the poet tells of his intentions of changing his current predicament.
• The poet adopts the persona  of someone who likes to write and based on his emotions or mood in the latter part of the poem, it's safe to assume that he, after all, is just a poet in this poem as well.
• The atmosphere of the first stanza is of boredom; as if, the poet is tired of his surrounding and wishes to change it.
• The verse "floral wallpapers pressing in" is the metaphor  of his frustrations with the regular setting.
• The verses such as "white cabinets full of glass" and "the telephone silent" are also the analogies of the poet's loneliness or isolation.

Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson: Analysis

Michael Jackson is quite popular with creating music that both appeals to one's senses and creates awareness about the current situation of the world in the minds of those listening to it.

This music of the "soul" genre is no different. Written in free verse, figurative language colloquial dialect, the song comprises of roughly six stanzas where the third stanza is a short chorus and the sixth is a lengthy one which wraps up the song, creating a vivid image of the horrible condition some people live in the world.

The song is tactfully written such that the first part of the song shows how unfortunate some of us are. For example, the verses like "a widow deeply scarred" and "somebody's broken heart" clearly depict that how tragic someone's life is even though they are living right among us; while the second part tells us how we can get rid of the situation and also invokes the sense of consciousness and subconsciously instills the energy in our minds to do so. 

The author intends to make the world a better place and shows us that the only effective way of doing so is by changing the "man in the mirror", a metaphor for oneself since the man in the mirror is none but each of us. The poet makes it clear that it is up to us to change the world by asking a couple of rhetorical questions here and there.

The lyrics of the song doesn't follow any specific rhyme scheme but throws in a few internal rhymes here and there but the song is successful in provoking an energetic and compassionate mood within us with its subtle message.

Hello guys, sorry for the late. I was very busy with college and moving. Anyways, I am back but kind of ran out of ideas for my blog. So I decided to share my college assignments just in case they might help you somehow someday. Love!

My experience with drama

One of the most ancient forms of entertainment is drama.

To this day we enjoy plays and drama; difference is that the form has changed but the format has not. Personally, I like to read drama from time to time, though I must admit that I am still a noob in this sector of literature. To be honest, I have never been to a live play or jatra before but I have had glimpses of them on the television and they seemed quite fun. Here, I should add that I have been to school dramas.

Though I have never been a part of drama but I had the privilege of enjoying them in our school auditorium. The performers were amateurs but their zeal was enough to get one hooked.I believe live drama are really important for modern life. With advancement of time and technology, people tend to spend more time in their homes. Introverts are increasing. But drama is a great way for social interactions as well developing speaking skills and becoming more fluent in expressing oneself. Not only that, live drama are also quite enjoyable and are quite harmless in contrast to other technological media which expel a lot of harmful radiation.