Bangladesh e Amra bolte ki bujhaye

প্রাই শুনতে পাই যখন রাজনীতিবিদ দের কে নিয়ে সমালোচনা হয় , তখন অনেকেই বলে বসে "উনাদের কে তো আমরাই ভোট দিয়ে পদ দিয়েছি , তাই দোষ টা তো আমাদের নিজের।" আমি এটার এক মত হতে পারি না। একটু statistically বুঝাই কেন।এ ধরনের debate এ খেয়াল করে দেখুন যারা participant, তাদের মধ্যে কযে জন দেশ এর বাইরে থাকে। আমার দেখা ৩০% ই বাইরে থাকা রেসিডেন্ট কিংবা চাকরিজীবি অথবা স্টুডেন্ট যে এক আমলে দেশ এ থাকত। ওরা বাদ কারণ তারা actually ভোট দেয় না. তার পর আসেন বাকি ৭০% - এখানে sadly ৬০% লোক শুধু গালাগালি করতে ব্লগ কিংবা ফোরাম এ আসে। productive কোনো কথা বলে না - আর বললেও তা হয়ে যাই একে বারে Utopian world এর জন্য প্রযোজ্য। বাকি রইলো ১০% যারা হইতো বা দুই একটা ভালো কথা বলে, and then back to square one. আমার প্রশ্ন ta এখানে - এই যে শেষের ১০% এর কথা বললাম, এরা কি কোনো ভাবে দেশেr ভোটিং population এর sample size হিসাবে represent করে? করে না। 

ভোট ultimately দেয় রেশমা, যা কে ক্ষতি পূরণ হিসাবে ২৫০০০ টাকা দিলে আবার একই সরকার কে ভোট দিবে যার গাফিলতার কারণ সে ১৭ দিন আটকে ছিল। ভোট দেয় buet এ পরা commerce faculty র ছাত্র , যাকে ২০০ টাকা দিলে মনের আনন্দে ১০ তা গাড়ি ভাঙবে। ভোট দেয় গাজী ইলিয়াস, আমার চোখে যে Bangladesh er lack of education, ruining culture, deprived civic sense এন্ড backward mentality ke represent করে। বলতে লজ্জা লাগে, কিন্তু এরাই voter population. Facebook এ comment আর blogging করা public voter population কে represent করে না।একটু ভেবে দেখুন - ঢাকা এ ইংলিশ মিডিয়াম এ পরা টেলকো তে ব্র্যান্ড মার্কেটিং চাকরি যে করে, আপনি কি কোনো ভাবে তাকে গাজী ইলিয়াস টাইপ পাবলিক এর সাথে compare করতে পারবেন? but sadly এই গাজী ইলিয়াস টাইপ পাবলিক ই আমাদের জেনারেল population কে best represent করে।এখানে শাহবাঘ এর চেতনা সাহবাঘ পর্যন্তই। ওটা দেশের ১৬ কুটি মানুষ এর একটা micro society. Election এর সময় দেখবেন আবার নতুন নতুন অনেক চেতনা জাগবে এন্ড ঘুরে ফিরে যে লাউ সেই কদু ই থাকবে।

অতএব যখন কেউ বলে , যে politician দের কে আমরাই পদ দিয়েছি - একটু ভেবে দেখবেন "আমরা" বলতে কি বুঝে - কারণ আমার চোখে বাংলাদেশe কোনো consistent form of "আমরা" নাই।

Black and White politics doesn't work

The ironies of Bangladesh are very entertaining when observed from the outside. I previously posted a satire, proposing re-coloring our flag into black and white to show the constant efforts in always partitioning ourselves into two clubs. This blog post is probably along those lines with the Shahbagh movement in mind, where the nation has truly been divided in various parts. Event after event, twist after twist, after a month the feared and inevitable has happened - its nation vs. religion - two fundamental faiths and alliances that each individual holds dear to his heart and difficult to part with either.

The current theme I seem to read out is – If you have been to Shahbagh, you are patriotic and as far as ‘Mullas’ are concerned, you are a Kafir/Atheist. If you didn’t go to Shahbagh, then you are a non-patriotic and as far as ‘Buddhijibis’ are concerned, you are Razakaar and have roots that did not support the liberation / collaborated with West Pakistan.

But here is the irony - the grey zone. 

We have a class who are so called patriotic and nation loving. Come to our houses between 8pm - 11pm when there isn’t a blackout. You will find women with undisputed control over the remote and Hindi soaps fueling the life blood of the household entertainment. New age parents who salute the Bangla language have their kids singing Bollywood songs before learning to speak the mother tongue. And few on the extreme go to the lengths of publicly insulting the religion they were born to, and defend their stand point by glamorizing themselves as 'high end thinkers' and practitioners of Atheism. 

The other side of the fence is equally as bad - if not worse - a measly screenshot of words against the holy prophet will provoke us to go out into the streets and spend the whole day burning things in their sight - but the regular Azaan won't inspire us to pray for 5 minutes. Our scholarly examples in this club memorize the Holy Quran without knowing its true meaning or applying it to life. Confusing Islam with Arabic culture and using the religion as a trade to run the show. They capitalize on the ignorance by raising Fatwas, Jihadee morals and what not.

We do have something in common though - majority of us fall within the 'swing vote' population. We will change our thought process depending on the political climate. So why even bother partitioning into clubs when neither party is a true example of either?

Going back to the satire, the flag should actually be a gradient of colours - starting from white to black with shades of grey in between to choose your stand point from. End of the day, people choose clubs to save their back side - not because they have any true attachment. For those who do have a true attachment, if your team loses, you have two options:- 

• Change your jersey and throw away the old for good 
• Keep your jersey and leave the stadium for good. 

The smart guys did just that after liberation in 71 and are now reaping benefits.

A Realisation

Was sitting amongst peers / colleagues today and realized the vast amount of experience and qualifications around me. Professional degrees, double masters, Oxford / Cambridge grads, even few PHds. How did I stack up? Needed to come up with something to curb the growing inferiority complex. Well...

I went to the School of Moral Values where my mother was the principal. Attended the College of Independence where my father was a visiting lecturer. Later did a Bachelors degree from Open University of Friends where I did a major in Trust and minor in Diplomacy. Also did a Masters degree in Problem Solving from the International University of Life. Finally a thesis in Common Sense which has been accepted for PHd at numerous institutions where it is not taught.

What I realized was that I am what people have made me; my family, friends, co-workers in all phases of life. The people who I have built my life around. It's people who defines us and develop our qualities - not the papers or certificates. Felt good.

Extinction of Fundamental Scientific Knowledge

This is going to be quite unstructured, as it's just a conversation I had put in writing. hence I couldn't come up with a better title either. It occurred to me today that future generations, particularly those born in the last decade or so, will find it quite difficult to grasp the fundamentals of technology thanks to the advancements made in product development. Sure, they'll know how an update made on twitter traverses to Facebook, understand how cookies work and be able to spot the difference between a mobile app and a website viewed on a phone. However they'll find it very difficult to appreciate how computer networks operate, or something more fundamental like wireless / radio communications. In fact a colleague used an old Nokia 6600 (Panda) as a day replacement while waiting for his iPhone to be unlocked, and his 4/5 year old daughter found it incredibly difficult to believe that it was a phone until he called her on it and she spoke to him.

Picture the following - it's 1960; (you're probably imagining it thru a mode offered by Instagam but that's fine). Your father is in his early teens. He comes home after school just in time to hear the match updates on the "Transistor" which may have looked like this:

These devices were called Transistor (or Transistor Radios) for a reason - the semiconducting device / electrical component which allowed incoming radio wave signals to be amplified and converted into electrical signals was called a transistor (or something along those lines) but basically the transistor revolutionized how radios work (by bringing down the size & price by several times), and so consumer grade radios were simply called Transistors - it's bit like how we call the thing in the kitchen just a "microwave" instead of "Microwave Oven". Transistors in the 1950/60 were almost analogically the micro-processors in the 1980/1990, in helping complex large high end technology reduce their size into a more consumer market. But this article is less about technology and its evolution but more about how the future generation has limited understanding thanks to the advancements themselves.

So going back to your father playing around with the radio, he'd have to do at least one or two of the following:

1. Plug in the radio / Turn it on - if it didn't turn on, he'd check a small fuse box behind the radio
2. Switch to Shortwave / Long Wave (AM/FM etc)
3. Position the aerial in a direction he's previously figured out works best
4. Dial the knob on the right untill a clear audio can be heard by finding the right channel


Today's generation of teen would first of all not have to worry about reaching home in time to catch the match update, probably see it streamed thru iPlayer app on his mobile device while at school or on the bus, and would take no more than 2 - 3 taps on the screen to enjoy pretty much the same experience. But here's just two fundamental concepts which you and I born in the 70's or 80's might take for granted, but today's or tomorrow's generation may actually find it difficult to conceive:

1. How things are powered - as long as there is a battery and the manual says plug in every night, my phone runs. So no understanding of the concepts like "Earthing", "110V vs 220V", "Amp Fuse". In fact I think in the future, teens won't even know what electricity is because so many electronics will be solid state and battery driven / green fuel type. Who knows.

2. Absolutely no idea what Radios Waves are - forget about the understanding of the different bands and frequency channels. I was replaying the thought process in mind - when I used to teach elementary Physics at GCE level, I could start descriging Gamma Rays after having it compared with Radio Waves - the idea is that if a student in his teens knows what radio waves are, you can then ask them to picture something of much higher frequency - because the user of a radio has at least some idea of what short & long frequencies are, how they are measured. Maybe next time I see a youngster on the bus listening to Capital FM, I'll ask if s/he has any idea what the FM is all about. Then again in London, they won't be "bovered" so let's move on. 

In summary, as it's getting late here, I think the technology we have around us is "packaged" for consumer ease of use. Everything working element is under the bonnet of a shiny touch screen. All the complex processing are handled by software. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that - in fact I'm an advocate of innovation - what I am saying though is it's a pity that today's and future generation will not have a working understanding of a number of universal concepts such as Electricity, Radio, Magnetism, Optics etc.

Having said that, I'm sure my dad never required understanding what vacuum tubes were since transistors had replaced them, so I guess these kids should be fine !!

Binary Bangladesh

Fans of the God Father trilogies will know about ‘Grey Characters’. Different folks will have different interpretations – in principle, grey characters are those who are generally wrong and do evil, but have their own morals and reasons behind it, or realize their wrong doing and try to rectify it. For me, it’s slightly different. For me, anything which is not totally good or totally bad is grey. Anything that cannot be represented using binary digits is grey. It’s a bit like technology enthusiasts – purist iOS and Android fans fall within the black and white category – people willing to try other platforms, or happy to move between Android and iOS lie within the grey zone.

Now here’s a random thought – since the general population of Bangladesh is always divided in two, why not change our flag to represent this. Behold my proposed new flag of Bangladesh:

Consider the numerous scenarios where this fits in …

Cricket – White for Pakistan and Black for India. Thankfully now we have a grey audience who actually support Bangladesh when we play well.

Football – Real Madrid vs Barcelona or Brazil vs Argentina - whether you understand football or not.

Academics – White for English Medium / Private Uni, Black for Bangla Medium / Public Uni - whether you have any idea of the syllabus or academic methodology or not.

Culture – Black for India, Hindu, Bangla. White for Islam, anti-india - regardless of numerous examples or exceptions, stereotyping rules !!

and of course, Politics – White for BNP, Black for AL (no relation to skin complexion of ex-prime minster or current home minister). It doesn’t stop there; after each national election, we can reverse the colours to show which side the majority of the population is on.

Jokes apart, it actually saddens me. We have far too many people who lack basic judgement – their opinion and attitude towards everything is driven by influence. There is in fact nothing called a thought process – it’s all either pre-built in, or just a matter of joining a band wagon which serves your personal gain. The scientific method of reaching a conclusion requires gathering information, and testing a hypothesis. In our case, we start from a pre-assumed hypothesis, then back track if required. In most cases, we just join the crowd to avoid answering to our opinions – thereby having other take our decisions for us.

Paris Photo Blog

This is more of a photo blog of the places my wife and I visited in Paris in mid summer 2012. It was to celebrate our first wedding anniversary which coincides closely with Bastille Day celebrations, hence was a real treat. We stayed in Paris for six days, with a day trip to Versailles.


This blog covers the key places I'd suggest visiting:

Eiffel Tower visit,
Bastille Day parade,
River Seine Boat Cruise,
La Louvre Museum,
Chateau de Versaille and Jardins
Plus other Landmarks such as
Arc Du Triomphe,
Sacre Couer,
Hammam de la Mosque,
Moulin Rouge,
Notre Dame,
Place de la Concorde

Things to do in Nottingham

Nottingham is a small city near Leicester in the midlands of UK, about 130 miles from London. The city is iconic for it's heritage and history around Robin Hood. This blog is about some of the places we visited over the weekend early this year when the summer hadn't kicked in fully.


Nottingham Castle

The castle is very close to the rail station and city center. It's on top of a small hill, offering some fantastic views over the city. There are various aspects of the castle worth having a look around, such as the museum, the gardens, the statues. The large photo on top is of Robin Hood and stands about 9 feet tall, solid iron.

Other things you will not miss are historic walks through the underground tunnels which tell tales of the legend of Robin Hood.

Something I found interesting was the artwork on the castle grounds in the shape of leaves, eyes, peacock feathers etc, with poems and stories written on them.



The Justice Galleries

The justice gallery is a worthwhile place to visit. It is one of the only remaining prison and courts which still stand today. The tour starts with the impersonation of convict telling the tales of how she got executed despite being innocent. She then takes you around the dungeons, cells, trial rooms, and finally where they were hung till death. You can also get a feel of the scents used, the potions, the stationary etc of the jailers.

One particular observation was the level of sexism at it's best. Women as prisoners seemed to be quite a common occurrence back in the dark ages primarily with the accusation of knowing witchcraft.







Nottingham City Center and Town Fairs

The town fairs in Nottingham are pretty cool. We went there when it wasn't really cold, but slightly chilly. The rides at the fairs were basic - the vertigo was fun though - 50 meters high in the air at speed of - not sure - was busy looking down !!

We enjoyed the lack of crowd and could walk around stalls selling street food from around the world, cheese, patisserie etc.The open market culture is quite strong and still lasting, when compared to London or other large cities where super market chains have taken over.

Enjoyed festive little shops serving hot chocolate, cross buns, sausages all in pretty much German theme.

Hotels in Nottingham
Nottingham has about 50 or so hotels under pretty much all leading chains. We stayed at the Mercure Nottingham - Paid about £140 for 2 nights in a superior double with breakfast - pretty cheap.

The hotel itself was a sight to remember - it's a 18th century building that Mercure acquired and renovated. We were invited by their management team as a loyalty offer to mark relaunch of the hotel.

This is a view from the stairs as you enter the rooms on the upper floors.

Green's Wind Mill

On the second day we took out day tickets to explore the city. The day rider tickets are cheap - £5 for two.
We first headed for the Greens Windmill. This was actually my frist time I saw a windmill up close and explored inside. It's used as an academic center for students and houses a small science museum. The views from the top are truly worth shooting if you're a photo enthusiast.

Other places around the Green's Windmill include a cemetery and some roadside artwork depicting differential equations and other mathematical symbols.







Wollaton Hall

The highlight of our Nottingham trip was visiting Wollaton Hall. This is slightly outside the main town so you need to get on the bus - not within walking distance as advertised in some places. But it's worth the trip. The hall itself belonged to some wealthy dude who enjoyed the luxury hence built himself this massive hall to live where he enjoy deer spotting. This is my attempt at panoramic shot from the top of the hill as you leave the hall.

Deer Park

The Deer Park is actually the entire place around Wollaton Hall. As you can see the deer park houses loads of small & big areas worth exploring if you have the time. We spent half the day there, but weren't able to explore it all. 

Deer spotting turned out to be a failure, as they all hid among the trees due to the weather. The park itself was peaceful to stroll around.

The Wollaton Hall hosts a Natural Museum which is great if you like stuffed animals - don't even go there if you're thinking of something else.

I actually found the paintings and artwork pretty interesting. Other items in the museum such as rocks, minerals etc.


All in all, I wouldn't rank Nottingham too highly among my travels - I'd say 5/10, nothing exquisite.  It's a nice place to visit if you like to get away from London - any place fits the bill for that matter - and you fancy a bit of shopping, a bit of hill trekking or perhaps find yourself a great hotel deal !!