Nearly six years on, PM’s pledge remains unfulfilled In the afternoon of December 29, 2009, about 150 traditional boatmen from the Basila-Washpur ghat formed a spectacular column with their boats in the river Buriganga and waited under the just completed Shaheed Budhijibi Bridge there. On the eastern side of the bridge, amid tight security, several […]
Gopalganj water crisis The scene is extremely unusual in rural Bangladesh. About four kilometers from Gopalganj town on the main road towards Bagherhat, dozens of women and children with pitchers in hand patiently waited by the road to fill their pitchers with potable water from the truck-mounted tanker provided by the Gopalganj Municipality. The women said […]
Sub-regional co-operation may be hitting new heights in the coming months. Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan look set to sign a deal, which could see unrestricted movement of vehicles between the countries within the end of the year. If implemented, the historic move would resemble something similar to traveling in the countries within the European […]
It is just like any Dhaka street; hardly 100 meters long and about four meters wide. It starts from Green Road in Farm Gate and winds its way to end on the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, where rickshaws are strictly off-limits. The character of this street is so typical of Dhaka living that one can […]
She shook him vigorously. Yet there was no response. The young man, about the age of 25, lay on the floor of the Chittagong bound third class compartment. She now turned to half a dozen fellow passengers in the dirty compartment for help. None but a middle-aged man came forward. “What’s happened to him?” he […]
A 150 km bicycle trip through the picturesque north Cycling through rural Bangladesh is often considered an exquisite experience not just because of the idyllic backdrop, but also because of the flat nature of our deltaic landscape. Some may even say that when on a bicycle in the Bangla countryside, you hear the heartbeat of […]
How harmful are the cell towers? The official answer to the question above is “we do not know the extent of it yet”. Bangladesh does not have a regulatory law on the emission of non-ionizing radiation to work on. Dr. Mofazzel Haider, Head of the Bangladesh Radiation Control Division, said that there is no national […]
At the age of 62, Mannaf Bepari, a lanky hard working man from Shajatpur in Pabna, left his village along with ten others including his twelve-year old physically challenged son Shahin. Their destination was not Dhaka, the unwelcoming capital of the country preferred by thousands of migrants, but the shoals or chars of the river […]
In the beginning of the 19th century, riverine Bangladesh had over 200 different types of wooden boats plying the rivers and other water bodies. Millions across the country were directly or indirectly involved in the traditional sector. With this unique diversification in boat building the entire country represented a real-life maritime museum from day to […]
The illustrious sport of pigeon racing The Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has an unusual fancy. She is an avid pigeon lover and keeps her racing pigeons at the Royal Lofts at Sandringham, where she owns a palace. Many other great names come up with the hobby of pigeon racing. They include Elvis Presley, […]
