Shahnoor Wahid

There is no denying that community clinics have all the promises to save lives if run by qualified people.

One must recognise the fact that grabbers in Bangladesh have taken the enterprise to the highest level of creativity and perfection.

Our senior citizens with a taste for Hollywood and British classic films will perhaps remember where I have taken the title from.

Dhaka residents are scorched by a hot sun above their heads, their throats feeling like dry wood, and there is plenty of murky, smelly water all around, but alas!

When the half crescent appears in the western sky to announce the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, some of our brothers in trade see it as a gold pendant hanging up there, while some others perceive it as a dollar bill.

Dateline: March 25, 1971. 11am. Some of us were having tea at the canteen of Mohsin Hall, Dhaka University when a batchmate of ours came inside and warned us of a possible police/military action later in the evening.

Winter always lingers delightfully on the Dhaka University campus. The fallen leaves of myriad colours underneath the tall trees create a surreal montage against the green grass.

When it comes to long distance travelling, nothing can replace the railway. Beginning around 1880, the Bengal railway expanded soon to bring Assam and East Bengal under its folds.

One has to appreciate the fact that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman identified population boom as the “foremost national problem” for Bangladesh, even though the size of the population was 7.5 crore in the ‘70s. It amply indicates how farsighted he was in this case as we are burdened with a burgeoning population of over 16 crore today.

The new normal is now normal! Four years back, seeing us sitting at the coffee table with our masks, disposable gloves and sanitiser bottles, people would have chuckled and called us abnormal.

Let us talk about the heroes of the pandemic. We want to remember those extraordinary men and women who have offered selfless services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, knowing very well that they could get infected by the deadly virus.

A recent news update from Carew & Co will uplift the spirit of many of my friends who frequently take to the bottle to release bottled-up emotions.

The date January 10, 1972 will remain etched forever in golden letters in the history of Bangladesh.

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” Oscar Wilde reminded us of this universal truth with these witty words, which are timeless and wholesome at the same time.

A gentleman does not. But a man not so gentle does. A genuine award from a respectable organisation becomes a thing of joy, but an award given by a shady group to a questionable character raises eyebrows.

When a fish gets caught in a net, it curses its luck and tries to free itself from the mesh.

“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realise we cannot eat money.”

Alongside the Bengalis in general, many foreign missionaries who have been living in Bangladesh since the fifties and sixties had joined our War of Liberation in 1971 in their own capacity. We have heard about their heroic contribution and on various occasions paid our tribute that they deserved. I personally met and heard the story of two missionary doyens who defied the threats of the Pakistani military and continued to help the freedom fighters. They did so for the sheer love for the common people of this country irrespective of their religion, cast or creed.

Soon after the creation of Bangladesh, we came to know of the heroic yet risky stand taken by many foreigners, foreign journalists and Christian missionaries in defiance of the Pakistani military threats.

It was J. Edgar Hoover, the apparently puritan FBI Director, who had let his agents secretively investigate the love life of John F.