Syed Ashfaqul Haque

Discount, deferred payment, auction or cancellation! Options are being dished out by the buyers and importers of Bangladeshi garments to its makers. As Europe stutters to reopen after the coronavirus pandemic, global apparel businesses are making up their loss with money of manufacturers.

April in Dhaka is not what we know of. The month behaves almost like spring now.

Unlike any polls in the past, eligible city dwellers yesterday were free to exercise their right to vote through machine, for the first time, at all centres across Dhaka.

“Casino” in Bangladesh! Not one or two, 60 in total are operating right in Dhaka city. It’s no makeshift, behind-the-shanty mundane affair. Inside, those “casinos” are as real and as glittering as in Las Vegas. All were there: gambling machine, liquor, and swirling of no less than 120 crore taka every night.

Ehsan Hoque was lucky not to be blind for life, after his birth in 1964. Born with congenital cataracts, an optical disorder responsible for child blindness, he could survive with a limited eyesight. However, unlike most other victims of child blindness because of infections or nutritional deficiencies in pregnancies, his story was to unfold completely differently over the next five decades. His eyes in distress would eventually transform him into an angel parent of children in distress.

Empty! Emptiness, everywhere across Dhaka North yesterday. Empty voting centre, empty polling booth, empty ballot box and empty look in the faces of polling officials. As if the word empty personified the city elections of yesterday, the day when over 30 lakh voters were supposed to elect the mayor of their region.

How dare you hit my children! These are the children whom we protect every single moment from every single harm. We leave nothing to chances as far as their security is concerned. Our children on the streets have come under attack, and we, the parents, have every right to ask who has given them the right to touch our children.

Road-wise, Bangladesh remained a student republic for the last seven days. It's about time it went back to what it is: a people's republic.

We never take one unique medicine for all illness. Do we? Never. Because it invariably would compound the illness and wreak havoc on the delicate human body, causing death even.

From Russia, with no surprise!

Lady Luck plays a small but significant role in a World Cup that runs over a month.

Warriors! That is the word that describes Croatia the best.

Here comes a game that no one wants to be involved in. What glory can two losers achieve from a third-place deciding game? For teams, nothing but the World Cup matters. It's just cruel to ask one of the losing semifinalists to lose again.

Sorry, England! It's not the World Cup, but the footballers who are coming home.

France won the match, but not the hearts. The first semifinal between the two best sides of the World Cup failed to live up to its Battle Royale billing. It was a good match but could have been great had France not played negative football. There was no reason for France to play defensively.

France, Belgium face off. The two best teams of this World Cup lock horns tonight. A dream match that has every potential to live up to its billing as a Battle Royale.

Football is played in cycles, although they do not change often.

Heartbreak for hosts, but Russians were heroes. Ranked 70th in the world and playing in this World Cup by virtue of being the host nation, Russia were taken on neither seriously nor respectfully by rivals and pundits. But what a gallant run the elderly Russian players had in this tournament.

What a match it was Friday midnight! A cracker of a contest that was fought hard till the end.

Four years ago, Brazil were hit by a tragedy bigger than a tsunami. A 7-1 thrashing by Germany was beyond the wildest imagination of the proud football nation.