LIFE AS IT IS

Trambunctious rallies, elaborate spreads, music and poetry, and traditional garb...all work together to make the celebration of the Bengali New Year a truly unique one. The streets are filled with Bangali belles, elegant in their red-and-white saris, flowers in their hair, red alta on their feet, and of course, a rainbow of glass bangles adorning their wrists. This year too, our girls and women are making preparations to welcome the Bengali New Year 1413. Besides purchasing red-white saris, women are crowding places like Gausia Market, New Market, Piraan, Banglar Mela, Mayasir, Jatra, Deshal, Ideas etc to get hold of the latest bangles. The custom of wearing bangles by women is centuries old and the tradition is still going strong thanks to our fashionistas. If you want a little folk saying on bangles then know that gold bangles are believed to herald prosperity and well-being for hubby dearest. Thereby, gold bangles are usually seen on the hands of married women. However a dozen ...

There was a time when life meant crawling out of bed at 7 a.m. in the morning, getting ready for school, returning home in the afternoon and then dozing off in the evening with books wide open on table. School days are long gone, yet I wake up at 7 a.m. in the morning to catch the early classes of university. But waking up from bed no more entails constant shrieks of my mother, or the ear-splitting blare of the long standing bedside clock. My biological timepiece now seems to work better than the mechanical ones. As time is flying, life is unveiling itself with new a definition. What life meant 10 years back does not mean the same right now. And I know that life will not mean the same 10 years from now. A life is a journey, as you might say. There are ups and downs, you move through boulevards as well as alleys, you taste freedom as well as captivity. We become mature with time. This is possibly the reason why I now fret when the telephone bill skyrockets, when our maid snoozes whil...

There was a time when wearing nose pin by women was a custom; every married woman wore one. Nose ornament was considered more than just a trinket, it was believed that every married female should pierce her nose and wear gold to bring good luck for her other half. In many religions, women take off their nose ornaments when their husbands pass away. But those days are long gone; today young and unmarried girls pierce their nose and wear trendy trinkets as a symbol of stylishness. In our day wearing a nose pin is more a craze than a custom. It was during the late 1990s when wearing nose pin emerged as a fashion symbol among teenagers and adolescents of Dhaka. High school goers flocked to beauty salons like Woman's World, La Belle and Persona to have their nose pierced. At one time, piercing nose was a matter of panic for most women. The reason was that the entire process of pricking nose was intensely painful. However, this scenario is not true anymore. Today, you can pierce your...

The large portrait doubles the splendor of the modern living room where it hangs. It was taken some 30 years ago…a frozen moment from three decades back that doesn't seem out of place in this fashionable household amongst all the state-of-the-art furnishings. The picture holds the image of a young woman, gorgeously dressed in some brightly colored georgette saree, her hair done exquisitely in a style not seen today. It's a picture similar to the kind that we have in our homes. They reside in our age-old family albums. These albums embrace the youthful days of our mothers and aunts. These were probably taken as long ago as the '60s or the '70s, yet their captivating power is unrivaled. The times that were held still by the clicks of some antiquated camera were different from the times we are currently in. The women in these pictures are clad in sarees. It was a popular style of the '60s to embellish oneself in a saree that firmly clutched its owner. Elaborate rituals...