LIFE AS IT IS

PART I When Fahmida left her home that morning, she was not feeling very well. She was not only a little feverish, her migraine had also returned. With a throbbing head she lay in her bed the night before, rewinding events of the last two years. Fahmida's face broke into a smile from time to time as she visualised her journey to the present. Her biggest dream was finally taking shape -- she would attend her first class at the Law Department of Dhaka University in just less than two months.  But that morning, she wished she could stay home, and spend the day arranging the clothes in her wardrobe, washing the dirty laundry, and tidying up her reading table, which had not been dusted in a week. In dusty Dhaka, where furnishings needed to be wiped daily, a week without dusting meant an accumulation of the grey, powdery city dirt on everything -- from beds, chairs and tables to candles, plants, and picture frames. However, Fahmida could in no way afford the luxury of being at h...

I am a parent, and as such I feel the onus to teach our children the difference between good and bad is squarely on us. We the parents, both fathers and mothers, are our children's first teachers, and it is our responsibility to inculcate the right kind of knowledge into them, so they can become worthy members of the society when they grow up.  As a parent, I also feel that if my child fails her society, I am also partly, if not fully, responsible for her failure.  We now live in a fast-paced, selfish, materialistic world where we are so busy making money and living our own lives that many of us have no idea what our children do on the Internet all day long, what they play, read and watch, who their friends are, and how they spend their free time.  We do not sit together at the dinner table, we do not watch movies together, and we do not chitchat over breakfast on weekends. We do not know if our children are depressed or secretly frustrated, or if all they want is t...

We need to start teaching our children that the alphabet P stands of Peace. In language classes, we can encourage our children to form sentences with the words, peace and শান্তি. Schools can also arrange workshops and fun activities to impart knowledge about the importance of religious and racial diversity in a society. The word, peace, may sound abstract to a child in the beginning, but as they grow older they will likely become curious about "peace" and its importance in the world we live in. We need to instill in them the importance of respecting and accepting people who are different from them. Perhaps a day will come when our children will understand that without peace the world around us is pretty much meaningless.

Gelato Love By Wara Karim  It is a cold, sweet yumminess that melts in your mouth. It tingles your palate as well as your soul. That’s why you find it difficult, if not plain impossible, to say no when someone offers you this frozen delight. However, the exact history of the origin of the world’s most popular dessert is unknown. But we do know that it's been around in different forms for more than two millennia! Records suggest that Alexander the Great loved eating snow and ice flavoured with honey and nectar, an ice cream recipe that surely can't be more natural!  From children to adults, ice cream is on everyone’s list of favorite foods. I love it in the spring, summer, fall and winter. When it comes to ice cream, I do not care what the outside temperature is. Like many people, I too keep pints of ice cream at home year-round. This summer, I have also bought boxes of ice cream cones from the grocery store. As it's not possible to take a toddler to an ice c...