LIFE AS IT IS

We live and breathe in a consumerist world, a world where participating in the rat race is becoming the norm often at the expense of spending quality time in the company of people we love most. Today, the world is such that our children also grow up to compete against each other, rather than stand by each other or lend a hand to each other in times of need. The materialistic world is giving birth to future materialists, who obtain happiness from their material possessions -- toys, clothes, shoes and accessories. The Daily Star link  March 7, 2017 A 2004 report by the American Psychological Association on children and advertising found that American children on average watch 20,000 commercials each year. An alarming reality!  Although the above-mentioned statistic only applies to the U.S. economy, it is safe to say that if you live in Bangladesh and your child is a regular TV viewer, he or she is also exposed to a few thousand commercials each year. Even YouTube v...

I heard that I would hear people speak Bengali in its shops, restaurants, roads and alleys. I was told that I would see women shopping in sari and shalwar kameez, and men discussing international politics over shingara and steaming cups of tea. How many Bangladeshi expats would let go of a chance to experience Bangladesh away from it? I would never!  The Daily Star link  Feb 21, 2017 It was the summer of 2013, it was my first time in Jamaica, a neighbourhood in Queens, one of the five boroughs of New York City. I had heard so much about it from friends and relatives that I was convinced a summer vacation in NYC was incomplete without one trip to this diverse neighbourhood.  So on one scorching afternoon of May 2013, my family and I embarked on our exploration of Jamaica. As we left the subway station and began walking along its Hillside Avenue with our then nine-month-old daughter, I turned my head to see anyone who spoke Bengali. No language ever sounded sweeter ...