পৃথিবী/Pale Blue Dot

পৃথিবী

গোলাকার এক পাথরে চেপে বসে আছি সবাই
ঘুরছি ঘুরছি দিন যায় দিন .. ঘুরছি সবাই
হাসি কান্না সুখ দুঃখ ভালবাসা ঘৃণায়

পৃথিবী

মানুষে অমানুষে মিশে মিলে সবাই
করি ভেদাভেদ অর্থ, রং, ধর্ম, রাজনীতি মিলায়
টানো দাগ আজ হয়ে যাক মিটমাট টানো দাগ

পৃথিবী

গ্রহ নক্ষত্র ভাসছে ভাসছি সবাই
লিখে চলি অদ্ভূত গান জেনেও যে গাবেনা সবাই
আমি তুমি তোমরা ... .... আমরা সবাই

পৃথিবী

Commentary by Carl Sagan
[as read on Wikipedia]

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

[gratitude: Khaotic Mind]

Read More

Live Games: A Walk to the Bank

DISCLAIMER: This won't make any sense if you'd never taken a walk down a Dhaka city area. :D

Sure, its not a catchy title like "Halo" or "Wolfenstein" .. but its every bit as thrilling and challenging as those games.

Your Mission: Walk to the bank on Kemal Ataturk Ave. to pay off Credit bills, or else you get charged with a Late Fine! oh crap! Start from Bonani Road 4. Sure, tis a small walk, but just as deadly as Operation Desert Storm.

Your Obstacles:
Potholes: It has rained last night, and unlike the visible gathering of rain on roadsides due to bad drainage, these potholes are cheeky, take your head off the road for a sec, and you could get your leather footwear all dirty, and maybe smelly too!

Rickshaws: Incoming and sneaking up behind you... they're like playful little puppies running down the streets, left, right, and barking, but make no mistake, they are not sweethearts. Get out of their way with a ninja's agility to preserve your life force.

Smell: Oh, whats that smell!? Block your nose with your hands within a second of detecting that perverse smell of a mixed bag of rotten things. If you don't do this within a second, because of your attention getting focused on other simultaneous obstacles, you lose your life-force every second that passes!

Manholes: Round deathtraps and sometimes they are also disguised as squares! Make sure you don't get your feet in or worse while watching a rickshaw or the occasional pretty girl crossing the street! Focus! Come on!!!!

Pedestrians: May as well call them Zombies, for they won't budge from their routes. So jump left and right to avoid them and make your way to your destination.

This is your challenge and you have to accept it. Why not put on an imaginary virtual reality headgear and visualize your life force and controls you have to use to get your bills paid or go get some lunch! ...if you're not driving that is, or taking a rickshaw (better be on the offensive eh?)

Just another perk of an overpopulated city.

Cheers!

PS. This idea is borrowed from the scene in "The Beach" where Leonardo di Caprio is going through some similar visions while going nuts alone in the jungle.

Read More

Oscar Wilde's Website

What an interesting world we live in! Or die in!

Read More

Paris, je'taime > New York, I Love You

I thought Paris, I Love You was a brilliant film, and it came at a time when I was finding it hard to find the attention span to watch most movies. The concept of having film makers work on short films around a subject itself was brilliant, and the result was really excellent stories told without any unnecessary elongation.



Now, I just found out that a New York, I Love You is going to be released also! Looking forward to that!

Read More

Rock 303, Buy it? Take it?

Finally, my band Rhee has gotten somewhere, and that is at the 13/14 place on a CD that was released on the 19th of September, 2009. This was a marvelous effort from Jewel of Miles/X Factor fame, who is a brilliant guitarist and producer. In a rush, he accepted 120 demos, and then chose 32 out of them primarily, and recording was arranged for them, and based on the quality of the song and recording, 28 bands got published in two albums: Rock 202, and Rock 303. These are a followup to his first arrangement Rock 101. But already, the consensus is that Rock 202/303 is the best rock compilation to have ever been released so far.

A lot of people were asking however, whether the songs are available online, or if I could pass them a copy of the song. One asked specifically, are you getting anything out of it? If yes, I'll buy the CD, otherwise I'll download it. The truth is, the band doesn't have any formal agreements about with the producers of this album. Donno if any of the bands do! All we get out of this is publicity (*?), and the recognition. It does feel good to be picked, and seeing all the bands around, you know exactly how you need to improve, step up your game, get serious.

I think theres a bad cycle involved when it comes to Rock and other subgenres which are loud, and edgy. There are artists like Momtaz, Asif, Habib, Balam, who enjoy a larger audience, and thus have a lot of sales and make the executive producers, labels happy. My theory is that their demographic also has the least amount of downloaders/freeloaders. And they also enjoy additional demand from tv, and movies etc. For Rock music, already with a marginal audience, has the most amount of people who download, listen to mp3 and thus share more. Also, there is the mixed feeling about whether the money spent on the CD is actually reaching the artist(s).

* The rock bands and other artist of such genres also have their works released to no efforts at publicity on the part of their labels! its mostly a lose - lose situation for the artist, with only the satisfaction of having released something to be gained. What do the labels gain from this? They must gain something out of it, my theory is that its not enough (according to their profit accountants) to pass on to the artists for them. My theory is that the fans of these bands need to 'create' a favorable market for their favorite artists by buying their albums and making sure, others around them are buying them. That's my theory. Whats yours?

Read More

Kado Bangali Kado!

Wah! AL whenever it comes to power, does some branding gimmicks. It tries to name everything after the leader's father and her other relatives' names! Well, there was really no reason to have thought this time would be different, even though with the way the elections came about, I was almost convinced they had realized there were more urgent matters at hand.

The one I thought was sad was -
The Bangladesh - China Friendship Conference Center, which was changed to "Bangabondhu Memorial Hall" ... undermining the goodwill shown by a fellow country, the result of which was this beautiful convention center (really one of a kind in terms of space and design in dhaka, or maybe just a few grades above the Osmani Milonayoton Hall, tho the latter's auditorium has better acoustics).

Aug 15 was declared as a national day of mourning, which is fine, and then the month as the national month of mourning! And so in lieu of that started the now power blessed AL's programs... which apparently included covering up the gate to the Banani graveyard with posters of Sk. Mujibur Rahman, and to put up banners everywhere with the words "Kado Bangali Kado".

The show of respect from any sane person I thought should have differed from this. The graveyard has graves of many people, and to cover up its gate with the pictures of one person no matter how great he might be, is really sycophancy to the extreme - in my opinion, breaking the sanctity of a graveyard.

I found the statement "Kado Bangali Kado" quite interesting also. Our grief regarding the country's welfare, and political situation is heavy, to the point that people laugh about it, suggesting no real solution exists, and the laughter to an extent has elements of mad despair. To a level, I even found the statement insulting... how dare they?

All night long from the night of the 14th, someone started playing Sk. Mujib's powerful speech that really shook the nation's consciousness before our liberation war. They put out mics and broadcasted it all night! The love and respect that people feel for the man, and the power and strong nationalism that was in that speech, I think they both get diminished with this kind of display. People are trying to sleep and someone is blasting that all throughout the night. If they arranged a hearing of the speech instead, at the Ramna park from morning, so that people could gather in one place and listen to that speech, it would have been more appropriate, and maybe would have rekindled someone's sense of nationalism*. I would say that would have been a more sensible way of paying respect to the man, and his words.

Alas, its difficult to judge how much of this is actual paying of respect, and how much of it is just a vulgar display of power. Some women will say that they dress for each other, comparing styles of clothes or make up or whatever ... observing the power play between BNP and AL kinda gives you some understanding of that... Khaleda Zia really started having big bashful birthday parties (even 5 year olds would be jealous) ever since Aug 15 was declared a day of mourning! (More related to this here) And I laugh everytime I pass by Crescent Lake (Chondrima Uddan) thinking how the AL govt. moved the bridge from that venue when a bridge in some village broke to replace it! Every member of both parties... take a bow! Really!



* Nationalism, the way I see it around me mostly, is just about saying some things, and singing some songs, and other forms of ritualistic showings, without any commitment to actions that help the country or society.

Read More

News!

Back when i was in school, we first started getting CNN. Cable tv was not there at the time and we used to get free broadcast of CNN for some portion of the morning in the same stream where our national tv would start broadcast at around 5 pm everyday.

Now, with cable tv everywhere, CNN can be seen in a new light. I have to say first of all, that I am not sure, whether programming is different in other parts of Asia or what, but I start comparing CNN now, mainly because I have Al Jazeera to compare with! BBC could be compared in the same light, they were once a good source of news, still not too bad.

Now, the channel of choice when it comes to news is Al Jazeera, and while watching I always get this in my head "Hmmmm, I wonder what CNN is showing!". This is how I found out 2 mornings ago, that Michael Jackson had died. Sad news, but also, the ONLY news almost for the whole day on CNN on that day! I guess I also don't compare BBC that much in these scenarios, coz of the way my tv is programmed... Al Jaz and CNN are next to each other, a click away.

CNN feels the need to be able to entertain with their shows, more than really covering what is happening in the world. They bring what is happening in the USA to the world, and nothing to take back I guess.

Al Jazeera has news of every country's elections, and sometimes has people with conflicting views on a single program that really help to show the two sides of the coin. Their music shows, go all over the world, and bring you really interesting views of all kinds of music scenes from around the globe, their philosophies and struggles and does not only focus on the best selling music category. Their show about movies is the same and has really great interviews.

CNN's news has lost all appeal to me, and the time I watch CNN is to catch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, who is really funny, and his show is brought to CNN courtesy of Comedy Central!

For Some Other Viewpoints:
Is It Al-Jazeera Or CNN International?
CNN to Al Jazeera: Why Report Civilian Deaths?
CNN's Anderson Cooper: What’s up with Al-Jazeera’s phone?

Jon Stewart:

(Thanks to Rajiv bhai for the lead on this. Apparently, the show Crossfire shut down after Jon Stewart's appearance and critique!)

Read More

Word of the Day: Impugn

impugn \im-PYOON\, transitive verb:
To attack by words or arguments; to call in question; to make insinuations against; to oppose or challenge as false; to gainsay.

Perfect for the way parliament is shaping back to its old days of mud slinging. All hail the golden goose of democracy, blind leading the blind.

Read More

Target Group: Generation Halum

Went yesterday to buy a phone. I'd say it like that and not "went to buy a Nokia E63", thats how I am. Anyway, when i reached Shopper's World where Nokia has their sales center, I saw a big line of people standing outside! Today is the launch of the Nokia 5800, and they have all come for it! I asked one of the Nokia staff if I could go into the shop, and as they said, I'd have to stand in line! So, I did what my logic told me was right, Come back in the evening.

The shop was quite quiet in the evening, with the Nokia staff hanging around, young kids wearing cool Nokia uniforms, not many customers in sight. So I grabbed one of them and asked if I could see a Nokia E63, the young kid replied that they didn't have any, and that he could show me a brochure. Then he told me they are only selling Nokia 5800s today! What?! That didn't make sense and was a little infuriating for me, after all, its my second trip to that same shop in one day!

This is a post where I am ranting, and the major cause of that is not because of what I described above, but because of the following. I had approached the sales staff in Bangla, coz, thats the language that is spoken in Bangladesh! That's where we were, and the kid was replying me in English every time! I could have talked in English to him fine, but I just kept talking in Bangla to see how long exactly he'd keep it up, and he went all the way. His english wasn't all that great to suggest thats his first language, or his very best second option, but he did it. Maybe he'd be fired otherwise? I don't know, but I think its because they were instructed to do so. I imagine they had a big meeting beforehand, where they brought out statistics and discussed their target market for the Nokia 5800, the group of young people, who are cool, dress in the latest (or a decade old in USA or Europe) fashion, and talk in english, cuase they are smaart (!@#!@%!%)... or whatever! haha... shit, i matched most of that description didn't I, except I was talking in Bangla, and I found it quite insulting that a sales force could be trained to ignore Bangla like that! Sheesh!

Read More

Political Role Model for 3rd World Countries?

Local newspaper "The Daily Star" had a title on the front page yesterday, something to the effect of "A US lesson for Bangladesh in positive politics ". While I myself admire the political attitudes as reflected through their presidential debates, their speeches and the focus given to the 'issues' at these times, politics is much more than speeches and elections*.

In terms of choosing a role model for politics, shouldn't we rather go with UK? In recent turnouts, there is the Economic Breakdown (was that a headline...? maybe it was termed differently), and that led to an Economic Bailout (definitely a headline). Apparently, the govt. hired private companies to handle the plan and there were no conditions given to the receiving banks, which led to some of them planning expansion with that money, and some to plan executive bonuses. Read More Here. In contrast to that, the UK bailout plan had necessary measurements to protect the taxpayers' money.

I recently caught Sicko on tv, and there was some scenes of patients waiting for treatment outside a US hospital, not unlike the horrible scenes at the DMC here! There is this whole hodge podge of health insurance and whatnot. Why strive for that when we can strive for universal healthcare** like the NHS in the UK? Its taken out on taxpayers and everyone gets free medical treatment, and almost free medicine. Even tourists there don't have to pay for healthcare!

My final point is that of a demand on the part of media and the people for accountability of the political offices. At the time of the wars on terror, one has to say Bush had smooth sailing if we compare what Tony Blair had to do for supporting that war. He had to appear before a committee and defend his decisions and that was broadcast over the news channels. Even when I happened to be there (December '06), there were posters all over London announcing another such session.

All 3rd world countries probably hold USA in high esteem, and frankly, we don't really see much of anyone else from here. USA's media exports are ubiquitious, unlike any other country. During the election, all news except the US election went to the ticker scrolling at the bottom of the screen. But, really, if we are looking for a political role model, we should really look around a bit more.


* You should remember the time when Al Gore lost in elections under some strange circumstances. The events were dramatized into a movie called Recount.
**US is supposed to be the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare.

Read More

Mike Myers for pres

Y'day McCain was on CNN describing his plans for rescuing the financial institutions and the US economy from their downfall, and all the while, i kept thinking that his manner of speaking resembled someone. All the thinking led to the character of Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers series of movies! :) Its mostly how stiff his upper body is and his arm motions when he is stating points. The voice too I think.

Read More

Spike Lee Joints are great

after a winding day at work (on a weekend), i came home pretty tired and listless, and luckily i had a movie to make it all better - Inside Man. the movie started off with a hindi song!!! and then the words "A Spike Lee Joint" flashed on the screen... and that just made my day.

Its not the first Spike Lee film i saw, but it was the first time this line amused me so much. i have to say, i forgot all about it. inside man wasn't the greatest spike movie, but it had that style, the urban soundtrack, and occassional pipes, the brilliance of Denzel Washington, and Clive Owen etc.

My favorite Spike Lee movies have to be Mo' Betta Blues and He Got Game though.

Read More

Sports Car

Ha ha ha
i laugh at u people
with sports cars in dhaka
stuck behind a rickshaw
zero to sixty
only in your dreams

Read More

Junk Mail Greatest Hits

Read More

Sightseeing: Paris, France.

Summer 2006, me and Fuad went on a trip to France (Paris, Varseilles, and Carcassone) and Spain (Andalucia + Barcelona and Madrid). This video is of the sights i recorded while in Paris, with my sony dsc-s40. thus the video quality is not soo good.

Read More

Today is...

I have added the "On This Day" feed from reference.com to my iGoogle page, and everyday (everyday that i remember to check it) that tells me something that happened on that day. Also, each day they give you a stark reminder of how time passes:

Today is Tuesday, April 8, 2008. This is the 99th day of the year, with 267 days remaining in 2008.

What am I to do!?

Read More

Our Right to Information Ordinance (2008)

From the Daily Star I learn today that the government is taking views from the public about the proposed Right to Information Ordinance (2008). The Ministry of Information has a website, and they are supposed to provide the information there about the ordinance, and other things, and the Daily Star has published a list of emails where people can send in their opinions:
www.moisecretary@yahoo.com
addsecmoi@yahoo.com
isadmn_moi@yahoo.com
jsdev_moi@yahoo.com (jsdev = javascript developer?!?#$!@)
jsbmoi@yahoo.com
The site works on IE, and on my firefox (iceweasel) I saw
<%@ Language=JavaScript %>
But all you firefox weasels, you can still ‘view source’ and get the info if you really want to know what the govt. is upto. To save some trouble, here are the links:
http://www.moi.gov.bd/moimenu.htm - Links relating to MOI. Here you will find a link to the ordinance. Its in a .doc format, and in Bangla, which I couldn’t open to view.
http://www.moi.gov.bd/left_menu.htm - Various Links (includes BTV, BD Betar, FDC etc.)
http://www.moi.gov.bd/Footer.htm - Will reveal who is responsible for the atrocity of a website.
http://www.moi.gov.bd/telephone.html - Their 'Contact Us' page, very elaborate with even the home addresses of their members! Not too smart.

Read More

Corruption: Overrated

Underrated: Lame Bureaucracy (or a very Lame Work Culture)

"Why do it today, when there is tomorrow?"

"I must send an official letter to my boss, who will send a letter to his boss, and then his, and then the approval must come down the proper channels before I can give you your birth certificate"

"Its procedure"

"Please have a seat while I talk to my cousins on the phone about the birthday party last night"

"Lets have many meetings and not really do anything"

Read More

Women's Day

(Photo Credit: Istela Imam)

It maddens me when I meet some people in my country who by default undermines a woman's ability to do a certain job. It is unwarranted. So, when my father and I were waiting for my mother and sister to get registered as voters, we met someone like that. As it happened, male operators were taking care of the male voter wannabes (unsuitable? probably), and female operators were taking care of the female wannabe voters. As it also happened, my father and I were done in a jiffy, and had to wait quite a long time for my mom and sister to come out. I asked a male guard there why it was taking so long, and it was then when he made his remark about women. I told him he was wrong, and that there was no reason that it should take so long, just because the operators there were women. I thought I had made my point. Then again, I didn't know that our wait was to be a lot longer still.

I asked them when they were finally done "what took so long?". So, as it happened the operators were slower and did take longer! That made me realize, that a woman's ability is still not a question here. I think society's treatment of women also play a large role here. If girls grow up in an environment where nothing is expected of them, they will not grow to explore their potential, or be aware of it. The 'default undermining' is our society's view of women, and that largely affects the outcome of the women workforce. Its not uncommon to find women with engineering or medicine or other educational qualifications just doing nothing afterwards. The expectations sometimes are that they will be educated but not needed to work. The demand/supply of arranged marriages play a strong role in this situation, or simply rather loose hypocritical viewpoint of the educated parents.

Whatever, it may be, I know there are women out there who are offering so much to this society and the world at large, and I hope the future 'woman' chooses the right role model and gets to see that there is much they can do.

Lastly, a few links:
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Is Islam Really Stuck in the 12th Century on Women's Rights?

Read More

Rives Def Jam

Poetry from the school for the deaf

Read More