While we were still reeling from the after effects of the disastrous year that 2020 was, 2021 became the year for healing and more resilience. Amidst all the chaos, I am glad to have survived yet another year of highs and lows, and throughout all of this, I managed to read some remarkable books. Here …
Air Pollution: An Invisible Disaster Looming Over Us
Bangladesh, along with other parts of the world, has witnessed an increasing amount of environmental disasters as a result of climate change. On the other hand, due to poor planning and lack of regulations, more new hazards are on the rise in our cities. As the country turns fifty this year, it is high time …
Book Review: Representing Calcutta
To understand what it means to live and experience a city that is still reeling from the effects of colonialism, one does not need to look further than Kolkata. Unlike other Indian cities such as Ahmedabad or Chandigarh, Kolkata was not able to adapt the style of modernism that became the referential model for architecture …
Book Review: Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou
It was a compelling and novel proposition. A young Stanford dropout wanted to develop a blood test analyzer that requires no syringe and only a drop of blood. And thus began Elizabeth Holmes’ journey with Theranos. Soon, her confidence and eagerness to revolutionize healthcare impressed congressmen, military officials and seasoned professionals to invest millions of …
Book related musings
Here’s my TBR pile, which includes two books by Bangladeshi authors which I got from Dhaka Lit Fest a few years ago. I feel like the English books written by Bangladeshi authors is always a hit-or-miss situation. Most of them focus too much on the expat lives, or on the lives of those living below …
The Regional Politics of East Pakistan and Architecture by Doxiadis
This time period between 1947 and 1971 is somehow deliberately absent in the works of scholars from both East and West Pakistan. However, we must critically consider that absence, an intellectual blind spot, as it is essential in developing our historical consciousness, which affects the practice of architecture. We cannot ignore that time period, and …
Airport Woes
I have heard horror stories from relatives and friends about getting detained at US airports or their luggage getting misplaced or lost during international travels. I myself hadn’t faced any of it until my recent trip to the US. My mom and I landed at Washington Dulles Airport on a Wednesday afternoon in February, 2020. …
The Practice of Sustainability in Everyday Lives
Today, my colleagues and I were having the following conversation in the office vehicle, on our way to a work event. T: Look! That Range Rover in that showroom is a plug-in hybrid! M: Range Rovers are so big, and heavy, it wouldn’t even make a 0.5% difference.Me: It’s like those celebrities who fly private jets …
Lost in (Sylheti) Translation
[This article was previously published on ‘The Daily Star’ on 25th February, 2021. Illustration by Ehsanur Raza Ronny.]
How Aerial Imagery Changed Our Perception
When looking at the Bengali landscape through an aeroplane window, we see scattered settlements with mostly water, paddy fields, trees, and some paths. Additionally, there is also the plane itself being inserted into the scenario, where it acts as the spectator. “The will of the aeroplane represents to me the real spectator who gazes out …
Indifferently Insensitive
[This article was previously published in New Age Youth on 21st June, 2015.]
This Op-Ed discussed how comparing rape as a metaphor to a thrashing defeat in a game of football or hacked status on Facebook by youngsters of the society is not only insensitive but a troubling trivialization of the term that otherwise has a serious social concern