Opinions, Academic Insights, and Literary Critiques
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is easily one of the best books I have read this year. The story starts off at a very slow pace, when it introduces the protagonists, twin sisters Stella and Desiree who are light skinned and black. Eventually, the sisters run away from their hometown Mallard and then Stella decides […]
Such a Fun Age is a very timely and relevant portrayal of white savior narrative and the very subtle layers performative activism and woke culture. The writing style flows naturally and is written in a simplistic manner, despite its serious theme which deals with the nuances of race and class privilege. The plot centers on […]
In Books I to V of his treatise On Architecture, Vitruvius chalks out a detailed guideline for all the relevant knowledge an architect may possibly need in the practice of architecture. And this include both theory and practice. While talking about theory, he justifies the need for studying philosophy by saying that it provides answer […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
For my masters course titled ‘Architecture: Theory and Criticism’, I have been instructed to read the book Geometry and Philosophy, the 1985 book by Liaquat Ali, published by Bangla Academy. Below are some of its excerpts translated in English for my ease of understanding.—–For Plato, mathematics held so much importance that the door of his […]