Ducsu’s mandate is student representation, not administration
9 HOUR(s)
The one-year tenure of the Dhaka University’s apex student body, the Dhaka University Central Student Union (Ducsu), has come to an end, and the office bearers have shown eagerness to hand over power to their successors through an election.
9 HOUR(s)
What will remain ours in the age of AI?
12 September 2026
In the past, people would view a glacier chunk falling into a lake and causing a river to overflow as a cosmic event or divine act.
12 September 2026
We must carry Shahed’s fight against corruption forward
5 September 2026
There are reasons to be both sad and hopeful about Shahed Sharif Ahmed.
5 September 2026
Nine years on, the Rohingya still don't have a safe road home
29 August 2026
August 25 was observed as the “Ninth Anniversary of Rohingya Genocide Day” in the camps of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.
29 August 2026
Personal preferences should not become public restrictions
22 August 2026
Death could not seal the controversies for Jason Arday.
22 August 2026
Research should be about pursuing knowledge, not publication numbers
15 August 2026
Earlier this month, a national daily reported that at least 325 academic papers published by Bangladeshi researchers in international journals published between 2019 and 2026 had been retracted due to various irregularities, including plagiarism.
15 August 2026
The fine line between moral courage and entitlement
8 August 2026
It is unfortunate that we are seeing a culture where moral power is exercised arbitrarily, where accusation precedes evidence and power precedes procedure.
8 August 2026
When waiting in line for subsidised food turns deadly
1 August 2026
Because they could not step away from death, death stepped in for them (apologies to Emily Dickinson)
1 August 2026
On being ‘silly’
On a day like this, 33 years ago, I became a man. To be precise, on November 28, 1987 at 12:10 pm in the emergency ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), I became a man.
27 November 2020
The Shame of Being a Man
I woke up with a colleague’s hesitant post on Facebook wishing his friends well on the International Men’s Day. The comment thread is filled with issues ranging from locker room banter to the high theory on the dominant form of masculinity.
20 November 2020
Never waste a good crisis
One more circular. One more extension. The opening of the educational institutions is further delayed; this time up to December 19.
13 November 2020
An Unnatural Death
Have you ever put your ear to the rail to listen to the rumbling sound of an approaching train? I have. Many of us have.
23 October 2020
HSC results without exams: The pros and cons
You have near perfect vision, or 20/20 vision, if you can see the letters of an eye-chart from a 20 feet distance. 20/20 is an exciting cricket game if you can add two ounces of cricket with one ounce of baseball and garnish it with pom-poms.
9 October 2020
A game of kabadi against corruption
As the old joke has it, there is no lid in the mouth of hell where the Bengalis are kept.
25 September 2020
No onion, no cry
In his Ode to the Onion, the Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda praises onions as “the miracle” that happens under the earth.
18 September 2020
A Corpse of Love Doesn’t Sink in Water
The title alludes to a very famous folk song by Abdul Alim, Premer Mora Jole Dobe Na. The song pits true love against so-called flings, suggesting that mere water cannot drown the “body” who is in love.
11 September 2020
Rage, rage against the ragging in the campus
English professors are known for being sticklers for rules. Even if I try to disassociate myself from the grammar Nazis, there are times when I have to wonder about the usage of certain words.
4 September 2020
Losing a Loved One: When Doves Cry
“And my last ask is: if you’re someone’s sister, the next time you see your brother, please hug him… as tightly as you can, for as long as you want, because that’s all I want to do every time I see those photos. But I will never be able to hug Fahim again.”
21 August 2020
He gave to Mis’ry all he had, a tear
Attending the peace summit on the occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela in 2018, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quoted both Nelson Mandela and our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
14 August 2020
Fostering a research culture in higher education
In an op-ed published on July 27, Prof Syed Saad Andaleeb reviewed the DU annual budget and argued that the dearth of funding should not be blamed for the lack of research.
30 July 2020
Sacrifice and the Sacred
Cross border cattle smuggling prior to Eid-ul-Adha is an irritant that keeps officials in both Bangladesh and India nervy.
24 July 2020
Counting of Crows
During his regular stroll in the palace garden, Emperor Akbar once saw many crows flying around. He asked his minister, “How many crows are there in our kingdom, Birbal?”
17 July 2020
Necessary sacrifices, unnecessary thoughts
The coronavirus crisis posed serious threats to the global stock markets.
10 July 2020
A hitchhiker’s guide to our educational galaxy
Let’s admit it: our education today is in crisis. And it was in crisis even before the pandemic was here. The pandemic has exposed the skeletons we have been hiding in the open for a long time.
3 July 2020
Doctor, doctor, what is wrong with us?
There was a broken black chair by the window near the gate. On it there was a thin plastic bag containing some mixed up rice, daal, and probably vegetables or curry.
26 June 2020
Time to rethink our examinations
Uncertainties loom large over the holding of Higher Secondary Certificates (HSC) and its equivalent exams.
19 June 2020
The Cost of Education
I had a senior colleague at Jahangirnagar University who was known to his students at the Pharmacy Department as an eccentric genius.
12 June 2020
Breathe, Breathe in the Air
The Amazon rainforest, spread over 2.1 million square miles, is dubbed as the “lungs of the planet” as it produces 20 percent of the oxygen in our planet’s atmosphere.
5 June 2020