“You get full marks in math I buy you a packet of chips after school” my mother used to say. Gone are those days, full marks or no mark children nowadays get whatever they want.
The other day I was having a conversation with my 10 year old cousin. I asked him if he gets a “reward aka chips” for doing well in a test or exam. At first he gave me a weird look and completely ignored my question (ouch!) then he finally answered “yes sometimes”. I got excited and shared my memories telling him how I would always go for Mr. Twist or Ring Chips. All he said was “eww . . Indian Lays are so much better”. I was heart broken. (Ok maybe not)
Remember back in the day when we were young we would buy Mr. Twist, Potato Crackers or those bright canary yellow ring chips? I have noticed that the children these days prefer Indian Lays or Kurkure over the local ones. If you ask them why they would say it’s because there is something wrong with the ingredients they use, it is not good for health and all that. Obviously this isn’t something they came up with, it’s what they hear from their parents. It’s true that in the past some foul content were found in some food products but now things have changed. These food products are made in a hygienic area with modernized equipments.
Therefore we shouldn’t discourage the children our scare them away rather encourage them to buy our own food products.

14^th of April was Bengali New Year. A lot of mela, concerts, (Dj party & Car rally?!) and different other events took place. Almost half of the city was on the streets wandering in the scorching heat looking for something interesting to do. While they were preoccupied in search of amusement I was busy looking at them! Why? Because of the clothes, the make up, the hairstyle.(Not just the ladies, even the men . .yes you men in your slim fit panjabi!)  Some girls looked like they came straight out of the Bollywood movie Om Shanti Om! The Deepika hairstyle and eye make up is still in. Seems like we can’t get over the 07 bollywood hit.

Ah oh . .looks like we have copied that mausoleum that is in our neighbouring country. (although it is nowhere close) My first impression when I saw it was “something Ken would build for Barbie . .only if they were still a couple”. Putting my crazy imagination aside I think we shouldn’t be even comparing it with the real Taj Mahal because that would be insulting it but let us not get too serious and critical as well. We know that in Bangladesh we don’t have that many places we can visit. This new “tourist spot” or “recreational spot” or however you want to refer to it gives the people of our country somewhere to go to with their families over the weekend.
A lot of criticism has been made by the Taj Mahal lovers primarily because of the colour (pink!) and the materials used (bathroom tiles!) but lets just think of it this way, given the present economic condition in the world, if Emperor Shah Jahan was alive now, he probably would have considered bathroom tiles over marble. Who knows?

We Bangladeshis are highly dependent on Indian products starting from clothes & cosmetics to silly things like frying pan & mango pickle. That is probably one of the reasons why we like going to India- for shopping. During the wedding seasons, even before reserving a place where the marriage can take place we book our tickets to go to Bharat. (Kolkata to be precise)Why? (if we ask our moms and aunts) they will say because sarees there are reasonably priced, they have the latest things etc etc.
Even if we are shopping here in Bangladesh we completely ignore our products and go for the Indian ones saying our quality isn’t good enough, the designs are common, not much variety blah blah come up with 1001 excuses.
I agree that when it comes to variety and quality of clothing the Indians are way ahead but we aren’t that bad either, our tatis do a great job as well and as Bangladeshis we should support and encourage them. And about the cooking utensils, how much can one go wrong with a frying pan? I will ask my mom and aunts to buy our deshi hari patil . . . you do the same as well.

I am one of those annoying people who read out loud or have to comment on every sign board, billboards just about anything on the road that has writings and pictures that are visible through my specs.
On Thursday, I noticed something interesting. I was somewhere in Tejgaon industrial area and I noticed HABIB on a billboard and it wasn’t our Moina Go Habib, it was the Indian hair stylist. (Random right?) That’s what I thought. I mean it’s not everyday you come across a hair stylist posing on a billboard in Tejgaon. I think he has a salon along with one of our local beautician. Maybe his picture was up there for marketing and promotion purpose but I thought it was weird. Should I be flattered that now my hair is in the hands of a foreign expert or should I be worried that it implies Bangladeshi hair dressers aren’t good enough? Hmmmm . . .

This horrendous incident left me traumatized and yet at the same time it made me think. What was it all about? Why did it happen? Who did it? And many other questions were bothering me. For some odd reason Karl Marx’s theory of social conflict, inequality popped into my mind.  I was thinking about the other half of the Bangladeshi population (especially the lower class) what did they have to say about this incident. Did they feel the same way? Are the as terrified as us? In my opinion poverty and illiteracy played an important role in what happened. Poverty makes a person ruthless and inhuman while its easy to brain wash an illiterate person as they don’t know what is wrong and what is right.