Photo Feature : The City of Joy

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/03/05/p_feature.htm

The city of Kolkata, India (previously known as Calcutta) is one of the oldest and vibrant cities of South Asia. The buildings, trams, tangas and the lifestyle in general – all take you back to the colonial era, when the British Rule was in full swing. Here are some photos from my visit to Kolkata, earlier this month.

It has been named the ‘City of Joy’ the way Dominique Lapierre, the famous French author has called the city in a novel (published in 1985) of the same name. Now a major motion picture (released in 1992), the city of Kolkata is rightfully called the ‘City of Joy’.

Spotlight: Hangouts!

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/03/02/camspotlight.htm

‘Dost, all of us are meeting up at XFC, 4pm sharp! Be there! Shobaiii ashbey don’t miss it’, the SMS read.

Farah replied back instantly, in spite of the fact that she was in the middle of a long and seemingly interminable lecture, ‘Sure thing dude! XFCta jeno kothay?‘

The reply came in almost immediately, ‘Random Plaza, 4th floor, right beside the Ishtyle Shop’.

The first one to reach the place on time was none other than Asif, and as usual, he had to suffer a long and grueling one hour wait, till the others started to pour in! In the meanwhile, he had prepared a lengthy speech about how he was the only punctual guy in the gang and that how the others should learn from him! Too bad the others weren’t too interested to listen to his broken records.

After a long day of classes, projects, quizzes, presentations and assignments, almost all of us tend to head to our favourite hangouts. Be it our university cafeteria, the mama’r cha-er dokaan close to the campus or some new expensive (and sometimes not quite so expensive) food joint nearby, we tend to chill with our friends for a while, over a cup of coffee or any other khawadawa for that matter! This gives us a well-deserved break after a hectic day, before going back home and dive once again into the never-ending world of assignments and projects!

Topics of discussion include anything and everything between the latest movies and songs, how tough and ‘undoable’ the Economics midterm was, or reminiscing some funny incident that happened some time back. Of course, there would be someone in the gang who would eventually steer the discussion to politics and someone who would talk about more possible food joints that he would like to venture.

Here is a list of the people which constitutes a typical gang:
1. The Sportsman This is the footballer or cricketer (or basketball player for that matter), the one who’s always busy preparing for his upcoming matches.

2. The Rockstar The singer/drummer/guitarist who keeps talking about his jamming sessions and his upcoming underground concerts.

However, the Rockstar is always a source of entertainment, especially when he is equipped with a guitar in a road-trip or a picnic.

3. The Style Icon / Wannabe Model This is the girl who would try her level best until everyone notices her all new hairdo! Like it or not, you have to appreciate her new ‘in’ looks or face the dire consequences otherwise! She’s always immaculately ‘dressed up’ and ‘made up’, even during the exam week!

4. The King of Laziness He is the one who calls for all the get-togethers, but ends up arriving last (just as he does in all the morning classes), in spite of the fact that he lives nearby to the Hangout Point.

5. The Intellectual This person is always busy with some sort of research or project which he/she thinks is destined to change the world! He is the one always carrying a novel with him written by some author whose name no one else has ever heard before!

6. The would-be-politician Ambitious, witty and smart, the would-be-politician would always steer the discussion to political issues, and how he would change the country once he gets to become the President! His favourite topics include global issues like the Iraq and Afghanistan War, the Darfur Crisis and nominations for the US Presidential Candidates Obama’s charisma, Clinton’s experience and McCain’s war experience; and things of the sort…

7. The ‘Easy-kajey-busy’ This is the guy who’s a registered member of all the clubs and associations in the university and claims to be an ‘active’ participant in all of them.

8. The Flirt This is the guy/girl who keeps having new affairs every other month and is on the look for ‘the right person’.

9. The Drama Queen Starting from school skits to live performances in public, she is the one striving towards a profession in drama and acting. She’s often seen carrying ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare’.

10. The New Cell Phone Owner/SMS Guy This guy always keeps having new cell phone handsets, more often than not. He also happens to carry several SIM cards (GSM connections) in his pocket, each of which, according to him, has its own ’special’ use.

He is also sometimes termed as the SMS guy, and is always seen busy sending SMS to different ‘important’ people even in the middle of the Hangouts!

11. The Comic/King of Corny Jokes We’ve all heard about the stand-up comedians in the Western World. However, in a typical gang, there is almost always a ’sit-down’ comedian whose sole mission is to make everyone laugh. Out of the thousands of jokes he delivers everyday, some are indeed humorous but the vast majority of them turns out to be really corny; hence the name, ‘King of Corny Jokes’.

After spending a couple of hours with your beloved friends, who happen to have so much diversity, it is difficult not to get rejuvenated and reenergized once again! Let me know if you think otherwise. Soon enough you’ll have to get back home and hit back on the infinite list of pending assignments and projects!

The following is a list of the Top Hangout Hotspots in Dhaka City. If you haven’t already been there, it’s high time that you do so now!

Top Hangout Hotspots in Dhaka
1. TSC (Teachers-Students Center)
(Dhaka University)
2. Coffee World/Pizza Corner
(Banani, Uttara, Dhanmondi)
3. Nando’s
(Dhanmondi)
4. Time Out
(Gulshan 1)
5. Kozmo Lounge
(Dhanmondi)
6. Dhaba
(Banani, Dhanmondi)
7. Helvetia
(Dhanmondi/Banani/Uttara)
8. American Burger
(Banani, Uttara,etc.)
9. Shwarma House
(Banani, Dhanmondi)
10. Boomers
(Dhanmondi, Banani)
10. Shumi’s Hot Cake
(Banani, Dhanmondi, etc.)
11. Pizza Hut
(Gulshan, Dhanmondi)
12. KFC
(Gulshan)
13. Andersen’s (Ice cream)
(Gulshan)
14. Club Gelato (Ice cream)
(Banani)
15. Movenpick (Ice cream)
(Many branches all over Dhaka)
16. Baskin Robbins (Ice cream)
(Banani)
17. Nirob, old Dhaka
18.New Market
19. Arabian Fast Food,Dhanmondi
20. Modhur Canteen
And last but not the least,
21. All the University Cafeterias which happens to be the place which almost everyone would vote to be their most frequented Hangout place.

Stars Grammy Forgot

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/03/02/feature_grammy.htm

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Going Off-track : Naveed Mahbub and his stand-up comedy

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=26426

Engineer-turned-stand-up comedian Naveed Mahbub is rapidly making his mark on the US stand-up comedy scene. A popular host of various shows on TV and radio, recognition has come his way with the award of the Best Male Comedian in the ‘2007 Las Vegas Comedy Festival.’

In an interview with The Daily Star, Naveed touched on a variety of subjects such as his sudden career switch, facets of his “not so popular” profession in Bangladesh and his future plans. Excerpts from the interview:
What is your background?
I am a student of electrical engineering. I graduated from BUET and went on to do my Master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Later, I worked for 13 years as an engineer with the Ford Motor Company, Kyocera-Wireless and Qualcomm. Three years ago I embarked on stand-up comedy.

So you are a relatively new entrant to stand-up comedy?
Three years is regarded as quite substantial in this medium. I took an intensive course in California, under Sandy Shores, a renowned comedy instructor from California. The Sandy Shore Comedy Workshop is quite well known in the US.

I began my career there while I was still doing my engineering job and then went on to do my MBA at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2007, I went to the Las Vegas Comedy Festival where the judges were from Hollywood. I consider myself fortunate to have bagged the award as Best Male Comedian That gave me a lot of exposure and I began performing four to five times a week. Slowly I started shifting away from my engineering job. Now I do a lot of corporate shows, various programmes on TV and radio. I have even done a very small part in a film called, You don’t mess with Zohan, featuring Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider.

Are you active while in Dhaka?
Yes, I have explored the opportunities here. My feeling is that there isn’t any real stand-up comedy scene here in comparison with the West. My stay here has been great but I am of the opinion that it’s tougher to make the Bangladeshis laugh than the Americans because the former are less expressive.

Are you into Bengali comedy?
Yes, I began that seven months ago in the US and got a gig to perform for a Bangladeshi audience. I’ve performed at Kozmo Lounge, Deja Vu, Dhaka Club and at Hotel Sheraton during the NRB conference.

What are your future plans about generating public interest here in stand-up comedy?
I have several plans. The media can play a big role and quite a few TV and radio channels have displayed interest. However, if I have to go into it on a regular basis I have to come here more frequently. In my view the humour has to be topical, so recorded versions from the US may not work that well. For example you can talk about the traffic jams here. I am also thinking of setting up a comedy club here where people can learn to appreciate stand-up comedy. In a nutshell, I would say there is immense potential for this genre in Bangladesh.

Spotlight: My Favourite Teacher ::: A good teacher must be able to arouse the curiosity about the subject matter in students….

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/03/01/camspotlight_arouse.htm

Interviewed by Mahdin Mahboob

DR SALEHUDDIN AHMED, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of BRAC University speaks about five of his most favourite teachers in an exclusive interview with Mahdin Mahboob from Star Campus. Here are the excerpts from the interview:

I remember teachers from my school (St. Gregory’s High School), my college (Notre Dame College), my universities and also from a Leadership Conference that I attended.

In school, my favourite teacher was Nolini Sarker who used to teach us Bangla. Firstly, his knowledge base was fabulous and I also found his teaching style interesting. He gave us tasks but he also entertained questions. In our country, we see many teachers not entertaining questions which is indeed a very sad thing. In our schools, we were given the idea that ‘the teacher has all the wisdom’ so in class you are supposed to take notes, do your home work at home and then pass your exams at the end of the year. But Nolini Sir was different in that respect. He also gave insightful feedbacks on the tasks that he asked us to do.

In our school, we were fortunate to have these American Brothers, they were basically the Christian missionaries who were here at that time. The American Brothers taught us English and I think they have laid the foundation for the basic English that we have learned. The grammars, the sentence construction, the style element, all were learnt from them. After that our styles changed and our vocabulary increased as we read more, as we went along interacting with people, and as went on to specialize in different fields. But the basic English we learnt at that time was final. So we were fortunate to have so good English teachers. The brothers there also used to entertain questions. They not only interacted in classes, but also outside the classrooms. After school, we used to go to the school to play-at that time the brothers would come and addafy with us, which enabled us to really get close to them. That made the learning process much easier.

I also had a wonderful Bangla teacher in my college in the form of Prof. Abdul Hamid. To many, a language class may not be a very attractive thing to attend. Hamid Sir used to deliver the class in the most fascinating form of presentation possible. He used to use humour and lots of stories which helped us to get attracted to the Bangla language. It was an English medium college, but since he made it so interesting, we wanted to read more of Bangla. It was a challenge for our teachers to generate interest in us to read more Bangla and to wanted to know more about people like Rabindranath and Sharatchandra.

I remember a teacher from my Masters in Manilla, in the Asian Institute of Management. I did a one year Masters in Management from there. Prof. Andy Reyes used to take a course on ‘Motivation.’ There was a complex theory called Maslow’s theory, which talks about how you motivate people. In spite of its complexity, Prof Reyes could make all of us understand that theory through the use of small, simple examples that everyone could relate to. Examples included situations in a factory, in a management office and any two people for that matter. He emphasized on how important it was to become empathetic. Prof. Reyes always used examples that were simple and down-to-earth so all of us could easily understand him. I myself have used his explanations while teaching. Right now I am teaching students of MA in Governance in BRAC University.

In 2000, I attended a Leadership Conference in Harvard Business School from where I remember Prof. John Kotter. When I attended this 5-week program in executive development program in leadership, we attended many lectures there and although I have forgotten names of other teachers I haven’t forgotten that of Mr. Kotter. Most Harvard teachers are not only teachers but performers too – they also perform in the class. They go deep into their subject and become very passionate about it. He took a four-hour class and no one was bored for even a single second! He referred to his book, ‘Leading Change’ which is regarded as one of the best in business leadership. We were a class of 100 people and to keep the class lively, he kept it very interactive-he asked for comments and asked questions and was open to questions himself. All of us felt that he knew his subject and was really able to engage everyone into the topic.

Summing up, it can be said that the key ingredient for a good teacher is to be able to arouse the curiosity about the subject matter in students. Classes should be interactive and fun but it also has to ensure that students have taken home something from the class. And teachers, who are in control of the classroom should ensure this, irrespective of whether it’s a class in a school, college or university, or anywhere else for that matter.