Youth Wave

Language

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:02:25 +0000

Zubair Idris

(God) Most Gracious!
It is He Who has taught the Qur’an.
He has created man.
He has taught him speech.

(Surah Ar-Rahman, Ayat 1-4)

You hear it in a bustling school classroom, a busy marketplace teeming with shoppers, a crowded football match, a political rally – people screaming, screeching, shouting, all trying to express themselves over the din and commotion of everyday life. It is true for all over the world, except that the language spoken is actually quite different.
It is difficult to give an exact figure of the number of languages that exist in the world, because it is not always easy to define what a language is. The difference between a language and a dialect is not always clear-cut. However, it is usually estimated that the number of languages in the world varies between 3,000 and 8,000. Some we are familiar with like English and Bangla and Arabic. Others we will find difficult to even pronounce like Fulfulde, Madurese and Chichewa. Yet 12 million people speak Fulfulde in regions of Niger and Nigeria, 13 million people speak Madurese in Indonesia, and 9 million people speak Chichewa in Malawi and Zambia.
While there still remains an incredible diversity of language in current times, there are a lot of languages that have become extinct over the ages. They have fallen into disuse and people no longer speak them or learn them except perhaps for academic purposes. Some of these extinct languages are lost to us forever, and we are unable to decipher their meaning if we come across them inked on an ancient piece of parchment, or perhaps carved on a derelict cave wall. Others we still know the grammar and usage of, but nobody bothers to speak them. And there are still others, which you will find out if you read on, that have a strange way of returning from the dead.
And then there are alien languages. These are languages meticulously made up by science fiction and fantasy writers and usually have a cult following of fans who congregate in awkward social groups in an attempt to hone their talent at speaking it.
The Rosetta Stone and the Egyptian hieroglyphs
I live a five minute walk away from the British Museum. The museum is home to the fabled Rosetta Stone – the key that allowed the young French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion to finally unlock the mysteries of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Hieroglyphs are symbols that can represent a word or a sound; and the same symbol can serve different purposes in different contexts. Hieroglyphs were a formal script, used on stone monuments and in tombs, that could be as detailed as individual works of art. Hieroglyphic writing dates to 3200 BC, and is composed of some 500 symbols. Different forms of hieroglyphs were used as late as the 4th century AD, but towards the end only a small handful of priests could read them. The monumental use of hieroglyphs ceased completely after the closing of all non-Christian temples in AD 391 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. The last known inscription is from Philae, known as the The Graffito of Esmet-Akhom, from AD 396, and with that was lost the key to translating the meaning of the mysterious hieroglyphs for 1400 years.
Attempts were made to decipher it in the Byzantine and Islamic periods of Egypt, but only in 1822, after the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and years of research by Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion, were hieroglyphs almost fully deciphered.
French Army engineer Captain Pierre-Francois Bouchard discovered the stone in mid-July 1799 while guiding construction work at Fort Julien near the Egyptian port city of Rashid (which the Europeans, in their persistence not to learn Arabic, called Rosetta). But after Napolean’s forces lost in Egypt, the Stone made its way to English shores in February, 1802. What was special about the Rosetta stone was that the carved text on it was made up of three translations of a single passage: two in Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one in classical Greek. Now people knew how to translate classical Greek, and Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion also learnt how to translate the Demotic script by using Coptic, a similar language to Demotic. Then using both the Demotic and the classical Greek scripts, Champollion managed to finally translate the hieroglyphs. He found out that a square meant P, a lion represented L, O was represented by a hangman’s noose, a semi circle meant a T. And in this way he managed to formulate an alphabet to translate the remaining text.
So what did the Rosetta Stone actually say? In essence it is a tax amnesty given to the temple priests of the day, restoring the tax privileges they had traditionally enjoyed from more ancient times. It said:
In the reign of the new king who was Lord of the diadems, great in glory, the stabilizer of Egypt, but also pious in matters relating to the gods, superior to his adversaries, rectifier of the life of men, Lord of the thirty-year periods like Hephaestus the Great, King like the Sun, the Great King of the Upper and Lower Lands, offspring of the Parent-loving gods, whom Hephaestus has approved, to whom the Sun has given victory, living image of Zeus, Son of the Sun, Ptolemy the ever-living, beloved by Ptah…
It seems that even then people really disliked taxes, but really liked self-glorification.
Latin and its refusal to die
Latin is considered a dead language. It was the language of the ancient Romans. As the Roman Empire grew, Latin spread to countries around the Mediterranean, including a large part of Europe. Many languages like Aragonese, Corsican, Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish, are descended from Latin while many other languages have inherited and acquired much of their vocabulary from it.
While in its heyday Latin was spoken across the Roman Empire, with the fall of the Western Roman Empire its use began to decline. The populous of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine) used a form of Greek that evolved into modern Greek, even though the administration assumed names and titles that had come from Latin. And that has always been the story of Latin. Even though it is not used in everyday conversations, it somehow finds its use in society.
The Catholic Church famously still uses Latin. Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Church Latin) is the Latin used by the Catholic Church. The Holy See has no obligation to use Latin as its official language and, in theory, could change its practice. However, such a change appears unlikely in the foreseeable future. As a language no longer in common use, Latin has the advantage that the meaning of its words are less likely to change radically from century to century. This helps to ensure theological precision and to safeguard orthodoxy. Since Latin is spoken as a native language by no modern community, the language is thought to be a universal, internally consistent means of communication without regional bias. Accordingly, recent Popes have actually reaffirmed the importance of Latin for the Church.
Latin was the international language of science and scholarship in central and western Europe until the 17th century, when it was gradually replaced by local languages. However, Latin has persevered in scientific terminology. Taxonomy of species, medical nomenclature, chemical element names all seem to have their roots in Greek or Latin. That is why even many university science courses in Europe offer to teach Latin to students.
Shhh… it’s Sign Language
My medical course required me to study sign language for the last year. And contrary to what I believed, sign language isn’t just about replacing one English or Bangla word with a hand gesture or a facial cue. It has its own grammar and syntax. So when somebody is speaking British Sign Language for example, he is not merely replacing each word in his English sentence with a sign, he is actually speaking a different language. A sign language will have its own set of alphabet. A single sign can express just an alphabet, a word or even a short sentence.
Most of us know some basic forms of sign language because we use it to supplement our spoken language. For example forming a C shape with your hands and bringing it close to your mouth indicates you want to drink water. A thumbs up usually means okay, except in Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran and Thailand where it is considered offensive.
Different countries usually have different sign languages. So America has American Sign Language, Britain has British Sign Language. Even within a country, the language will differ geographically, just like there are dialects in spoken language. Bangladesh doesn’t have its own sign language yet, but it is in the process of being made.
Can you speak Na’vi, Klingon and Elvish and all things alien?
When it comes to setting the bar for fictional language, J.R.R. Tolkein made history with his epic Lord of the Rings. He created multiple languages for Elves, which eventuated in the creation of a mythology (expounded in his books), complete with races, to speak the tongues he had constructed. He originally called the first primitive form of Elvish “Qenya”. This was later called Quenya (High-elven) and is one of the two most complete of Tolkien’s languages (the other being Sindarin, or Grey-elven).
For those of you not familiar with the fictional world of Star Trek, the Klingons are a violent alien race who is the enemy of the Federation. They have their own refined language and alphabet, designed by Marc Okrand. A small number of people, mostly dedicated Star Trek fans or language aficionados, can converse in Klingon. Its vocabulary, heavily centered on Star Trek-Klingon concepts such as ‘spacecraft’ or ‘warfare’, can sometimes make it cumbersome for everyday use – for instance, while there are words for ‘transporter ionizer unit’ (jolvoy’) or ‘bridge (of a ship)’ (meH), there is currently no word for ‘bridge’ in the sense of a crossing over water. Nonetheless, mundane conversations are common among skilled speakers. Perhaps we all ought to give Klingon Boggle a try. Or if we are interested read the famous Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet, in Klingon.
The most recent alien language is the language spoken by the Na’vi, the 10 feet tall intelligent extraterrestrial blue humanoids who inhabit the lush jungle moon of Pandora from the movie Avatar. It is the brainchild of Professor Paul Frommer, a linguistics expert from the University of Southern California. The language currently runs to about a thousand words. It does not have a huge vocabulary, but Professor Frommer is still working at it. He is also still trying to master his own language. If u want to say ‘alien word’ in Na’vi, you say ‘ketuwong lì’u’, presuming of course that you are referring to a male alien.
While talking about alien languages, what if you wanted to talk to a real alien? How do we communicate with them? What language will they speak? Don’t worry the best minds of our generation are working on it. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) projects use scientific methods to search for electromagnetic transmissions from civilizations on distant planets. And while we were at it, we sent our own first interstellar radio broadcast in November 1974. Broadcasts like that contains basic scientific or mathematical principles because although we may be light years apart and our languages might be very different, the basic physical laws of the universe and the abstract mathematical principles hold true wherever we are. The messages also contain human altruism just in case the aliens do understand us and plan to blow us up!

Joyce: The Pioneer of Modern Novel

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:59 +0000

Paul Gray
James Joyce once told a friend, “One of the things I could never get accustomed to in my youth was the difference I found between life and literature.” All serious young readers notice this difference. Joyce dedicated his career to erasing it and in the process revolutionized 20th century fiction. The life he would put into his literature was chiefly his own. Born near Dublin in 1882, James Augustine Aloysius was the eldest of the 10 surviving children of John and Mary Jane Joyce. His father was irascible, witty, hard drinking and ruinously improvident; his mother, a devout Roman Catholic, helplessly watched her husband and family slide into near poverty and hoped for a happier life in the hereafter. James’ entire education came at the hands of the Jesuits, who did a better job with him than they may have intended. By the time the young Joyce graduated from University College, Dublin, in 1902, he decided he had learned enough to reject his religion and all his obligations to family, homeland and the British who ruled there. Literature would be his vocation and his bid for immortality.
He fled Ireland into self-imposed exile late in 1904, taking with him Nora Barnacle, a young woman from Galway who was working as a hotel chambermaid in Dublin when Joyce met her earlier that year. (On hearing that his son had run off with a girl named Barnacle, John Joyce remarked, playing on her last name, “She’ll never leave him.” And, proving puns can be prophetic, she never did.)
Joyce departed Dublin with nearly all the narratives he would ever write already stored in his memory. What remained for him to do was transform this cache into an art that could measure up to his own expectations.
As he and Nora and then their two children moved among and around European cities — Pola, Trieste, Zurich, Rome, Paris — Joyce found clerical and teaching jobs that provided subsistence to his family and his writing. His first published book of fiction, Dubliners (1914), contained 15 stories short on conventional plots but long on evocative atmosphere and language. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) provided a remarkably objective and linguistically complex account of Stephen Dedalus, i.e. James Joyce, from his birth to his decision to leave Dublin in pursuit of his art.
Portrait did not sell well enough to relieve Joyce’s chronic financial worries, but his work by then had attracted the attention of a number of influential avant-gardists, most notably the expatriate American poet Ezra Pound, who believed a new century demanded new art, poetry, fiction, music — everything. Such supporters rallied to promote Joyce and his experimental writings, and he did not disappoint them.
He began Ulysses in 1914; portions of it in progress appeared in the Egoist in England and the Little Review in the U.S., until the Post Office, on grounds of alleged obscenity, confiscated three issues containing Joyce’s excerpts and fined the editors $100. The censorship flap only heightened curiosity about Joyce’s forthcoming book. Even before Ulysses was published, critics were comparing Joyce’s breakthroughs to those of Einstein and Freud.
With so many traditional methods of narrative abandoned, what was left? Perhaps the clearest and most concise description of Joyce’s technique came from the critic Edmund Wilson: “Joyce has attempted in Ulysses to render as exhaustively, as precisely and as directly as it is possible in words to do, what our participation in life is like — or rather, what it seems to us like as from moment to moment we live.”
A first reading of Ulysses can thus be a baffling experience, although no book more generously rewards patience and fortitude. Stephen Dedalus reappears, still stuck in Dublin, dreaming of escape. Then we meet Leopold Bloom, or rather we meet his thoughts as he prepares breakfast for his wife Molly. (We experience her thoughts as she drifts off to sleep at the end of the book.)
Ulysses is the account of one day in Dublin — June 16, 1904, Joyce’s private tribute to Nora, since that was the date on which they first went out together. The book follows the movements of not only Stephen and Bloom but also hundreds of other Dubliners as they walk the streets, meet and talk, then talk some more in restaurants and pubs. All this activity seems random, a record of urban happenstance.
But nothing in Ulysses is truly random. Beneath the surface realism of the novel, its apparently artless transcription of life’s flow, lurks a complicated plan. Friends who were in on the secret of Ulysses urged Joyce to share it, to make things easier for his readers. He resisted at first: “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of ensuring one’s immortality.”
Joyce later relented, and so the world learned that Ulysses was, among many other things, a modern retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, with Bloom as the wandering hero, Stephen as Telemachus and Molly as a Penelope decidedly less faithful than the original. T.S. Eliot, who recognized the novel’s underpinnings, wrote that Joyce’s use of classical myth as a method of ordering modern experience had “the importance of a scientific discovery.”
Ulysses made Joyce famous, although not always in a manner to his liking. When a fan approached him and asked, “May I kiss the hand that wrote Ulysses?” Joyce said, “No, it did lots of other things too.” But more important, Ulysses became a source book for 20th century literature. It expanded the domain of permissible subjects in fiction, following Bloom not only into his secret erotic fantasies but his outdoor privy as well.
Its multiple narrative voices and extravagant wordplay made Ulysses a virtual thesaurus of styles for writers wrestling with the problem of rendering contemporary life. Aspects of Joyce’s accomplishment in Ulysses can be seen in the works of William Faulkner, Albert Camus, Samuel Beckett, Saul Bellow, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Toni Morrison, all of whom, unlike Joyce, won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
But the only author who tried to surpass the encyclopedic scope of Ulysses was Joyce himself. He spent 17 years working on Finnegans Wake, a book intended to portray Dublin’s sleeping life as thoroughly as Ulysses had explored the wide-awake city. This task, Joyce decided, required the invention of a new language that would mime the experience of dreaming. As excerpts from the new work, crammed with multilingual puns and Jabberwocky-like sentences, began appearing in print, even Joyce’s champions expressed doubts. To Pound’s complaint about obscurity, Joyce replied, “The action of my new work takes place at night. It’s natural things should not be so clear at night, isn’t it now?” Today, only dedicated Joyceans regularly attend the Wake. A century from now, his readers may catch up with him.
TIME senior writer Paul Gray wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on James Joyce’s short fiction

3 Idiots

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:57 +0000

Nazmul Haque Nayeem

What is the purpose of a film? To entertain, to aware people or to change a society? If anyone agree with this 3, then he must be viewer of Rajkumar Hirani’s film 3 Idiots, a university struggle of 3 engineering students.
This well organized film was the talk of the year for many reasons. lets see why people eagerly waited to see a hindi movie like this. 3 IDIOTS is Aamir’s next release after the record-breaker GHAJINI. Ameer minimized his weight and stayed in a college for a long period just for ensuring best performance.

• 3 IDIOTS is Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s third film together, after MUNNABHAI MBBS and LAGE RAHO MUNNABHAI, landmark films.
• Three actors from the path-breaking RANG DE BASANTI team – Aamir, Madhavan and Sharman – team up yet again. Plus, Aamir’s teaming up with Hirani. It couldn’t get bigger!

3 IDIOTS is over-hyped and that could be dangerous for any film since it’s the expectations which kill a film if the content doesn’t match up to the hype. In this case, all izz well!
Hirani is always conscious about recent context of society & demand of generation. After making 2 movie with same character in Munna vi he brilliantly choose different character, plot & message for young generation and I will say he is succeed in his attempt.
Loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s bestseller Five Point Someone, 3 Idiots takes the plot much beyond the campus confines and the target audience much above the youth, for universal appeal.
Coming from Rajkumar Hirani, there was clearly a risk involved in the film’s setting and characterizations for having a déjà vu effect with his first film. Boman Irani, as the principal, almost revives his disciplinarian dean characterization from Munnabhai MBBS which is more palpable with his disgust towards the rebellious protagonist, Rancho (akin to Sanjay Dutt) who is furthermore in love with his daughter (ala Gracy Singh). Nevertheless, Hirani’s direction is so impeccable that without a conscious effort, the analogy never strikes your mind and the scenario never looks repetitive.
Hirani grabs your attention from scene one with an unconventional opening to the film. Thereafter every single scene written in the screenplay (by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi) is not just relevant but also has a clear set objective – to be funny or be deeply poignant. Which means it either makes you laugh or cry and at some superlative instances do both simultaneously.
About three engineering students who believe in ‘I’ll Do It On my Terms’ and that’s what the three characters achieve in life. Those who read in an engineering university are well known with embarrassing rag culture by seniors .I think by showing this practice negatively Hirani will achieve some respect from the sufferers.
Farhan (Madhavan) and Raju (Sharman), 10 years after they have finished their engineering from India’s most prestigious engineering college find a clue to finally find their lost friend from college. Rannchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad aka Rancho (Aamir) their ex-room mate in the college hostel had silently disappeared on the graduation day leaving behind no clue of where he had left for. Rancho was the life of the college and with his unique wit had back then even managed to rattle the strict head of the college, Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman) but at the same time managed to win the heart of his daughter Pia (Kareena). Before leaving, Rancho had brought a major change in almost every person’s life he had come closer to.
The film is a must watch for every Aamir fan. Just check the way he successfully carries out the role of a 22 year old despite being 44 years older.
It teaches us to think out of the box, to look at things with the curiosity of a child and most of all, to follow your heart. The movie leaves you feeling light hearted and optimistic, and assures you that all can be well if you want it to be.

There are some sequences that can and should be omitted like delivery of a woman.
Why should a student go to study in an institution? For a merely certificate, for a good job with a smart salary or for making parents feel happy? Does it carry any responsibility of making a man enlightened with learning? If you agree with first one then you will be frustrated with 3 Idiots, but if you agree with 2nd you will be cheered up by this film.

Bangladesh all set to host a gala SA Games

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:57 +0000

Raihan Mahmood

Bangladesh is ready to host the 11th edition of South Asian Games with pomp and splendor. The 2010 South Asian Games the major multi-sport event, scheduled to take place from January 29 to February 9, 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This will be the third time that the Bangladeshi capital hosts the Games, thus becoming the 4th city to host the Games multiple times (after Colombo, Kathmandu and Islamabad). It is also expected to be the largest sporting event ever in the history of Bangladesh. Formerly called as South Asian Federation (SAF) Games it was renamed to South Asian Games from its tenth edition in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 2006. The torch of the 11th SA Games will be ignited at the Adam’s Peak Sri Lanka on January 22nd. From now on all the torches of the future SA Games will follow the same course. The Adam’s Peak respected by all the religion’s is situated 7359 above the sea level. Top Sri Lankan athletes will be present in the five hour long program. After the ignition the torch will arrive at Colombo and reach Dhaka on January 24th . BTV is expected to transmit the program live. General Abdul Mubeen, the president of Bangladesh Olympic Association will receive the torch at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on January 25th. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will initiate the torch relay at the Meghna Ghat on January 28th and Kazi Salahuddin, the president of Bangladesh Football Federation will light the torch of the Bangabandhu National Stadium at the gala opening ceremony of the 11th SA Games. The logo of the 11th SAF Games represents the flying doyle or doel, more commonly known as the magpie robin. It is the National Bird of Bangladesh. The logo was designed by Bangladeshi artist Moniruzzaman. The mascot of these games also features the magpie robin, holding the torch which would begin the games. Originally, the 11th South Asian Games were scheduled to take place in November 2009. However, the host country, Bangladesh, faced hurdles due to general elections, as a result South Asian Association Council (SAOC) held the 39th Executive Meeting and decided against hosting the Games in 2009,thus postponing the games to (early) 2010. All the eight countries of South Asia India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan Maldives, Afghanistan and hosts Bangladesh will participate in the 2010 South Asian Games. There are 23 official sports for the 11th SAF Games. For the first time, Twenty20 cricket is included in the Game. Some 2,000 athletes from the eight nations will fight for 156 gold medals in a record 23 disciplines to be held in five divisions including the capital. On 26 November 1981 the South Asian Federation Games was established in Delhi to promote friendship and goodwill among the people of the seven SAARC Countries. On 17 September 1984, Nepal got the privilege to organize the first South Asian Federation Games in Dasrath Stadium in Kathmandu. There are 23 official sports for the 11th SAF Games. They are Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Cricket, Cycling, Football, Golf, Hockey, Handball, Judo, Kabaddi, Karate, Shooting, Squash, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball, Weightlifting, Wrestling and Wushu. Hosts Bangladesh have been drawn in Group A along with two-time champions Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan in the football event of the 11th South Asian Games. Group B features defending champions Pakistan, four-time champions India, last year’s runners-up Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Zoran Djordevic the Serbian national coach of Bangladesh football team and skipper Aminul Huq conveyed the same message- Bangladesh needs the title of the upcoming SA Games football. Djordevic, was in his typical upbeat mood. ‘I firmly believe that Bangladesh players have the talent and potential to be the champions and we will take the field to win the title, what I have tried to do is to motivate the players to fight till the end, I hope and believe Bangladesh will play a fighting brand of football’ said Zoran. Aminul the inseparable name of the Bangladesh national team echoed the same tune. ‘I really feel that we have the chance of winning the title that we won ten years back, Zoran is different coach we have been going through video sessions to rectify our faults of the SAFF championship, we will play good football’ said Aminul. The Bangladesh Olympic Association has planned a magnificent aquatic show, the first ever of its kind in the country, during the opening ceremony of the 11th SA Games scheduled to be held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on January 29. The secretary general of the BOA, Kutubuddin Ahmed revealed the fact. ‘It is a unique piece of craftsmanship. Artists from Paris will perform the act in a 400-square meter pool built inside the BNS,’ he said. The closing ceremony will feature a 15 minutes fireworks show that will enlighten the Dhaka sky with colors, We, the SA Games Organizing Committee and the BOA, hope to lift the image of the country hosting the meet efficiently,’ said Kutubuddin Venues of the past Sa Games Year Games Host City Country 1984 I Kathmandu Nepal 1985 II Dhaka Bangladesh 1987 III Calcutta India 1989 IV Islamabad Pakistan 1991 V Colombo Sri Lanka 1993 VI Dhaka Bangladesh 1995 VII Madras India 1999 VIII Kathmandu Nepal 2004 IX Islamabad Pakistan 2006 X Colombo Sri Lanka 2010 XI Dhaka Bangladesh

Duty to parents

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:53 +0000

Fadila Nurullah Nowar

Contribution of our parents in our lives is much more than that of any other on the planet. They have taken unlimited hardship for us. From our birth the parents give so much to us but what do we give them back in return. We should help them as much as we can in gratitude as repayment. In this world, there is none of our own than our beloved parents. To us their dignity is next to that of the almighty creator. Allah says, ‘And that you be kind to parents’. But I ask you do all children help their parents in their old age, in time of need. It is the greatest of all sins to break the hearts of your parents. Yet there are many parents who are utterly deprived in every nook and cranny of Bangladesh. Parents living with their children have their own sufferings and those also suffer more living in old homes of the country. During the Eid-ul Fitre I saw a documentary on the elderly parents who were left in governmental old homes. Most of them had no regular contact with their families, not even on Eid. One man who was being interviewed said crying that his family didn’t even know where he was. He showed the reporter a picture of his grandchildren. Many of the parents cried with deep sadness when they talked about their families. All of these parents left their homes against their will only so that their own children would be burden with them. It is a shame that the children of these wonderful loving parents will not even try to help their parents.
Our parents never thought of us as a burden so we should not either. The Prophet (pubh) said, ‘Heaven is under the feet of the mothers’. He also said, ‘The pleasure can be achieved with pleasure of the father and the displeasure of Allah with the displeasure of the father’. Those who follow the advice of the parents can achieve betterment in this world, in the heaven and in the world hereafter. As a student, it is my duty is to make sure that the next generation does not make the same mistake as those of the past. My duty is to teach them the words of Allah and Prophet (pubh) from the Quran and Hadith for the betterment of humanity. I will also try my best to help deprived parents, who are currently in need. So, let’s change our motherland and then the world for the betterment of humanity.

Dragon Age: Origins

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:50 +0000

Emil

The fact that Bioware was behind the making of Dragon Age, it was automatically a game that I was waiting for, and knew would be a very, very awesome experience. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t disappointed. Dragon Age has indeed been an amazing experience.Typical to an RPG, there’s more than just mashing buttons and rushing head on into enemies. Tactics and quick thinking play a pivotal role in your survival against the deadly Darkspawns, tainted creatures living in the Deep Roads. These creatures usually don’t venture out into the surface, but when they do, it spells a Blight, a supermassive attack against the world headed by an Archdemon, an Old God transformed by the dark taint. The last time a Blight came to be, the Grey Wardens stepped into the fray. Elite warriors and mages from all across the world. They drove the Darkspawn back into the Deep. The Wardens are all but forgotten, though they themselves remain ever watchful for signs of the Darkspawn returning to the surface. And centuries later, that’s precisely what happened.
I was slightly disappointed when I found that the main character is not voiced-casted like all other NPCs, as Commander Shepard was in Mass Effect. That disappointment however, did not last long as I got lost in the amazing storyline. Besides, you hardly notice these things- Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Star Wars KotOR were all the same anyway.
And though it was not exactly a very overwhelming soundtrack, it’s still decent enough. To be honest, I’ve not paid much attention to it- it becomes a sort of background blur thanks to the story/combat heavy orientation of the game. But a good background blur. Some of the most exceedingly talented voice actors were used in DA: O, and combined with a well-written script, the dialogue, cutscene and story were epic gold.
The graphics are a doozy. Really good details and textures really, and spiffy distance loading is really endearing and helps in the immersion. However, it pains to me say that the in-game animations are lackluster though not to any point of intolerable. In fact, like the voice-actorless protagonist (and I’m sure I’m probably the only one who was bugged by this initially), you get used to it and it ceases to matter.
Combat and conversation are two things that play big roles in the game. Combat for obvious reasons. And conversation for the numerous choices you will have to make throughout the game. Choices that will eventually decide on the outcome. Depending on what you did throughout the game, you will have a different ending.
Combat is turn-based (and very strategic, otherwise you’re walking into suicide at most battles) derived off the Dungeons and Dragons rules. If you’re the kind that really likes to rapidly click your mouse buttons in attack, I’m sorry to say this is not such a game. Pop-up tutorials at the beginning help you understand the mechanics soon enough, though all of it might seem a tad bit confusing at first. However, the amount of time you will be spending on this game, by the time you’re barely a quarter of the way into the game, you’ll probably have learned the ins and outs.
According to (near) official sources, gameplay time amounts up to over a staggering 120 hours, if you do every side quest and mercenary quests. A doozy, no? I like.
There are so many aspects of this game, like the Codex, where all your information is stored, be it quests or notes, dynamics with your companions, skills and talent points, and what have you not. Most of it is best found out on your own, though. So, better not dally around, eh?
Bioware’s Dragon Age is worth the buy, the play, and the re-play. On a similar note, you might want to be on the lookout for yet another epic RPG by Bioware- Mass Effect 2, a sequel to the first one from 2007. January 26th will be a good day.

Deep in my heart

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:39 +0000

Kazi Falguni Eshita

I have to live
For the ones I love
Those who are on earth
Or in the stars above.
I have to live
For the hopes in my heart
Pain, sickness, depression
Won’t tear me apart.

I have to live
For those who need me
Or for those unique tasks
Which I can’t yet see.

I have to live
As God wants me to.
Changing my values?
That I’ll never do.

Don’t want the real me?
Please don’t pretend
You’re forever in my heart
Once I call you friend.

I have to live
To be just me
My inner self
Is all you need to see.

Malcolm X: Am American Muslim leader

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:36 +0000

Many African-Americans view Christianity as the White man’s religion and associate conversion to Islam with recovering their ethnic heritage. Thus, to effectively evangelize African-American Muslims, it is crucial to understand the development of the American Muslim movementThe greatest period of growth in the Nation of Islam, an Islamic organization of America cannot be directly attributed to Elijah Muhammad, religious leader in America. In 1948, while serving a prison sentence in Massachusetts, a young man by the name of Malcolm Little became acquainted with the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and was converted. Upon release from prison, Malcolm Little, a former pimp, drug pusher, armed robber, and numbers man, returned to Detroit and began aggressively recruiting for Detroit Temple 1. He received recognition for his efforts from Elijah Muhammad, who changed his name to Malcolm X. ‘X’ symbolized his original African name, which he never knew, and replaced the slave master’s name, Little. This individual bearing the name ‘X’ would soon make both the name and organization it represented a symbol of freedom for some and fear for others.
Malcolm X frequently visited Elijah Muhammad in his home in Chicago to talk for hours. Because of his aggressive recruiting, new ideas and unyielding devotion to Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm was appointed as national spokesman. ‘He was…crisscrossing North America, sometimes as often as four times a week. From Detroit, Malcolm was sent to organize Temple 11. In March 1954, Malcolm moved from Boston to Philadelphia, and in three months Temple 12 was opened….From Philadelphia, Malcolm moved to New York City and became minister of Temple 7. In fact, Malcolm X was instrumental in the establishment of most of the temples in North America, and he took credit for the increase in membership from 400 to 40,000 that occurred within a few years after he joined the Nation of Islam.
Even today, Malcolm X looms larger than life in the African-American quest for the elusive prize of freedom and dignity. He attracted tens of thousands with his emphasis on cultural concerns, discipline, solidarity of the brotherhood, and African identity.
With his platform as national spokesman, Malcolm X became an international figure. He was a popular lecturer at universities, mosques and churches throughout the country. He recruited new leaders to the Nation. He even had a philosophical influence upon Elijah Muhammad’s son, Wallace D. Muhammad (also known as Warith D. Muhammad). For many other leaders of the movement, however, Malcolm was gaining too much prominence too quickly. Many began to view him as a threat to Elijah Muhammad’s leadership. He frequently made statements that went beyond the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and was often reprimanded.
There were those within the Nation of Islam who believed that Malcolm was trying to build a financial empire for himself. They began to leave him out of every edition of Muhammad Speaks, the organization’s newspaper. Ironically, it was Malcolm who was instrumental in creating the paper. Aware of the controversy surrounding him, Malcolm began refusing interviews. He frequently told reporters, ‘Please use Mr. Muhammad’s picture instead of mine’.
The tension reached its apex when Elijah Muhammad was implicated by two former secretaries in a paternity suit. Disillusioned, Malcolm X began searching the Bible and Quran for some prophetic explanation for what was happening. This he did with the help of Warith D. Muhammad. He then conducted his own investigation into the allegations, and finally questioned Elijah Muhammad himself. ‘I’m David’, Elijah Muhammad replied. ‘When you read in the Bible how David took another man’s wife, I’m David….You read about Lot who went and lay up with his own daughter. I have fulfilled all those things. Malcolm’s directness in questioning the ‘messenger of Allah’ was perceived as overstepping his bounds.
Shortly after that incident, President Kennedy was assassinated. Elijah Muhammad commanded all ministers of the Nation of Islam to refrain from commenting on Kennedy’s death. However, when asked his opinion of the assassination, Malcolm X replied, ‘I saw it as a case of the chickens coming home to roost’. Warith D. Muhammad and Malcolm X were subsequently suspended from the Nation of Islam. Reflecting upon that time, Warith remarked, ‘I was charged with trying to influence Malcolm’s theological thinking. I was also charged with giving him personal, private knowledge of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s living, which was a lie’.
Actually, Warith D. Muhammad did have an effect on Malcolm X’s theological views. Both men began to lean more toward orthodox Islam. The more Warith read the writings of W. D. Fard, the more he questioned his father’s claim to be the ‘messenger of Allah’. Warith and Malcolm both concluded that Fard could not have been Allah himself.
Malcolm’s ideas were further broadened by his travels. He went on the Hajj and changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz. He met with various African leaders and discussed the conditions in their respective countries. Malcolm’s ideological shift was drastic. His intention was to broaden his scope from American Black nationalism to global human rights. He intended to take the case of racism in the United States before the United Nations for action.
On March 8, 1964, while still on suspension, Malcolm X announced that he was leaving the Nation of Islam and forming his own organization. Actually, he started two organizations, Muslim Mosque Incorporated (MMI) and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). MMI was based upon the principles of orthodox Islam. OAAU was an all Black, non-sectarian organization dedicated to creating a society where Blacks and Whites could live in brotherhood. Malcolm contended that Black-White brotherhood could not occur until Black people themselves were united. At that stage Black and White coalitions would be possible. He encouraged Whites to fight racism and was willing to accept aid from White donors.
However, Malcolm’s new vision didn’t have a chance to take root. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. He was speaking to a group of about 500 people in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Several gunmen opened fire on him from the third row. Three former members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the crime. One of them, Talmadge Hayer, confessed and implicated the other two. Later he claimed that these two men were innocent, but that four active members of the Nation of Islam had actually helped him.

Concentrate on Your Study

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:36 +0000

Do you have problems concentrating? Believe it or not, you are not alone! The first thing we need to do – before we can discuss how to concentrate – is to define the term “concentration”. According to Princeton University’s WordNet, concentration means:

“great and constant diligence and attention”This is interesting… If concentration is related to attention then that means that we should be able to improve our concentration by simply becoming more attentive, right? Now, here are a few suggestions on how to do just that:

Apply the 5 More Rule

Instead of just quitting the task altogether, you tell yourself to do only 5 more things before you quit. When these have been accomplished you promise yourself again to only do 5 more things (such as writing only 5 more pages, solving only 5 more math problems etc). The keyword here is the word ‘only’; by decreasing the size of the task cognitively you feel less hesitant to abandon it altogether. There’s an Arabic proverb that says:

“If you Can’t finish it altogether – Then Don’t leave it altogether”

Treat Yourself Like A Child

What do you do when your little child has accomplished a task? Well, you praise the little fellow and give him/her a reward. Treat yourself in the same manner by offering yourself incentives when ever you’ve completed a task. This will improve your motivation which in turn improves your concentration.

Why wait? Do it Now!

Procrastination is without doubt one of the biggest enemies you will face as a student. The temptation to delay your studies will always be strong, to counter this, your will to succeed must be stronger. Why procrastinate and do something tomorrow if the same task can be done today?

Remove All Possible Distractions

The sad thing is that we don’t always notice when we are being distracted! There are really two kinds of distractions:

Those that are visible, such as someone who is having a lengthy (and boring) discussion with you during your ‘offical study time’. Each and every “cell in your body” tells you that this is very disturbing.

The kind of distractions that are not picked up by ‘our radar’. This type is actually worse than the previous one. You can always tell your annoying friend that you’re busy but how on earth will you rid yourself from something that you’re not even aware of in the first place?

Examples of such distractions are (in no particular order); talking with someone on a topic that interests you, watching a movie while studying/working, listening to music and so forth. All of these things are distracting you from your studies even though you’re not thinking about it. The best way to avoid these types of distractions is by avoiding them from the start.

Make a Task List

A to do list is basically a task list that makes it easier to concentrate on your subject. It does this by making you think only about one issue at a time. Task lists are in some ways the opposite of mind mapping, since the latter involves scattering ones thoughts instead of collecting them. Although that’s a good way to initiate a project, it’s not very useful when it comes to actually doing the task in question.

Silent Witness

Youth Wave — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:35 +0000

Kazi Falguni Eshita

I’m a pentagonal piece of glass bound inside a floral, wooden frame. A recorder of changing moods, a silent witness of her daily activities. I’m a part of her dressing table – THE MIRROR. I knew my little mistress’s family even before she was born. I have seen her mother dancing before me, with the newborn baby cuddled in her arms. I have seen my mistress, learning to walk with her father. The teenager took her first steps in the room where I reside. Years passed gradually. She came and went past me with the moving phases of life. I no longer touch a reflection of that little fairy in the white frock. I don’t see an eight year old happily skipping in front of me. I don’t capture the image of two little braids swinging with the rhythm of the times table. I don’t see a pair of rosy pink lips kissing Barbie dolls.

Instead, a seventeen-year-old Aphrodite appears before me nowadays. The ebony black hair dyed into a bright, golden shade. Those killing, dark brown eyes hidden behind thick, black glasses. She has got a terrible addiction towards gold jewelry. The golden tint matches with her pinkish complexion perfectly.

At times when she gets tired of leafing through the recent issue of The Reader’s Digest, she stands in front of her all time companion – ME.

“Mirror, can you tell me what to do now?” She asks.

I know I’m a non living thing; still, I can’t help sighing at her helpless look. As beauty blossomed into her, the world began closing. A dark cloud of depression took over a bright, intelligent girl. She’s not even allowed to stand in the verandah.

“Someone might cast an evil eye on my little darling.” Her grandma keeps on chanting. Going out? NO! Duh! These over- protective elders! She did have loving parents. Yet, she had a silent craving for a sibling. “Life would be much easier with a sister around,” she often told me.

Talking with a mirror might symbolize a mental disorder, but what else can one do? Success is the bridge that connects me to the other side of my beautiful mistress. She swings with pleasure polished all over that fair face. She displays her academic certificates to me with great enthusiasm. She is an extremely attentive student. According to her, the only way out of loneliness was books. She sometimes took refuge to her reading table, when she got tired of the computer or television.

Once in a blue moon, the teenager went shopping with her mother. Beauty overflowed her body then. It seemed as if someone had sprinkled water on a newly budded rose. She never wanted to be a lonely wealthy princess in her palace. The girl loved to listen to the calls of the outside world.

Glittering gold and shiny money could not satisfy my mistress. She wanted a simple life. She wanted to stroll through the shopping malls, picking up little things. Her mother danced to her grandma’s tunes. The mother could do nothing save heaving sighs of sorrow.

As she put a new coat of glass cleaner on me, an invisible tear dropped from my eyes. Dear friend, I’ve been watching you for the past seventeen years. I don’t know how much I could do to make you happy. I wish some day you’ll be able to see a new dawn.

Till then,
YOUR MIRROR.