Flash Back
I would love to shut my eyes and go back to 1971, to narrate the day I saw as a tiny boy wondering on the street with thousands of enthusiast Bangladeshi.
After a long war, our freedom fighters won at the last on this very day,   16 December, we call it victory day. A day which makes us curious about our past, anxious about or present and hopeless about our future. Still we love to be proud of the memories.
In the Year 1947
This part of the globe, the then East Bengal became independent as East Pakistan, on 14th August as a province of Pakistan, a Muslim majority country with great hope, aspirations and spirit. Two parts of the country were bonded with an ideal, Islam, so, the largest Muslim country got birth.
But unfortunately, the tie was discarded gradually.

West Pakistani brothers failed to continue expected brotherly relationship as rulers. They became more a ruler than brother. Started discriminations, partiality, oppressions and sort of exploitations. As a result, mass sentiment started going against them.
Remarkable years are 1948, 1952, 1962, 1969
Language movement 52 was the beginning of protest against the discriminations. We fought, shaded blood, got martyred and ultimately Bangla became one of the state language of the then Pakistan.
Education movement in 1962 was another historic event.
And in 1969, mass protest started against Pakistani rulers.
In the year 1970
After a long martial law rule in an independent country like Pakistan a national election took place. Awami League won the election on majority seats whereas PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) led by Zulfiqar Ali Khan Bhutto won in the West Pakistan. It was natural to hand over the power to Sheikh Mujibur  Rahman. But, the then Pakistani ruler Yahiya Khan declined to do the right job.
As a result disharmony, unrest and mutiny took place.
In the Year 1971
Pakistan failed to continue as a Muslim state because of the failure of its ruler. East Pakistan became turbulent, violent and furious being deprived of its rights.
On 26th March, 1971 Independence was declared by Major Ziaur Rahman on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Kalurghat Radio station.
Hence the 9 month long liberation war started as a aftermaths of the black night of 25th March, a night full of blood, death and horrors.
Liberation War
Colonel M.A. G Osmani, a Veteran  army personality of the sub continent organized the freedom fighters as the chief.  Whole country was divided into 11 sectors. All the sector commanders were re-known for their bravery. Among them major Jalil, Major Ziaur Rahman were noteworthy.
n    Liberation war continued for 9 months.
From the very beginning India extended full support to our liberation war. They supplied us arms, logistic supports, more then 1,00,000 citizens took shelter in the camps in Indian land.
n    Over 9 months time great fighters fought a lot, more than 30, 00,000 Bangla speaking people were killed, many more became handicapped, their houses were blazed, properties looted. But ultimately, their sacrifices won rewards.
n    In the month of December, news of victory started to flow. One after another district headquarters came under the control of our beloved freedom fighters. Lastly, on 16th December the final victory came. Flags with red sun in the midst of all green horizon were being hoisted all over the country.
n    General Niazi, the chief of Pakistani armies in the then East Pakistan surrendered in the hand of General Jagjit Sing. Arora, at Race-Course maidan . M A G Osmani was not present in the historic surrendering ceremony.
We got a free land, a flag and many more
Through this victory- Bangladesh a new country got birth. Our victory brought us a free land, a flag with green and red colors, a nation with aspirations.
We had a great dream, a noble aspiration, a bright future that have been cherished for long.
Mothers of the martyred freedom fighters thought of a country where no freedom fighters will lead a miserable life, no shelter less family will pass their sleepless nights, no social crime will prevail and no disharmony will make our future gloomy.
37 years gone: None kept their words
What a silly! Selucas Bangladesh!
37 years, almost 4 decades passed away from our life.
In the meantime many nations earned a lot, got higher GDP, tremendous prospect and became model before the world.
Whereas, we started a backward journey with all our prospects. Rulers changed, changed the fate of ruling party leaders, grew thousands of millioners but alas! mass people remained the same as they were.
Still we are hopeful, time will change, future will be brighter than the past.
Come up new generation!
While old thinks about the gray hairs and dull-doomed life, youths and children play with joys, dream for green horizons.
We failed to keep up the hope of our martyrs, won the 1st position as a corrupt nation for consecutive 3 times, lost the credibility of a nation with glorious heritage- but our future is still bright. Here we see the future reflected in the water, in the faces of our children, they are coming up with a flag, not faded, not shredded.
Don’t look to your past that makes you sad. Build yourself as a worthy citizen, full of spirit, qualities and enthusiasm. Let’s make a country- which will call the frustrated people to live here with happiness, hope, dignity and dreams.
(Reprinted)

I just got a sheep thrown at me. And I survived its bleating fluffy impact. This is what modern times have come down to where people throw sheep, fish and other livestock at each other. And apparently it is the in thing. Facebook users can virtually throw these at each other using a feature called ‘Superpoke’. Welcome to social networking where people you never met and probably never will, can and do throw sheep at you.
One upon a time I was blissfully unaware of social networking. Then my peers started to pressure me to sign up as peers are often inclined to do. And before I knew it, I was getting hit by sheep, invited to join the mafia and generally asked to be a part of activities which would be quite painful in reality.
Turns out everyone except me was already on some network be it MySpace, Orkut, Facboook, Nosebook etc. My father, who never went online, turned up on my friend list after he went to Canada. Yesterday, even my dog signed up. Or at least someone whose profile picture and name was suspiciously similar to my dog. It makes for a good cheap way to connect to those far from where you are.
Before I knew it, I had 200 friends half of whom were not. But a colleague in the next cubicle had 872 friends. That’s like half the world right there.  This was worrying as I saw people hunched over their computers adding friends as if that alone would solve world hunger. Not that hunger was a subject anyone was bothered about because someone was sure to send a virtual hamburger. With extra virtual cheese.
I noticed people sitting there watching other people. Once upon a time this was called stalking. Now, it’s just staying updated about the 1233 friends across the world. But we live in times where the entire world is always ‘out there’ and knowing it is so large, we have to bite onto as big a chunk as we can. With so much out there, it’s easy to become lost and unnoticeable like a vegetarian in a meat eating contest. So to get noticed, we advertise. Which brings into play the status update.
Last week a friend wrote ‘I am so sad’.  Because I actually knew him in real life, I called only to find out he was sad because no one was ‘noticing’ what he was doing. Which was basically nothing. But his status did get some response. It’s something we learn as babies. When in pain, hunger or simply in doubt, cry.
And that’s what these sites are really about. Not crying, but advertising, both of which are sometimes hard to distinguish. We post to let others know that we are alive, that we are interesting. 9 times out of 10 we are probably not interesting or even alive for that matter. But the human spirit is not easily deterred. While we are busy advertising ourselves, marketers (the ones that get paid to advertise) use these social networking sites to sell everything from toothpicks to tampons. MySpace recently posted $20 million in ad sales.
We seek out each other because we are not solitary creatures. Or maybe we do so because in these times, we probably are more solitary than someone 200 years ago. Now we know there are 6 billion people out there ready for romance, friendship, kinship or simply someone who will give us money. We don’t want to be meek sheep, we want to throw sheep at others and let the world know who we are.

Many of us are fortunate to have grandparents close by at the time that we are born. In fact when our mothers become pregnant to bear us, no doubt they must have turned to their parents, our grandparents, for advice and assistance. This is probably because our parents were young and needed someone to hold their hands; someone who had been there before. Undoubtedly, most of our parents would have depended on their parents at that crucial time. Following this, during our childhood too, our grandparents would have been there at the side of our parents to help bring us up infants. Needless to say, we owe much to our grandparents.

The attitude of helping to look after ones grandchildren is only present in members of the human race. No other known animal on the planet seems to have this particular trend. Strangely also, the tradition of grandparents playing an important role in the birth and upbringing of grandchildren seems to be a universal trend among humans. Just like the fact that the best arrangement for couples in the human race is to be together for life, subject to divorce not taking place, grandparents too must be an outcome of evolution. It is probably also that through the five million years of man’s existence on this planet, we have found that having grandparents around is the best thing. The origins of tradition are lost in oblivion, but we may be sure that they are founded upon what is practical; usually after several experiments. In this way, the idea of grandparents remaining close to us has been found to be a blessing.

All of us know that grandparents are symbols of wisdom; they speak from experience and tell us how to go where they have been. They may not be up to date in matter of science and other branches of knowledge, but they would have been though the ‘school of hard knocks’. They are usually experts at relationships. Many of us have learned at their knees that have saved us pain in later life. It is grandparents who tell us that though money and other symbols of wealth are nice to have, the real values in life are the non-material kind. They themselves have probably discovered this through lifetime of pain and sorrow. We often see them trying to make up to their children – our parents – for their having been strict, perhaps even unkind, to them when they were young. As it often turns out, they often try to parent us to try to make up for the mistakes they made in parenting their own children. Being thus close to them, many of us who listen to them are saved the pain of making the same painful mistakes.

It is unfortunate that, as part of the modern lifestyle, we are losing contact with our grandparents. It is just not wise at all, but is happening all around us, that after five million years of evolution, we are now discarding some of the more beautiful aspects of being a human. Pushing grandparents out of the scene is out of them. Many of them are being exiled in old folk’s homes; where being deprived of something useful to do and of being loved and wanted, they waste away to early ends. One can only hope that the trend will be reversed; if not for the sake of our grandparents – for the sake of the wisdom they have to offer all of us.

The writer is a class VIII student of Dhanmondi Tutorial.

These large numbers of players help the developer Zynga earn much revenue in a very short time. Thus it shows another way to earn money without spending billions of dollars like google or amazon.

Recently Brian Reynolds, chief game designer for Zynga shed a little light about the money making process. Developing a social game costs only $100,000 to $300,000 and 3-5 percent of the player pay money for virtual goods in the game or sign up for advertising ‘offers’ that generate cash for the developer. If each person generates a penny a day, then an average of $3.65 is generated per year per person. Now, multiply the number of people who play the games, like 31 million people that play farmville, according to the figure stated by Brian and you will get a big amount $113 million a year. You may subtract an amount of $4 million as the salaries of a team of 40 designers and developer who are engaged in developing and continuous update and maintenance. Now what amount do you have in your hand?

The game developers get thrilled with the speech of Reynolds because Reynolds did not mention the amount of pennies paid by the players. If the players spend two pennies per day, then it would be a 200 million dollar per year. But they can presume this with a look to the present value, the amount is not so small, it’s a $3-billion company.

Although developing game is not easy and small task, the developers are interested in developing facebook and other social networking application. Because social networking websites have already got a big amount of users that indicates millions of dollars are being spent per day only by the facebook users. Perhaps it is also an opportunity for the Bangladeshi techi users, it requires a group effort only and lots of enthusiasm.

Awake, awake oh my dear children
The sun in the East has just arisen.
The birds are chirping
And the wind is blowing.
The flowers have blossomed on the tree
And from darkness the world is free
Being lighted by the sun
Its not time to sleep or make a fun
So rise up, wash your face and read,
Then go and take your milk and bread.
Obey your parents, respect your teacher
You will be happier in future

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide,
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.”

2. United States of America declared its Independence in-
a. 1776                b. 1876
c. 1676                d. 1976

3. Where is the capital of Norway?
a. Sweden             b. Oslo
c. London            d. Madrid

4. The Hizri Year started from-
a. 622 AD            b. 632 AD
c. 624 AD               d. 629 AD

5. Currency of India is-
a. Dinar            b.Rial
c. Dollar            d. Rupee

6. Who is the writer of the book “Audacity of Hope”?
a. Rabindronath Tagore    b. Barak Obama
c. Bill Clinton            d. Goerge W Bush

7. In which District the sea beach Kuakata is located?
a. Cox’s Bazar            b. Chittagong
c. Patuakhali            d. Borguna

8. The latest Division of Bangladesh is,
a. Barisal            b. Sylhet
c. Rongpur            d. Khulna

9. Next World Cup Football will held in,
a. South Africa        b. France
c. Brazil            d. Spain

10. Who is the captain of Bangladesh Football Team?
a. Rajani Kanta         b. Mashrafee Bin Mortaza
c. Aminul Haque        d. Zahid Hasan Emilee

Correct Answer of November 2009 Issue:
1(c). 2(b), 3(a), 4(d), 5(a), 6(b), 7(b), 8(c), 9(b), 10(d)

Winners of November 2009 Issue:
1.    Farjana, Companigonj, Noakhali
2.    Abdullah Al Hasem, Dhanmondi, Dhaka
3.    Orna, Ghoramara, Rajshahi

You and I are standing at station
Wait for the train
Hundred people, thousand people
Come and go here.Anybody comes by singing
Anybody comes in silence
But everybody goes away
Newcomers come for the train
They will also go
They understand,
They listen
They analyze
And give gift
It’s just for “the singing.”