Shadow's Desk

Just finished watching the fourth episode of season 4 and I noticed a couple of things. The way the episode portrayed the Others was extremely intriguing since the books do not divulge too much information about this icy mystique. In the episode, we first sense that the Others are about to come when we see the poured water freezing in front of Ghost. Whenever the Others appear, the temperature drops or they appear WHEN the temperatures drop. Research about them is scarce, as Samwell Tarly says in book five (small spoiler, sorry!). Whatever the case, they are correlated with a drop in temperatures. If you see water freezing instantly, you better get your dragon steel ready. We then see one of the Other taking the sacrificed baby on a horse to a mountain. This is where things get really interesting. The one riding the horse is the familiar Other. We have seen him before. He was the one leading the attack against the Night's Watch men on Fist of the First Men. But the second Othe...

Forty-four. The number of days left before I return to my home. My sweet home. The thought sends a pulse of happiness through my body. Before I go to bed, I imagine myself coming out of the airport gate, the outstretched hands of my mother waiting to embrace me, my beloved standing beside her, beaming. I imagine going out with my friends and play football in the dust ridden field of Gulshan Youth Club. I imagine going to an adventure in Bandarban. The thoughts keep on piling on. They are sweet thoughts. But then another thought pokes in, and it kills me from inside. After my summer vacation, I have to come back here. I am extremely lucky to be studying in such a prestigious university (if you say otherwise, get the heck out of my blog -_-). Any one will be lucky to come here. But still the thought melts my inside. I have to say good bye to my family again. Play my last football game with my friends. Have a last look at my beloved. And then who knows when I will be back home. Life is...

Bangladesh just hosted the opening ceremony (or BCB aka India’r dalal ceremony?) for the ICC T20 World Cup. But it did not feel like Bangladesh was in the driver's seat. If a person did not know the geographical location of the ceremony, he would have guessed it was taking place in Mumbai or Delhi. Indian performers. Indian culture.  And at one point, it seemed Indian audience. Shame. I decided to collect a couple of reviews from people who went to the ceremony. I wanted to get the inside view.  So, here they go: Mastura Tasnim, 21st Batch, Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka. "Arrived two hours late because I had some work at the time, but the lines seemed to be longest right then, with people literally fighting to get in. By the time I entered, it was all AR Rahman and his group of dancing, singing musicians, and I was told Ayub Bacchu, Fuad and a number of other Bangladeshi musicians performed before I arrived. My mother naturally did not like ...

I was asked the aforementioned question while I was talking in Bengali (!) with my parents. I put down my phone, smiled and turned towards my friend and said to him: "Oh! Everyone in my country does it.We mix a couple of English words here and there with our language". With a quizzical expression, he said: "That's weird. Why don't you speak in fluent Bengali? Isn't that your mother tongue?" His questions stopped me on my track, because the answer shocked and shamed me. I realized that the reason we don't speak in straight Bengali is because we don't know how to. That we are too much used to speaking in English with everyone back in our country. That we focused so much on English that we forgot our own mother tongue. I didn't want to tell my friend that there are people, students of my age, who preferred English over Bengali, preferred to write essays in English than in Bengali. Heck! I know people who can't even count from 1 to 100 in ...

Rock music is seldom listened to for their lyrical charisma. It’s almost always about the music: the riffs and the solos! There are very few rock songs whose words touch your soul; you feel a strange connection with them. 'Angel' by Judas Priest is one of the songs that just got into me. I listened to this masterpiece in loop for two straight freaking days without ever getting tired of it! But when I asked others, some  didn't  share my enthusiasm. And I thought, ‘Maybe they  didn't  get it’. Therefore, I decided to write down the meaning of the song as I understand it. "Angel- out sad wings around me now Protect me from this world of sin So that we can rise again." The song is the lamenting of a virtuous man who is ill fated. This song depicts an honorable man whose honor has been rewarded with backstabbing and betrayal. Losing everything, he has nothing but hope. And with this hope he is calling out his ‘ Angel’ , the symbol of a Guardian...

Dreams and reality are like the Yin-Yang. Opposite, but intertwined. You will find them mutually inclusive in extreme rare cases of extremely fortunate people. But, for normal people like us, we have to sacrifice one to get the other. Why, you ask? Picture your dream; where do you see yourself? Relaxing in a beach in the Bahamas with a cold drink in hand, with the gentle breeze caressing your tanned fit body? Now imagine the cost of such a vacation and all the other horrendous logistics that go with such a vacation. You get what I’m getting at? So, which one should we give more priority to? Should we open our mind gates and dream the wildest of our dreams? Or should we force our brain to be calculative and practical? After all, be practical and rational will pay your bills. Being an IBAite, I can give a firsthand run down of my experience regarding this issue. Let me start saying that I’m a science person. From a very tender age, I dreamt of wearing a dazzling white lab...