Shadow's Desk

The junction in front of Banani supermarket, where two opposite roads join in with the main road, is a typical example of Bangladesh road system: always clogged, horns blasting away haphazardly, traffic police waving their hands animatedly, and shouting obscenities which would make a slum dweller blush. To reduce this khati Bangladeshi congestion, a new rule was established: no rickshaws will be allowed to cross the main road to go the opposite road. When it was first introduced,I thought, just like any NORMAL Bangladeshi, that it will be discarded after a couple of weeks.That, the traffic police would eventually live upto their name and return to their everlasting damn-care mood. But surprisingly, this new regulation is still being followed rigorously, the traffic police even puncturing any rickshaw trying to take advantage of the police's afternoon tong-adda. No amount of protest and excuse from the passenger worked on these newly adapted, anti-rickshaw police. I tried to...

Chanachur: A Review (Or more like an ‘Honest Introduction to Quality Chanachur’) Bangladeshis love chanachur. It’s THE snack food for us. In fact, as far as nationalism foodstuffs go, the popular opinion at Shadow's Desk is to establish chanachur as our national snack. And why not? Our chanachur is special. It isn’t the weird sweetened type you get in India (so much for Bombay Sweets), it’s exactly how we like it- spicy, crispy and nutty. Some people would think our love towards chanachur as off, but we can always point towards the English and their tea mania. Or the Koreans and dogs. While getting your chanachur has evolved from roadside jhalmuriwallahs to large and flashy convenience stores; there are only a few brands of chanachur that are worth talking about. They are: • Ruchi Jhal Chanachur / Ruchi BBQ Style Chanachur: Despite the horrible advertising, Ruchi is the face of modern chanachur everywhere (you read that right, ‘modern chanachur’). It’s easily available ...

Everyone,at one point of their life, wants to help out the underprivileged, but the unfortunate thing is, their endeavor gets stuck there; they ONLY want to help but do very little to make it happen. After my exams, I wanted to get out of the shackles of sloth and DO something productive.When I say 'DO', I do not mean creating pointless EVENT PAGE or superfluous GROUPS in Facebook and spam everyone's inbox claiming to RAISE AWARENESS among the mass public, but I mean going out to the field and engage in active social work. And when I was introduced to THE PDF SUMMER CHALLENGE, I knew it would give me the perfect platform to help the helpless. PDF(Physically-Challenged Development Foundation) is a non-profit organisation aiming to help,as the name suggests, the physically challenged people in our country.It's primary aim is to help the young ones with physical disability.Thus, it has chosen CRP(Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed) in Savar to instigate its fir...