What an oppertunity to meet my old and dear classmates! I went to Bangladsh on a very short visit of 2 weeks. I was calling many of my friends before leaving canada regarding a long awaited proper reunion which never happened over last 19 years. There were one or two fragmented gathering mostly with dhaka based friends. Shahen always takes the responsibilty for oroganizing events.This time as well he and Lipi took the responsibility to contact people. I did my part to call many but it was left to Shahin. Lipi, Jaynul and others to bear the burnt of oranizing.
I spent two days at Rajshahi and went to meet my friends at the medical college and hospital. I met Tuku at the anatomy department and we together started to call everybody. We then sat at Charu mama's canteen. Charu mama's canteen was not a very pleasant site, but this was where we passed many of our golden days as a medical student. Many of those who were available joined us ( Badsha, Ashim, Saiful, Tuku, Papri ). We called Mousumi, Simi, Ripon & Chapal but they were all gone home by that time. I tricked Zahid by calling him for a ceasarean section and to meet the specialist at anatomy department. ( He is an anesthetist like me and always on the beconing unlike me!) Ankhi was the last to arrive and our proceedings broke off very quickly as people had their own businesses. I spoke about meeting at a dinner at Nanking chinese restaurant on 6th and got an approval from everybody.
On 6th we sat at Nanking at 9 pm. Everybody said that though people were around for quite sometime but a get-together was never organised. How good it felt to sit together! Ashim brought about the memories of our classmates whom he troubled,specially Jibesh. He also troubled chapal keeping him waiting outside Baby's house while devouring on sweets of Shabe Barat.
Tasu talked about Mahtabe Alam , the then Gyne reg and Badsha filled in his experience from Naoga to top it up and we broke in laughter. Swapna spoke about the college days. Ongshu about his practice, Badsha always had that mischievous smile, chapal very patient. In the middle of everything , just before food, a very old man entered the room and I was about to tell him that it is private party. When he took his cap off I realised he was our Sajed. He was telling us about our age. We are aging. There were talk about children's admission and parents experience. Everybody was wondering why Badsha was not atending the reunion at dhaka as he said his daughter has to take admission test."What would u do with the kid?" I replied for him " He wil be a calming medicine,for the daughter , and specially for the daughter's mom." Zahid had his experience last year and he felt for Badsha.
I felt something was going around which I was not a part of. Some underhand exchanges, whispers. Suddenly I realised money was changing hands. I was told I was a guest and my friends are paying for me. Perplexed and bit surprised but tried to enjoy the honour. Ashim was saying repeatedly that they spared me this time but sheepishly said if u really want to give us a treat , organise it next year and include the families. Well!Well! Good. I said when I come next time, we will organise a family picnic.
We finished on happy note. Girls did not have a car and it was late at night. So Ongshu dropped them. Probably he was blaming my forefathers for putting him in that situation. He was the only one with a vehicle and he had no choice!
Me and Badshah, we went on a rickshaw and was churning nostalgic past.We stopped at bindur more and was looking for a restaurant where we ate together with Sultan on a gloomy day on march 88. Thats another story.
i will write about the reunion at dhaka soon. Till then.
a short video clip of who attended th dhaka reunion: copy and paste the link below or search "ashit bardhan"on the youtube. rmc 25th batch reunion is the title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBS4GcdDkAo
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Anti-corruption council actvities: What I think
Our anti-corruption council when was first initiated was a lame duck or a paper tiger. It had a majority of partisan of the past BNP govt. So it passed more time on quarreling with each other over their jurisdiction or how to get more attention from the media. It never took any matter seriously at hand for investigation purpose let alone tryng any of the member of the sitting ministers or even a BNP partisan though there were no shortage of allegations.
After the tides were turn it is a necessary tool for the current govt to get hold of past leaders by their tail. It has an agenda to 'clean' the politics. The'good' deed of the past govt is also helping them. So for their own sake CG had to resuffle the total anti-corruption councl.
I do not know much about other two comissioners. One piece of information impressed me about our past CAS L.G. (retd) H.M.Chowdhury. According to a news, he was offered an exentension as Army chief which he denied quoting that he do not want to obscure the promotion for others for whom it is due. In Bangaldesh politics it is very rare. Almost every Chief ofArmy staff has entered politcs accept Nasim before him. Zia, Ershad, Shafiullah, Nuruddin, Mahbubur Rahman, so far I remember. He chose not to join politics. That was impressive. In the past caretaker Govt he was nominated by BNP. But he maintained his dignity and undoubtedly did a very good job. He was among the four who resigned. To be honest I did not expect this from him in the first place. His overall activity before taking oath as chief of ACC really made me his fan, but not a blind one.
Undoubtedly corruption is a huge issue in our country. I believe most citizen wants this country to prosper and want to see an end to corruption. The power given to ACC is something absolute. I read somewhere ' Absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Now the power enjoyed by ACC was never seen before. The question is r they using it properly or is it to serve any 'hidden' agenda to oust two big political parties or bring in a new system as envisioned by the current CAS?
The leaders who were caught, many of them r corrupt without even any proof. People know them by name. For some, I do not know whether it is a 'balance' game or some fowl play or they have truly done some mischief. During AL regime I heard a rumour that the then tele minister has taken 4 crore simply to delay the arrival of teletalk, the official mobile of the govt. It wiil come out now if it were true. I personnaly feel that any corrupt person should be taken to task wherever he belongs.
Setting up ACC is a great step towards culminating corrution, but it is not the only step. Corruption is at all level,starting at very low level wich includes small bribes, in schools by teachers, lawyers, doctors who not and upto very high level in govt which involves national interest. Catching one or few person will not stop it. We need to change the mentality of the whole nation. It will not come in a day/month or year. It will be a long process and need very much focused goal directed approach towards the issue. It do not involve only politicians but every citizen and every profession.
We need a movement for that . We need proper education. Education at all level. Students at school read patriotic poem. Vomit it out in the exam. I'm not sure how many do understand the spirit. I can share a personal experience with u. My younger brother as a school student was participating in a Biswa Sahitya kendro activity and he read 'La Measurable'. He stood third in the competetion. When I went home from the Medical College and learned this,I was very impressed. I asked him ' what did u learn from the lead character ?' He simply could not answer my question. I understood it is another vomitting business. With this type of understanding is it easy to eradicate corruption ? I guess not. I am a very big supporter of Biswa Sahitya Kendro. Even with that bizzare experience I think this is one way of making people patriotic which may in long run curbe corruption.
What we see today in the activity of ACC is just some show piece work (still it needs a lot of work to do on itself). Real work wll be by every conscious people at their own sphere. A very tideous job though in the current holding of the society. What we can do is that we can make suggestions. Some people may come up with a brilliant idea. we can pass it to ACC. But real work rests with each of us not ACC.
After the tides were turn it is a necessary tool for the current govt to get hold of past leaders by their tail. It has an agenda to 'clean' the politics. The'good' deed of the past govt is also helping them. So for their own sake CG had to resuffle the total anti-corruption councl.
I do not know much about other two comissioners. One piece of information impressed me about our past CAS L.G. (retd) H.M.Chowdhury. According to a news, he was offered an exentension as Army chief which he denied quoting that he do not want to obscure the promotion for others for whom it is due. In Bangaldesh politics it is very rare. Almost every Chief ofArmy staff has entered politcs accept Nasim before him. Zia, Ershad, Shafiullah, Nuruddin, Mahbubur Rahman, so far I remember. He chose not to join politics. That was impressive. In the past caretaker Govt he was nominated by BNP. But he maintained his dignity and undoubtedly did a very good job. He was among the four who resigned. To be honest I did not expect this from him in the first place. His overall activity before taking oath as chief of ACC really made me his fan, but not a blind one.
Undoubtedly corruption is a huge issue in our country. I believe most citizen wants this country to prosper and want to see an end to corruption. The power given to ACC is something absolute. I read somewhere ' Absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Now the power enjoyed by ACC was never seen before. The question is r they using it properly or is it to serve any 'hidden' agenda to oust two big political parties or bring in a new system as envisioned by the current CAS?
The leaders who were caught, many of them r corrupt without even any proof. People know them by name. For some, I do not know whether it is a 'balance' game or some fowl play or they have truly done some mischief. During AL regime I heard a rumour that the then tele minister has taken 4 crore simply to delay the arrival of teletalk, the official mobile of the govt. It wiil come out now if it were true. I personnaly feel that any corrupt person should be taken to task wherever he belongs.
Setting up ACC is a great step towards culminating corrution, but it is not the only step. Corruption is at all level,starting at very low level wich includes small bribes, in schools by teachers, lawyers, doctors who not and upto very high level in govt which involves national interest. Catching one or few person will not stop it. We need to change the mentality of the whole nation. It will not come in a day/month or year. It will be a long process and need very much focused goal directed approach towards the issue. It do not involve only politicians but every citizen and every profession.
We need a movement for that . We need proper education. Education at all level. Students at school read patriotic poem. Vomit it out in the exam. I'm not sure how many do understand the spirit. I can share a personal experience with u. My younger brother as a school student was participating in a Biswa Sahitya kendro activity and he read 'La Measurable'. He stood third in the competetion. When I went home from the Medical College and learned this,I was very impressed. I asked him ' what did u learn from the lead character ?' He simply could not answer my question. I understood it is another vomitting business. With this type of understanding is it easy to eradicate corruption ? I guess not. I am a very big supporter of Biswa Sahitya Kendro. Even with that bizzare experience I think this is one way of making people patriotic which may in long run curbe corruption.
What we see today in the activity of ACC is just some show piece work (still it needs a lot of work to do on itself). Real work wll be by every conscious people at their own sphere. A very tideous job though in the current holding of the society. What we can do is that we can make suggestions. Some people may come up with a brilliant idea. we can pass it to ACC. But real work rests with each of us not ACC.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
CONGRATULATIONS!
A big congratulation for the chief advisor on visting Bangabandhu's majar, and ordering proper maintanance of it. Same to our Chief of Army staff for accepting that we as a nation could not honour our great leaders of Independence for last 36 years ( should it be 31 years?). Better late than never.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
ashiter des bhabna
Hi
I am a doctor working in ireland.
Still perplexed by things tht r happening in bangladesh.
Whatever is happening i do not think it is good.
Anti corruption drive under military or semi-military regime has never yielded any good result in this world. Our nearest result is Pakistan. Each time army intervened there was a cause; Corruption of politicians.They came with a uproar like a tiger. People all over welcomed their saviour. And as each day passed the tiger needed more time to settle. Altimately they settle as a president.
General Ziaul Huq and Musharraf did almost the same thing. Is there any change in pakistan politics? Pakistanis will be tied to army for generations to come.
Do we want the same in our country?
Do we want an army general dictating behind the scene?
R they better than those corrupt ones behind the bars?
On first instance it looks these bunch is good.
I have a proposal. Let us assume these bunch is very much liked by the people. They can nominate 300 elligible people and call for an quick election.they should win not only two-third majority but nearly 250 seats. What r these people afraid of?
They r afraid of their pretention.
their pretention is they r not for power but were compelled to take over to save the nation. Every wolf has a pretention for the sheep.Their guise will come out. Still political parties will hold a substancial amount of vote. That is actually holding them from calling an election. They want to create a vacuam and let themselves sucked in. We r heading to see a new party.
Zia did it. He brought in Sayem as president and once in good grip,himself became the president.
Zia came in a political turmoil. This gov. is the same.
zia had a president, now we have a chief advisor.
Zia did a refferendum, a refferendum is due now ( confirmed on bangla tv uk aired on 11th march '07 )
can u see where r we heading to? there seems to be striking similarity.
Our previous experience is not at its best. I will be a very happy person if it doesnot happen.
In my opinion we want Anti Corruption Council and Election Commission to be strong, fair and effective. We also want a civil govt.
U can share ur thoughts with me if u wish
I am a doctor working in ireland.
Still perplexed by things tht r happening in bangladesh.
Whatever is happening i do not think it is good.
Anti corruption drive under military or semi-military regime has never yielded any good result in this world. Our nearest result is Pakistan. Each time army intervened there was a cause; Corruption of politicians.They came with a uproar like a tiger. People all over welcomed their saviour. And as each day passed the tiger needed more time to settle. Altimately they settle as a president.
General Ziaul Huq and Musharraf did almost the same thing. Is there any change in pakistan politics? Pakistanis will be tied to army for generations to come.
Do we want the same in our country?
Do we want an army general dictating behind the scene?
R they better than those corrupt ones behind the bars?
On first instance it looks these bunch is good.
I have a proposal. Let us assume these bunch is very much liked by the people. They can nominate 300 elligible people and call for an quick election.they should win not only two-third majority but nearly 250 seats. What r these people afraid of?
They r afraid of their pretention.
their pretention is they r not for power but were compelled to take over to save the nation. Every wolf has a pretention for the sheep.Their guise will come out. Still political parties will hold a substancial amount of vote. That is actually holding them from calling an election. They want to create a vacuam and let themselves sucked in. We r heading to see a new party.
Zia did it. He brought in Sayem as president and once in good grip,himself became the president.
Zia came in a political turmoil. This gov. is the same.
zia had a president, now we have a chief advisor.
Zia did a refferendum, a refferendum is due now ( confirmed on bangla tv uk aired on 11th march '07 )
can u see where r we heading to? there seems to be striking similarity.
Our previous experience is not at its best. I will be a very happy person if it doesnot happen.
In my opinion we want Anti Corruption Council and Election Commission to be strong, fair and effective. We also want a civil govt.
U can share ur thoughts with me if u wish
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