Commoditised Christmas

Christmas is in the air in London...when the sun sets at around 3 in the afternoon...the streets and homes light up with brightly decorated christmas trees and blinking stars...hanging santa claus from the windows, crowded last moment shoppers in virtually every high street shops...and the chilly subzero winter...all this seems so wonderfully set for the biggest festive season of the year...chirstmas..followed shortly by new year. I am really a part of all this merry making and am deriving pleasure from the 'happiness particles' flying in the air. I don't envy the wide-spread universality of x-mas..which is meant to be a christian festival....thanks to media, thanks to stronger money and military...and most importantly...thanks to education...those who celebrate x-mas have transformed 'their' festival to 'everyones' festival...my hats off to them. So successful they have been that countries like even India..with its majority Hindu population...dress up in red and white..to be a part of this bandwagon....hindi movie heros and heroines don't elope and get married in temples any more...in front of the holy idol..rather they do that in churches...in front of the holy son....they don't also say 'hey bhagwaan' when they are shocked or astonished...they say 'jesus!!!'...again I restate that I am not envious of what somebody else is doing.....as I believe in 'constructive competition'...so that we end in a positive-sum game......I was just wondering that a festival like Eid...is celebrated in such a sombre low profile mood....nobody even knows or cares or notices what that is...and who are celebrating it.....I know why this is so...will talk about it some time later...but for the time being..it goes without saying that christmas has truly become the global festival...for practising Christians...for families..for businessmen...for shoppers...for free-lance fun-seekers like me...and I think its all right to say that it has been commoditised to some extent...which is good for those who care.

Father of the 34 years old

What do we call someone who is not sure about his/her father's identity? What would we call a nation which is still disputing about the issue of its father of the nation?I am not an activist of the ruling BNP government nor do I have much sympathy for Awami League, the former might be the worst, the latter is perhaps less worse..but they are still in the same boat...one has hijacked us by the love of her husband...one by the love of her father...enough is enough...as far as the 9 painful and uncertain months of liberation are concerned..there is no doubt in the mind of those who know and think....that it was only 'BangaBandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was the sole father figure to lead the country to freedom from the tyranny of the Pakistani rulers....the contribution of Ziaur Rahman is clear...he fought like a hero..like other sector commanders ...and he declared the freedom of Bangladesh on the radio..on behalf of the 'father of the nation...sheikh mujibur rahman'.. Bangladesh is a 34 year old grown up man tomorrow...16th December...and you people are still debating over who his father was?We only follow the Bollywood masala mix from India and the cricket matches of Pakistan ...but we don't follow their important things...India might be divided politically with so many political parties like BJP, Congress, Janata Dal etc....and Pakistan has got PPP, Jamat-e-Islami, Muslim League or even an army general at the helm...nevertheless...when it comes to showing respect to the founder of their nations...when it comes to stand on a common platform...they get hands in hands to remember Mahatma Gandhi...and Qaid-e-Azam Jinnah....and we?...still fighting over the basics..and confused about past...what can the youngblood expect from this?

Halal Food

London has many halal shops here and there, serving non-vegetarian food according to the Islamic specifications. When we go to eat somewhere, we trust those who cook, we kind of engage in a psychological contract with them believing that they have cooked the apparently great looking food (just served fresh on the table) with utmost cleanliness and maintaining hygiene etc. We actually never bother to throw a glance in their kitchen to see how clean the utensils are, how clean the nails of the cook are and especially, when we eat in a halal shop, we really don't bother to check if the butcher has slaughtered the chicken or the cow or the lamb by saying 'Allahu Akbar' and facing its face towards Mecca, we simply trust that YES, the rules have been followed. However, I wonder if there is any justification of trusting the 'halal' businessmen just because they put up in Arabic in front of their shops that they serve 'halal' food and so I, as a Muslim, should eat there and not anywhere else where the animal is slaughtered by sinful, misguided Christians, or Hindus, or Jews or Buddhists! I do not eat pork, more because its not largely available or popular in a country where I was brought up in, its not because of any religious compulsion. In the same view, I also do not eat camel, deer, birds (except chicken) etc. which are perfectly acceptable food in the eyes of Islam. In the same tune, I would prefer not to eat dogs, cats, snakes, monkey brains, octopus soup etc. just because I don't feel like eating them, not because Islam prohibits them as 'haraam'. I went to one Turkish shop that day to get some burger, the semi-drunk 'Turkish Muslim Brother' asked me my origin. Finding out that I am also a Muslim, the man, under the influence of alcohol..which is 'haraam' in Islam, told me with pride that he would serve me 'halal' food, as sometimes he deliberately disguises pork meat as beef and vice versa, when there is shortage of a particular type of meat. I found it so hypocritical...which made me write this blog today...it also made me think about the integration issue of Muslims here...will write about it some time later.

Is this the Bangladesh we fought for?

Reading the online version of the Bangla newspaper Prothom Alo still continues, to know about the latest from home...the nature of the news read over the last 5-7 years is still the same...and getting from bad to worse....no news of development, no unity, no achievements, no advancements...the latest blow to the already bleeding wound was the uncovered network of the Islamic fundamentalists....thanks to the mindless mud-throwing of the two women who have hijacked the 140 million people, these religious fanatics have spread their networks and are capable to wreak havoc in the pursuit to achieve martyrdom...my foot!Good news is that the police and the special forces are arresting those insects...but I would suggest that mere arresting them and putting them behind bars in a country where the power of law is still a mirage...better simply execute them...majority of the country are illiterate.....they don't know and they don't care if the Bangla term for 'democracy' ..which is 'gonotontro'....is spelt with which 'N' letter of the Bangla alphabet...so be it....rather than taking up the space in the already crammed prisons of Bangladesh....just arrest them...and make their way to being 'shaheed' a bit sooner...and let us live in peace...and follow our religion...

Christmas Bash at Tottenham Hale

After the traumatising experience of being robbed by the 'knight in shining shotgun' last Saturday, I headed straight to Tottanham Hale, where I was supposed to show up much earlier for the MBA class Christmas Party. I wanted to party any way but after what happened to me that day earlier, I had all the more reasons to go on a high and just chill. The ambience was just right at the residence of Vinoo, Lars & Hardik, upon entering... the abundance of bottles of wines, juices, whiskeys and vodkas just hinted me what was about to follow. I had to narrate to every one again and again what happened to me just a few hours back. Nearly everyone was there at the party, it was really good to see Manori who gave me a clear idea that evening how the nightlife in Sri Lanka might be and I am looking forward to going there. Then there was Olu, 'The Dirty Dancer' from Nigeria with all his naughty dance moves with the fairer sex. I didn't bother to wait longer, so after some casual conversations I straight did what I had to do and I was on cloud nine shortly, thanks to some amazing collections of songs downloaded the previous night by Vinoo, comprising of Pink Floyd, Cold Play and many more...but the center of attraction at the party was none other than Tanwir, the sweet-faced monster from Pune, India..who was spiked by Hardik and thus came out wearing his true face....it was a thing to see....he was dancing like crazy..as if he has never danced in his life and never will...Rhoda (from The Phillippines) was the unfortunate partner with whom Tanwir excelled at flaunting his charming dancing skills....lol....photographs were being taken left and right and drinks were free flowing....dancing and music was constant and we realised from time to time that our MBA days are coming to an end....memories are all that we can take away....so have more fun.....

A knight in shining shotgun, not a long time ago

When it rains, it does not usually pour, it f*****g breaks loose. I always used to hate working at the Caledonian Ladbrokes shop, I don't know why, but yesterday was already a busy Saturday with me starving till 4 in the evening. I was walking up and down at our tills in anticipation of leaving early, as I was supposed to go to Christmas Party at Tottenham Hale. From nowhere appeared the knight with the shining shotgun, wearing all black, black ski head-gear, only revealing his nervous yet aggressive eyes, throwing abuse at me and my manager who was in his seat, he locked the shotgun, 'click', and put it through the counter pointing towards the stunned pair, me and my manager...I initially thought it was a joke, and was contemplating at the shiny black nozzle of the 2-feet gun with utter amusement until I realised that it was pointing at me and this was no movie....our shop was robbed !! 20 seconds at the most...and I have no idea where he went with mere 250£ handed over to him by the manager....wow...welcome to London...welcome to life.......nearly lost my life......then came the metropolitan police and CID....taking my statements and description of the crime event....I am one of the witnesses...and victims too....good to be able to write this blog today...alive...