The Rainbow Village
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Posted:Jun 4, 2017 2:20 am
Last Updated:Jan 5, 2019 10:17 am 8367 Views
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What happens when a filthy and gloomy run-down slum in central Java, Indonesia receives a dazzling makeover?
It turns into an internet sensation and a tourist spot overnight!
Yes, my readers, I am telling about the hamlet now dubbed as “the rainbow village” located on a hillside above a river that used to be a typical low income Indonesian neighborhood.
The rainbow village has now become a hot spot for Instagram shots and some of the pictures shot there have gone viral too.
Those who are interested to see some of these photos can see them below.
Happy Viewing!
Image credits: Arieprakhman, Isnaininurul51, Kingkin.kin, Jalidin, Nicolas_Ertaf, Riza_fe. Isnaininurul51, Anakhitssemarang
Source: The Daily Star and Internet.
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Bonsai Ficus Trees.
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Posted:May 16, 2017 4:10 pm
Last Updated:Jun 4, 2017 4:15 am 7463 Views
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Just look at the appended picture depicting a row of eye catching Bonsai Ficus Trees planted along the highway leading to the International Airport intersection in the city of Dhaka where I live. We all know that the word ‘Bonsai’ denotes “a tree that is planted in a shallow container”. If we however carefully look at the appended picture, we will observe that these Bonsai trees are not planted in shallow containers! 500 of such Bonsai Trees, imported from China and Taiwan , will be planted for beautification of the highway up to the Airport intersection by the end of July of the current year.
Courtesy: The Daily Star. Photo credit: Palash Khan.
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A wonderful man passed away today!
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Posted:May 10, 2017 3:50 am
Last Updated:Jun 30, 2021 11:25 am 7357 Views
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He kept himself alive until her only arrived back home from abroad last night. He took the last sip of water from her hand to drink a few minutes before he left to meet his creator! It was 2:15 PM my time when he finally left for the unknown.
May he rest in Peace.
This was a person who lived far away from his beloved kith and kin in a small island after retirement with his wife and until the end. He met his life partner almost half a century back in London first and then a few years after, in Antananarivo, the capital city of Madagascar where she went to join Air France as an air hostess! Though she was not in love with him at first sight yet he managed to convince her not to join the Airlines as it was not the will of God who has made two of them meet again in a most unlikely place in order to unite them into a holy matrimony! Yes, they married within a few months and lived happily there after! This was a happy mixed marriage until it ended at God’s wish.
He left behind him his wife and the to mourn his death besides others who knew him closely! May God give them strength to bear the loss and pains!
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Krishnachuras are everywhere now here in my city!
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Posted:May 6, 2017 4:29 pm
Last Updated:May 30, 2017 7:51 am 7661 Views
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The lovely red and orange Krishnachuras have finally started to bloom at the University and other areas of the city of Dhaka where I live now!
However, due to heavy rain this year, the Krishnachuras are yet to take the flamboyant look as we usually know! The Krishnachuras are known to bloom well when the temperature is high and humidity is comparatively low!
Happy Viewing.
Photo Credits: the Daily Star and the Daily Sun.
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The lost love—a true story!
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Posted:Apr 26, 2017 12:37 am
Last Updated:Nov 28, 2021 10:00 pm 7734 Views
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Just for a change after a long rest....
Rushing out from the chat room where she was having fun as usual with the two of them-----the Pheasant Hunter and the Forester, she posted for him to read “Oh my N, I can not read your heart any more! Tell me, do I still dwell there? How are you doing tonight? Do not make me cry any more!”
He read the lines, pondered a bit, and then turned on the music system for her to hear the song they liked to listen at this hour of the night together long before the fateful night she answered to the Pheasant Hunter in the chat room for the first time that changed everything and makes her cry now often for her lost love!
She listened Richard Marx’s voice coming through the net and started to cry again:
Oceans apart day after day
And I go slowly insane
I hear your voice on the line
But it does not stop pain.
I see you next to never
How can we say forever?
Wherever you go, whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you.
Whatever it takes…
Or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you…….
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12
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The Quest for Roots.
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Posted:Jan 26, 2017 6:18 am
Last Updated:Jun 30, 2021 11:25 am 25501 Views
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Looking for the long lost DAD!
Disappointed Jamie Henshall has gone back to Australia where he lives now!
He flew to Dhaka, the city where I live, on January 4, 2017 for the first time to look for his long lost father who was once a chef in Manchester with a couple of photos taken in 1979 of his parents’ wedding.
Jamie is an Englishman now living in Australia where he works as a chef. He never heard from his father since his parents parted ways in the 80's.
Henshall was only two and a half years old then but now that he is going to become a father, he embarked on a quest for his roots.
The story of Jamie looking for his father is a touchy true one! Only someone of mixed heritage can relate to it.
I read this heartbreaking story published on January 21, 2017 in the local English language newspaper, “The Daily Star”, and have now decided to share it with others to ponder,
Here below are pasted some of the extracts from the story published in the newspaper for those who would like to know more about this story;
He knew only that his father, whose name was Suab Ali according to the marriage certificate he got from his mother, was from Old Dhaka and his grandfather Umad Ullah was a “leather spinner” at a leather factory.
But that wasn't enough to find his father, who should be 62 years old, if alive.
On top of this, Henshall only had two weeks time in Bangladesh.
“This visit was the first big step on my journey to find my heritage,” he told the correspondent at the lobby of a city hotel last week.
His parents Ann Henshall and Suab Ali got married in Manchester in 1979. His father named him Mohammed Husain Ali when he was born, which was later changed by his mother.
Quoting his mother, Henshall said his father, a chef at a restaurant at the time, had to come back to Bangladesh for some emergency.
“My father tried to bring me back with him, but my mother wanted to raise me and educate me there. So, she just ran away taking me and a suitcase, leaving everything in the house they had behind.”
Apart from a couple of pictures of his parents' wedding, he has nothing of his father. Suab Ali took everything along when he left the UK in 1986.
His mother, who still lives in Manchester, and he never heard from his father since.
“I'm about to become a father very soon. It's really important that my knows my heritage. That's why I have embarked on this quest.”
Having stayed in the Old Dhaka neighborhoods for two weeks and been associated with the culture of his father, he got answers to questions that had bothered him all his life.
“Old Dhaka has really helped me understand my character. I know from where I got my sweet tooth, charm, cheeky nature, hard work and positive way of thinking,” he said.
Henshall had always wondered how his life would have been had his father brought him to Bangladesh. The visit, he said, helped him understand that to some extent.
“I feel a deep connection. Like my father, I had become a trained chef when I was 15 and worked in some upscale restaurants and organizations.”
He went to Australia nine years ago when he was offered the position of head chef at the central bank of Australia. He settled there and later founded his own media agency on food.
“I want to find my father not to be mad at him but to just meet him and understand myself better.”
During his stay in Dhaka, he went to the British High Commission here. He also contacted the Bangladesh high commission in the UK.
“I wanted to know whether he had a UK passport, his arrival date in Bangladesh and any other identification, but they said they didn't have the information from back then.”
Henshall also told a lot of people his story and went to the police.
People here are very friendly. Everyone has been very hospitable and welcoming, he said.
“My mother did a great job raising me. The only unfortunate thing is my father and mother never kept in touch after they parted ways and he never contacted me.”
He wished that his father had looked up his mother's family name on the social media and found him.
“I will come back again to search for him,” Henshall said.
Photo Details: Jamie Henshall showing on his phone his parents wedding photo taken in 1979.
Source:Akram Hosen. The Daily Star,Dhaka.
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Sailing on Antique Steamboats!
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Posted:Jan 23, 2017 8:43 pm
Last Updated:Jun 30, 2021 5:39 am 26536 Views
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Our Heritage Paddle Steamers!
The immense pleasure of traveling by a paddle steamer through the vast waterways of my country can not be felt or described by a person who is yet to travel by such a steamboat!
I consider myself a lucky one as I had the opportunity to travel by theses paddle steamers for innumerable times during the life I spent so far until today since my birth in the port town of Chittagong in the undivided British India during the later part of the fourth decade of 20th century!
I can still remember something of a combined Rail and Paddle Steamer journey that was undertaken by a 5 years old boy with his parents for safety fearing an imminent ground attack on Chittagong by the invading Japanese Army who had occupied a part of Kohima after routing off the Imperial British Army from Burma during Second World War!!
Needless to mention here that these Paddle Steamships were the only means of quick waterway transports available to the traveling public of Southern Bengal during that time besides slow moving country boats!
A paddle steamer is powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the ship through the water.
These steamers once ruled majestically the waterways of the reverine Bangladesh but no more.
Though some of these steamers are still in service, their days are now numbered. They can no longer compete with thousands of faster moving diesel powered modern vessels now plying through the waterways of this country carrying both passengers and cargoes!
As the paddle steamer is spacious, having a strong hull and noise free, and can navigate the shallow water, it is still one of the best water transport to travel on in reverine Bangladesh.
Readers may please view different pictures of these heritage steamers posted here under.
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7
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Elephants in colorful Jumpers and Pajamas!!
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Posted:Jan 21, 2017 2:17 am
Last Updated:Jun 30, 2021 5:37 am 34052 Views
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Mathura elephants get jumbo sized sweaters!
Pictures of some of the giant Mathura (India) elephants dressed in gorgeously knit sweater!
"It all began last year when the women living in villages near the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura joined forces to knit and crochet jumbo sweaters and pajamas for elephants."
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16
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Poison as defined by a saint!
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Posted:Jan 18, 2017 10:02 pm
Last Updated:Jun 30, 2021 5:29 am 27290 Views
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What is a poison?
According to Ontario Poison Center, “a poison is any substance that may cause harm or illness to a person because of its chemical action to the body. There can be many different routes of exposure. The most common include:
• Swallowing
• Splashing on the skin or in the eyes
• Inhaling
A substance may be harmful or poisonous if taken the wrong way, by the wrong person or in the wrong amount. Poisons cause a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from a mild reaction to a serious illness or possible death.”
The best definition of poison could found in Wikipedia that reads as under:
“In biology, poisons are substances that cause disturbances in organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when an organism absorbs a sufficient quantity. The fields of medicine (particularly veterinary) and zoology often distinguish a poison from a toxin, and from venom.”
However, those who are conversant with the writings of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, who is popularly known as Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic perhaps know the definition of Poison given by this great scholar who lived and died in Konya, Turkey on December 17, 1273.
Rumi was once asked to define poison! In reply the great saint said, “Anything which is more than our necessity is poison! It may be power, wealth, hunger, ego, laziness, greed, love, ambition, hate or anything!”
I wonder whether Rumi would add the word "Tax evasion skill" to the list had he been alive now.
Just wondering nothing more than that!!
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7
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Latest Apartment Architecture
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Posted:Jan 16, 2017 2:48 pm
Last Updated:Oct 11, 2022 8:29 am 28051 Views
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What are the most essential necessities that we humans need to survive the short time that we spend after birth here in this planet called earth? The answer is simple. They are Shelter, Food and Clothing! The early humans also needed the same three things to survive during the time they lived in this planet!
We can live at least some days without food. May be we can also trace back our ancestors in dresses made of tree leaves or animal hides!
But they needed shelters to protect themselves from all sort of known or unknown dangers including the vagaries of weather more during the prehistoric days than now!
Did the prehistoric humans know how to build a secured shelter for them to live?
No, they did not know! However, they knew how to protect themselves! They found out that the natural environments, that were available to them, could provide them with shelters!
However, we can safely say without fear of contradiction that the early humans did not need the presence of a present day architect among themselves to build the earliest form of shelters in trees! Still, “even at this simplest level, means the beginning of something approaching architecture!”
Early humans were said to be Cave dwellers. They used to live in the caves during winter and would come out in the open during summer for hunting and gathering that suggested the need for at least a temporary shelter!
So they learned to lean on some form of protective cover against a support that could have been a leafy branch against the trunk of a tree or to lean branches against each other in such a way that looked like an inverted V-shaped natural tent!
Could we not therefore consider these activities of the early humans as the early form of the architecture?
We can, therefore, trace back the history of architecture throughout the ages since early humans learned to build shelters in the open spaces for protecting themselves!
However, I am not going to trace back the history of architecture and describe them in detail here in this short article for obvious reason!
The purpose for putting up the above few paragraphs is the prelude to post pictures of some amazing Apartment Buildings built for modern day humans to live!
Picture Details:1 2 & 3. The Interlace, Singapore.Building of the year 2015.
4. Luciano pia 25 verde, Turin.
5. A Modern Apartment in London. City Life.
6. Sugar Hill, New York, Adjaye Associates
7. V_Itaim, Sao Paulo, Studio MK27
8.Nakayama architects, Japan.
9. The Block Building.
10. Laurie baker brick jaile.
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