My Publications

Book Review - The Mystic Inferno  by Faizul Khan Tanim T he first subliminal effect that I bumped into whilst reading this book was experiencing verses of a writer Obaidur Rahman who is both an ‘optimistically pessimist’ and again a ‘pessimistically optimist’. And he manages to strike a fine balance explaining his many earthly, cosmic or hallucinating situations where the glass is half full and it would have been better if it was totally full and sometimes he believes in the glass half empty with a sigh of relief that at least it’s not completely empty. The fifty poems in this book also take me in to a wild ride of sea surfing and gives me loud kicks contemporary thoughts once intrigued by the chorus of a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains – Like the coldest winter chill, heaven beside you…hell within . The words of his poems will make you feel that there is emotional conflict within everyone and that these feelings are terrible, and you would li...

The Perennial Eid Woes Attaining transport tickets every year during both Eid festivals is of Great Expectation and then Great Frustration as well due to the non-availability. and what starts as a general quest to congregate with family at home, transforms in to a drama and often, melodrama. Writes Faizul Khan Tanim Photos: Focus Bangla The spirit of Eid festivals start with acquiring the transport tickets and very often ends with grave tragedy. Jhuki’r cheye jibon er mullo onek beshi (The value of living is much more than taking risk) – this much-ignored popular saying probably sports and is tattooed in almost all bus, train, ferry and flight counters all over the country. But the signposts with these words are most often broken, in shabby conditions with a mix of betel nut leaf chewing extract and crow excrement on them or plain and simple disregarded since the mad home-goers will not stop at anything to go to their home states and enjoy Eid fest...

Bullets of Bollywood Fariyah Nazneen Premaa and Faizul Khan Tanim writes on media imperialism of Hindi culture and tries to find the answer to the cardinal question - do we want the bullets or the palettes of Bollywood Twenty-first century is much smarter, organized, less cocky, less arrogant and much more shrewd and vicious from the times when Alexander tried to capture the world with muscles. Cultural or media imperialism is one of the greatest tools that developed countries use to dominate the developing ones and if we are to trace the origin of this theory, maybe a grand ‘thank you’ is long due for mother England, directly ruling South Asia for more than 200 years but indirectly ruling us till date. I’m not saying the British Council, USIS as cultural hubs, advanced education like the Cambridge system, Edexcel O/A levels, International Baccalaureates, the American school system elsewhere in the world or the Western Media or Hollywood are necessarily ...

Dhaka’s Traditional Iftar gone Awry Faizul Khan Tanim takes a stroll down Chawkbazar and realises that the spirit of Iftaar still remains although the Iftarii got skewed Inflation, diminishing food taste and worth and even less variation than last time were amongst the prime reasons why I could not indulge in the spirit of Iftarii this time. Since one of the cardinal activities of Ramadan is to break the fast at the Iftari capital, Chawkbazar of Old Dhaka, no Dhaka foodies want to miss this opportunity. Loud thumping of spoons on aluminium dishes and lids, Indiscriminate screams - Boro baap er polay khay, thonga bhoira loiya jay... - these lines rhyme and literally means this item is consumed by the sons of the rich fathers’, filling up brown-paper bags to take back home. According to the thousands of Iftari connoisseurs, this is supposed to be the sweetest lines or catch phrases one listens and experiences with pleasure while at Chawkbazar Iftaar market but thi...