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  • Dhaka and Music – Peace in a Hectic City
    Books, Faith & Contemplation

    Dhaka and Music – Peace in a Hectic City

    July 26, 2021 - By Tasnia Naureen

    Music has been an integral part of most cultures around the globe. To this day, music continues to change and evolve, as more people use it to make unique soundtracks to their everyday lives. As a Bengali, it has been an even bigger part of our culture. From Nazrul’s songs about war to Tagore’s love songs, Bangla is able to truly capture the heart’s language through melodies. Songs in one’s mother tongue best expresses feelings of the soul. As much as music plays a part in our culture, and ultimately in our upbringing, the place we grow up in also…

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    Rumi

    Impossible Rumi, My 800-Year-Old Lover

    September 15, 2026
    Illustration of everyday workers including a security guard, therapist, barber, bookseller, and housemaid, representing grief for the ordinary people who quietly become part of our lives.

    The Unspoken Grief of Losing the Familiar Faces

    August 23, 2026
    Buddha

    Buddha: The Blessed One Who Became My Quiet Home

    August 7, 2026
  • Bangali Life & Memory

    Once upon a time in Kalni 

    June 23, 2021 - By Developer

    Kalni : My heart wasn’t on my mouth, rather my feet and waist were crying out. The traveler in me would just not listen, so I went on. On the back of a 125 cc motorbike, into the harshlands of Sunamganj. I wasn’t riding that little old Japanese gem, it was my colleague who was doing that thankless job. For 2 days, 15 hours and over 300 km… roads, no-roads, boat, bamboo bridges known as Shako‘s, held our destiny with aplomb. The roads, aah well, that is why I went there. No, not to build them or break them. Rather to…

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    A large kansa thali with rice and five small bowls of Bengali vegetarian dishes, arranged on a weathered wooden jolchoki beside a kansa glass and ghot.

    The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day

    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

    Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition

    October 4, 2026
  • Bangali Life & Memory

    All that about Monsoon and more…

    June 20, 2021 - By Developer

    We Bengalis love our Monsoon. The beams of water pours making us youthful just like a freshly watered old dusty tree leaf. For us a rainy day became so important that it had to be in our curriculum with a must essay called “Memories Of A Rainy Day”. After the hectic , hot, melting Summer, Monsoon comes to revive. Monsoon lasts from mid June to mid August in Bangla calendar .. “আষাঢ় থেকে শ্রাবন”. This season has played a huge part in our Bangla literature by celebrating romance, clouds, rains and the emotions surrounding dancing to the melody of rain.…

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    A large kansa thali with rice and five small bowls of Bengali vegetarian dishes, arranged on a weathered wooden jolchoki beside a kansa glass and ghot.

    The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day

    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

    Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition

    October 4, 2026
  • Midlife & the Art of Living

    Steaming goodness

    January 31, 2017 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    [ Steaming goodness ] Two years back, during my sons’s activity project I had to learn making Bhapa Pitha. For a strange reason I always thought making Pitha (Bangladeshi desserts) is tough. Now that I can make an entire cake and decorate it too, I know making pitha can be tiresome but never impossible. Hence these days I make pitha at home, and don’t drive my mother in law crazy to make pithas for me. Bhapa Pitha is perhaps the most famous pitha. It is essentially a rice cake filled with molsasses and coconut. But I don’t like coconut in…

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    Traditional jewelry revival

    Traditional Jewelry Revival: Statement Necklaces, Kacher Churi, and the Return of Ornament

    May 10, 2026
    Midlife Skill Learning

    Midlife Skill Learning: Starting Anew at 50 and Finding Meaning Again

    April 10, 2026
    Bullet Journaling

    Bullet Journal: A Perfectionists’ Guide to Navigate 1 and get absolute Burn Out

    October 17, 2021
  • Midlife & the Art of Living

    Pohela Boishakh spread

    April 11, 2016 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    [ Pohela Boishakh spread ] Pohela Boishakh is around the corner. It means your house will be filled with batasha, misri, naru, muroli and lots of other desi delights. It also means you will look every inch a Bengali beauty with that red bindi on your forehead, your hair will be adorned with bunch of Jasmine, and your men will be dapper in white panjabi. Beside all these things, Pohela Boishakh also means your dinning table will have a new white table cloth, and it will have all desi food items from Hilsha to beef bhuna, bhetki paturi to nakel chingri,…

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    Traditional jewelry revival

    Traditional Jewelry Revival: Statement Necklaces, Kacher Churi, and the Return of Ornament

    May 10, 2026
    Midlife Skill Learning

    Midlife Skill Learning: Starting Anew at 50 and Finding Meaning Again

    April 10, 2026
    Bullet Journaling

    Bullet Journal: A Perfectionists’ Guide to Navigate 1 and get absolute Burn Out

    October 17, 2021
  • image 5 That time of the year
    Bangali Life & Memory

    That time of the year

    April 7, 2016 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    [ That time of the year ] Yes this is April. When entire Bangladesh is dressed in white and red, gearing up for Pohela Boishakh, lots of food and fresh Beli phul aka Jasmine. Colourful fairs all around the country and people in a festive mood will make your heart swing in joy. I specially love Dhaka Art College around this time. I smell the festivity in the air. Students, teachers and visitors are busy making, selling and buying arts and crafts. My staple thing to do is, have a round of Art College, around evening just to feel the…

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    A large kansa thali with rice and five small bowls of Bengali vegetarian dishes, arranged on a weathered wooden jolchoki beside a kansa glass and ghot.

    The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day

    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

    Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition

    October 4, 2026
  • Bangali Life & Memory

    Stitched dreams…

    December 1, 2015 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    [ Stitched dreams… ] Bangladesh is a tropical country, with a mild winter and humid summer. In the northern side, the winter is stronger than the rest of the country. The span of winter is also very little. Thus the use of heavy blankets is limited to only few days of the year. Rest of the year we use Katha. Katha is a light sheet made of 6 to 8 sarees together. Making katha is an art like American quilt, only difference is, we didn’t market it as we should have. The art of Katha could have been a national…

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    A large kansa thali with rice and five small bowls of Bengali vegetarian dishes, arranged on a weathered wooden jolchoki beside a kansa glass and ghot.

    The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day

    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

    Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition

    October 4, 2026
  • Temple, people and rows of lamps, while adding a dreamy blue-hour atmosphere, warm golden glow, gentle mist and improved clarity. Rash Mela is a major annual traditional and religious festival celebrated during the full moon (Rash Purnima) in November across parts of Bangladesh
    Bangali Life & Memory

    Hemanta…. or Late Autumn

    October 28, 2015 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    All my seasonal posts begin with my favourite poet and one of his songs. In Tagore’s hands, a season is never merely weather; it becomes a mood, a memory, a secret the earth whispers to the heart. This is what he says of Hemanta: হেমন্তে কোন্‌ বসন্তেরই বাণী পূর্ণশশী ওই-যে দিল আনি॥ বকুল ডালের আগায় জ্যোৎস্না যেন ফুলের স্বপন লাগায়। কোন্‌ গোপন কানাকানি পূর্ণশশী ওই-যে দিল আনি॥ আবেশ লাগে বনে শ্বেতকরবীর অকাল জাগরণে। ডাকছে থাকি থাকি ঘুমহারা কোন্‌ নাম-না-জানা পাখি। কার মধুর স্মরণখানি পূর্ণশশী ওই-যে দিল আনি॥ Now Hemanta—or Late Autumn, as we call it in English—has come. Of all…

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    A large kansa thali with rice and five small bowls of Bengali vegetarian dishes, arranged on a weathered wooden jolchoki beside a kansa glass and ghot.

    The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day

    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

    Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition

    October 4, 2026
  • Bangali Life & Memory

    Fine art of….

    August 17, 2015 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    Adibasi is a term used for all the heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups considered to be the indigenous population of Bangladesh. Adibashi people live mainly in the hill tracts of Chittagong belt also they live many other plain land areas of the country. There are about approx. 40 groups of Indigenous communities in Bangladesh. They cover almost two percent of the total population.  According to the government statistics the total number of Adivasi is 12,05,978 which is only 1.03 percent of the total population. The name of the indigenous communities are; Bawm, Chak, Chakma, Khyang, Khumi, Lushai, Marma,…

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    A large kansa thali with rice and five small bowls of Bengali vegetarian dishes, arranged on a weathered wooden jolchoki beside a kansa glass and ghot.

    The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day

    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

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    October 4, 2026
  • Bangali Life & Memory

    Sharat… or Early Autumn…

    August 15, 2015 - By Aziza Ahmed Paula

    Have you looked at the sky today? Isn’t it the brightest of all. I see a bright blue sky with white harmless clouds passing through with nice gentle breeze. In other words it is called Early Autumn or Sharat in Bangla. We Bengali people are blessed with six different seasons unlike the western world that has only four. Our autumn is divided into two seasons, early autumn and late autumn. The first part which is early autumn is Sharat. In Bangla calendar the months Bhadra and Ashwin are together Sharat, from 15 August to 15 October. Though there are sudden…

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    October 16, 2026
    Two-colour Durga Puja mandap illustration: milk-tea background with dark brown heritage-style linework, including Durga, her children, Mahishasura, lion, owl, peacock, swan and mouse.

    Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh

    October 10, 2026
    A Bangladeshi mother teaches her teenage son to shape winter pitha in a sunlit traditional kitchen, surrounded by kansa vessels, rice flour, coconut, date molasses and an old handwritten recipe notebook. Food.

    Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition

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  • The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day
  • Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh
  • Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition
  • How to Create an Inner Vision Board for Self-Discovery
  • Bengali 12-Month Almanac: Powerful Wisdom for Seasonal Living

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  • The Living Glow of Kansa: Why I Use Bengal’s Heritage Metal Every Day
  • Durga Puja and the Joy of Belonging in Bangladesh
  • Bangali Food and Cuisine: A Rich History of Tradition
  • How to Create an Inner Vision Board for Self-Discovery
  • Bengali 12-Month Almanac: Powerful Wisdom for Seasonal Living
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