বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র শীর্ষক এ বইয়ে বঙ্গবন্ধুর দেশপ্রেম, গণতান্ত্রিক মনোভাব, সংগ্রামী চেতনা, মানবপ্রেম, রাজনৈতিক নেতার প্রতি শ্রদ্ধা এবং কর্মীর প্রতি সহমর্মিতা, দায়িত্ববোধের একান্ত অনুভূতি প্রকাশ পেয়েছে। এসব চিঠিপত্রে যেমন পাকিস্তানি ঔপনিবেশিক সমাজ, রাজনীতি, শাসনব্যবস্থার চিত্র এবং রাজনৈতিক কর্মকাণ্ডের দিকনির্দেশনা রয়েছে, তেমনি রয়েছে বঙ্গবন্ধুর রাজনৈতিক চিন্তা-চেতনা, পারিবারিক ও ব্যক্তিগত জীবন সম্পর্কে নানা বক্তব্য তথা ব্যক্তি মুজিবের একান্ত পরিচয়।

যে সকল গুরুত্বপূর্ণ রাজনৈতিক ব্যক্তিকে বঙ্গবন্ধু চিঠি লিখেছিলেন তাঁদের মধ্যে রয়েছেন হোসেন শহীদ সোহরাওয়ার্দী, শামসুল হক, তফাজ্জল হোসেন মানিক মিয়া, তাজউদ্দীন আহমদ, এম এ আজিজ, জহুর আহমদ চৌধুরী, দবির উদ্দীন আহমদ, ছাত্রনেতা খালেদ নেওয়াজের মাতা, বঙ্গবন্ধুর পিতা শেখ লুৎফর রহমান এবং বঙ্গবন্ধুর বিভিন্ন মামলা পরিচালনাকারী অ্যাডভোকেট আবদুস সালাম, প্রমুখ।

‘বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র’ ১ম খণ্ডে বঙ্গবন্ধুর লিখিত ৯২টি পত্র এবং ‘বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র’ ২য় খণ্ডে বঙ্গবন্ধুকে লিখিত ৫২টি পত্র নিয়ে দুটি খণ্ড প্রকাশ করা হলো।

বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র শীর্ষক এ বইয়ে বঙ্গবন্ধুকে লেখা পিতা, স্ত্রী, আত্মীয়-স্বজন এবং বিভিন্ন রাজনৈতিক ব্যক্তিবর্গের চিঠিপত্র সম্পর্কে সম্যক ধারণা পাওয়া যাবে। যে সকল গুরুত্বপূর্ণ রাজনৈতিক ব্যক্তি বঙ্গবন্ধুকে চিঠি লিখেছিলেন তাঁদের মধ্যে বঙ্গবন্ধুর পিতা শেখ লুৎফর রহমান, হোসেন শহীদ সোহরাওয়ার্দী, আবদুল হামিদ খান ভাসানী, তফাজ্জল হোসেন মানিক মিয়া, এম এ আজিজ, মতিয়ার রহমান, মো. সুরুজ মোক্তার, মতি সরদার, আবদুল খালেক এম এল এ, হাতেম আলী প্রমুখ অন্যতম।
বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র শীর্ষক বইয়ের প্রথম খণ্ডে বঙ্গবন্ধুর দেশপ্রেম, গণতান্ত্রিক মনোভাব, সংগ্রামী চেতনা, মানবপ্রেম, রাজনৈতিক নেতার প্রতি শ্রদ্ধা এবং কর্মীর প্রতি সহমর্মিতা, দায়িত্ববোধের একান্ত অনুভূতি প্রকাশ পেয়েছে। এসব চিঠিপত্রে যেমন পাকিস্তানি ঔপনিবেশিক সমাজ, রাজনীতি, শাসনব্যবস্থার চিত্র এবং রাজনৈতিক কর্মকাণ্ডের দিকনির্দেশনা রয়েছে, তেমনই রয়েছে বঙ্গবন্ধুর রাজনৈতিক চিন্তা-চেতনা, পারিবারিক ও ব্যক্তিগত জীবন সম্পর্কে নানা বক্তব্য তথা ব্যক্তি মুজিবের একান্ত পরিচয়।
‘বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র’ ১ম খণ্ডে বঙ্গবন্ধুর লিখিত ৯২টি পত্র এবং ‘বঙ্গবন্ধুর চিঠিপত্র’ ২য় খণ্ডে বঙ্গবন্ধুকে লিখিত ৫২টি পত্র নিয়ে দুটি খণ্ড প্রকাশ করা হলো।

আমাদের জাতীয় নেতা বা শীর্ষ রাজনৈতিক ব্যক্তিত্বদের কেউই সেভাবে লেখালেখি করেননি। অন্তত অনেকদিন পর্যন্ত আমাদের তেমনই ধারণা ছিল। সত্যি কথা বলতে, বঙ্গবন্ধু শেখ মুজিবুর রহমানের অসমাপ্ত আত্মজীবনীর প্রকাশ সেদিক থেকে আমাদের কাছে এক বিরাট চমক হয়ে আসে। সদাব্যস্ত রাজনৈতিক জীবনের ফাঁকে দীর্ঘ কারাবন্দিত্বের দিনগুলো তিনি যে বাগান করার পাশাপাশি লেখালেখি করেও কাটিয়েছেন, তাঁর পরিবারের সদস্যদের বাইরে দীর্ঘদিন পর্যন্ত তা বলতে গেলে অজানাই রয়ে গিয়েছিল। যদিও অন্য যে কোনো ক্ষেত্রের গুণী বা কীর্তিমান মানুষের মতো একজন রাজনৈতিক নেতারও চিন্তা বা দর্শন বোঝার পক্ষে তাঁর বক্তৃতা-বিবৃতির চেয়ে রচনা পাঠের গুরুত্ব অনেক বেশি। উপরন্তু সে রচনা যদি হয় মুজিবের মতো একজন মানুষের, যাঁর জীবনের সঙ্গে একটি জাতির জাগরণ, সংগ্রাম ও স্বাধীনতার ইতিহাস ওতপ্রোতভাবে জড়িয়ে আছে। এ বছর তাঁর জন্মের শতবর্ষ পালিত হচ্ছে। এ উপলক্ষে তাঁর জীবন ও অবদান নিয়ে ইতিমধ্যে অজস্র গ্রন্থ ও রচনা প্রকাশিত হয়েছে। আগামীতেও নিশ্চয় আরো হবে। তবে শেখ মুজিবুর রহমানকে সঠিক ও সম্যকভাবে বোঝার জন্য তাঁর নিজের লেখা তিনটি বই অসমাপ্ত আত্মজীবনী, কারাগারের রোজনামচা এবং আমার দেখা নয়াচীন পাঠের কোনো বিকল্প নেই। আমাদের অনেক ভুল বা খণ্ডিত ধারণা ও বিভ্রান্তি অপনোদনেও যা সাহায্য করবে। বিশিষ্ট গবেষক ও রাজনীতি বিশ্লেষক মোরশেদ শফিউল হাসানের নিবিড় পাঠ ও বিশ্লেষণের ফল এ গ্রন্থটির মূল্য বা তাৎপর্য সেখানেই।

The book “0 General My General” elucidates the life and works of this great personality It consists of six chapters.The important facts (At a glance) of General Osmany along with the biographical almanac have been described in Chapter OneThe details of his family background, early life, education military career role in the liberation war political life etc are aptly illustrated in Chapter Two. Chapter Three helps the reader to gleam an impression of this great leader from varied opinions of different authors! The readers can derive useful information from the historical documents printed in Chapter Four, some of which are still relevant in present day’s context.The cover page and printers line of various published books on General Osmany have been included in Chapter Five for keen researchers and readers.The exquisite photo album in Chapter Six with a variety of photos portrays the General.

The Author Shamsur Rahman (1929-2006) was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and educated at Dhaka University. He spent his working life as a journalist, but always found time for his poetic vocation. He published about seventy volumes of verse and a number of prose works, and received the highest literary and state honors in his country, among them the Bangla Academy Prize, the Ekushey Medal, and the Independence Award. In 2001 he became the first recipient of the SAARC Award for Lifetime Achievement. He also received several honorary D.Litt degrees, from the universities of Rabindra Bharati, Viswabharati (Santiniketan), Jadavpur, and North Bengal.

Amidst the clamorous wrangling of the politicians of Bangladesh, against the myopic vision of the fundamentalists, and against also those liberal intellectuals who shun Islamic overtones for fear of being outdated, this book should speak for those countless and nameless performers who have offered their praise for Nirañjan in their performances. They have their own answers to the questions related to Islam and theatre. Contents: Introduction, Theatre and Islam, Indigenous Theatre in the Islamic World, Islamic Performances in Bangladesh, Karbala Legend Today The Case of Bisad Sindhu, Transcultural Mutations of A Thousand and One Nights and Its Contemporary Relevance, Conclusion, Appendix: The Thousand and One Nights.

Economic Issues touch our lives on daily basis, directly and indirectly, as producers and consumers. For those in the corridor of power, these also concern as subjects of policy matter. A discipline of such practical relevance to the lives of every citizen should not be left to the exclusive preserve of the esoteric few. Every knowledgeable person should have some insight into the working of the economy and the policies made on various issues in order to take decisions in a more informed way. For this an elementary understanding of economic issues is sufficient. This book has attempted to present the issues that matter in the lives of most people in as simple a language as is possible.

This book is a collection of essays and articles written by Md. Matiul Islam since his retirement from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in 1993. It chronologically captures 41 years of passionate commitment to excellence in active service within a variety of prominent roles.  A number of the articles included were published in The Daily Star as well as the Financial Express.

These positions demonstrate unyielding dedication, integrity, and a widespread influence through a variety of positions in the Civil Service of Pakistan, the private sector of Pakistan, Government of Bangladesh, The World Bank, UNIDO, and most recently the private sector of Bangladesh. Since his retirement from the UN, Mr. Islam has actively transitioned and committed his life to positively influencing the private sector of Bangladesh and mentoring future leaders in the financial industry.

Mr. Islam has lived through critical events which forged the history of India, East Pakistan and Bangladesh.  His writings capture these historical details and the prominent role he has played in many of them.  What is clearly evident is Mr. Islam’s deep preoccupation in his early years to fight for parity of East Pakistan and establish claims for East Pakistan’s rightful share of resources.  After the Liberation war in 1971, Mr. Islam became the first Finance Secretary of Bangladesh and had the crucial vision required to establish the financial sector, which Pakistan had left in tattered ruins.

After transitioning to the private sector, Mr. Islam spent the last 25 years creating four separate institutions, three of which were non-banking financial institutions and a fourth one was credit agency.  Earlier, he pioneered the setting up of the first commercial bank in the private sector with Dubai Bank as the majority partner.  These finance companies were integral in the creation and development of reliable industrial and infrastructure investment opportunities in Bangladesh.

By sharing his personal anecdotes and thoughtful insight, Mr. Islam brings to life significant historical events with more than just facts, leading the reader down his historical journey.  His passion for life, family, and his unyielding commitment to the people of Bangladesh is obvious as he categorically and factually shares both his successes and failures of his personal legacy.

The Author Shamsur Rahman (1929-2006) was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and educated at Dhaka University. He spent his working life as a journalist, but always found time for his poetic vocation. He published about seventy volumes of verse and a number of prose works. He received the highest literary and state honors of his country, the Bangla Academy Award, the Ekushey Medal, and the Independence Award. In 2001 he became the first recipient of the SAARC Award for Lifetime Achievement. He also received several honorary D.Litt degrees, from the universities of Rabindra Bharati, Viswabharati (Santiniketan), Jadavpur, and North Bengal.

The current volume Encountering Exclusion reviews the National Education Policy (NEP), National Plan of Action (NPA) and Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP), and other policy instruments, plans, and programs in order to provide domestic discourse on fair share in, and equal access to, primary education, that the poor and marginalized children are able to enroll in and complete quality primary education. The volume offers a point of reference for citizens’ engagement processes on policy design, implementation, and outcome in order to identify homegrown policy alternatives and to build support for emerging policy options.

There’s a legend that somewhere, high up in the mountains the kingdom of the alien ghosts is hidden. It is the forbidden area where no one goes. No one knows why they have such wrath against humans. The kingdom comes to light when scientists from all over the world become curious about it and along with them 4 teenagers – Jack, Jenny, Martin, and Jane get involved. What happens to them, the ghosts and all the humans solve all the mysteries of the story.

Wings is an Ordinary story of Arnab Hassan, an Oxford-based Bangladeshi physicist, who agrees to make a pair of wings for a rich industrialist obsessed with the idea of flying. The man, uncannily named Lark, had been frightened in his childhood by spiders and desperately wanted wings with which to fly out of their reach. As he advances through life, that initial desperation gives way to an obsession, and becomes almost a biological compulsion as he begins to believe that he is indeed destined to be a bird….

Bimal Guha is one of the leading poets of Bangladesh. In his poems, he portrays patriotism, national history, and culture, poverty, and irregularities in society. He made his readers captivated and inspired them right from his first book. From his second volume, the poet’s popularity became more pervading. Without following the traditional ways of his predecessors he creates his own style of writing. He demonstrates great adroitness in the use of simile and imagery. He is also conscious of the prosodic exactness of his lines. Uncompromising in life's struggles, Bimal never bends down to the ungraceful. He has a revolting fire in himself; he struggles with quicksand all through his life. During the seventies, especially after the liberation war, who have transformed our poetry into newer consciousness and human rejuvenation, and have developed expression of art to arrest time and space into a newer vision-Bimal is one of them. After three decades, he still goes on through the path of poetry with the same vigour, energy, belief, and determination. This book of translation is presented to a wide area of readers who will find a new dimension in our poetry.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, life continues to reproduce itself, albeit at its own pace, with pain, curiosity, tears, and laughter. This prompted me to look for researchers, both young and accomplished, and find out from them the ‘other side’ of living through the pandemic. Some probably would prefer to call this the experiential side of life, but there is more to it. When we say ‘life continues’, it continues not merely by flagging ‘fear’ and counting infections and deaths, which are certainly important, but not the whole of life, and still less so when it comes to reproducing the resilience of the people. Much of the ‘otherside’ of living through the pandemic is found in the resilience of the people. Put differently, the face of the ‘other side’ is resilience, although it seldom gets flagged. Rather, in the backdrop of disciplinary knowledge, the ‘other side’ is routinely ignored and peripheralized. But then, disciplines restrict thoughts, and more so imagination, the realization of which made my choice of researchers easy. I only had to invite researchers from as many disciplines as possible and provide them with an opportunity to reflect and write on the ‘other side’ of living through the pandemic.

M. Harunur Rashid’s ‘Me Before Me and Other Poems’ is seemingly a continuous renewal of interwoven utterances of an individual soul moving from Earth to Heaven in a single moment which he visualizes as eternity. Mystic in essence views the origin as a seed, both tangible and intangible, undergoing a constant metamorphosis from one structure to another. Under the earth this seed sleeps, then dissolves and disintegrates, and then completely vanishes in an instinctive stage called ‘fana, marking the end of all earthly desires as well as the perpetual resurrection of an indestructible universal soul. This is not a poet’s magical or musical realism, but rather the infinite insight of a self-digging philosopher. To him, ‘Me's the beginning, and Me is the end, there being nothing beyond. His sayings are mostly metaphoric and dialectic exploring messages of his own. It’s a world, strangely belonging to this poet-philosopher.

In the telling of the Indian subcontinent’s anti-colonial struggle in the twentieth century against the British Empire – the Raj–the role of Gandhi, his non-violent tactic–Satyagrah –the Indian National Congress and their supposed success against the Raj has dominated the narrative; and still informs perceptions in the subcontinent and beyond.

Revolutionaries and insurrections were ridiculed as inconsequential and misguided ventures, respectively.

The history of the British presence, however, was not one of non-violence; and it was the control of the subcontinent and its resources–including the deployment of a vast mercenary army drawn from a displaced, brutalized peasantry–that propelled London to its position as a foremost world power at the center of the global capitalist system in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Would such an empire seemingly bow to an opponent professing to employ strict non-violence? Or did such an opponent help keep the real enemies of the Raj at bay?

Historian Ali traces British fears of revolutionaries and their plans; despite public dismissals, in private the Raj was always concerned, casting worldwide surveillance nets and arraying sinister agents and collaborators to monitor revolutionaries–and thwarting their activities where possible.

The only leader of Congress to emerge in the inter-war years who supported the outright and complete overthrow of the Raj by armed insurrection; Bose became an enemy of both the Raj and the Gandhian Congress; characterized as its one “implacable foe” by the Raj, while Gandhi frankly admitted to an Imperial Viceroy, speaking of Bose, that “he is my opponent.”

Insurrection coupled with a distinctive vision for a national revolution in the subcontinent meant that Bose also faced two implacable foes; imperial occupier and domestic enemies.

Ali argues that it was Bose and the revolution he represented that posed the real threat to the Raj and its collaborators in the subcontinent.

Implacable Foes also speaks for the enduring applicability of Bose’s life and message, generous secularism, and forward-thinking progressivism, in the present-day; in a subcontinent still grappling with the poisonous legacies of British imperialism and the specter of two nuclear-armed states facing off against each other; for the future of amity and equitable relations in South Asia.

A renowned economist, Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad is widely known at home and abroad. He is currently the Chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) and Dhaka School of Economics (DScE) at the University of Dhaka (for graduate and post-graduate studies in economics). He has been the founder-Chairman of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP). He was the elected President of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) for three consecutive terms (2002-2010).

Dr. Ahmad has been relentlessly working on both theory and practice of sustainable development. Under his conceptualization and guidance, the PKSF has been implementing, since 2010, the human-centric multidimensional integrated ENRICH program for multidimensional poverty eradication and sustainable development in different parts of Bangladesh. He is also well known for his expertise in environmental and global climate change issues.

He participated in the Bangladesh War of Liberation and worked at the Planning Cell established by Bangladesh Government-in-exile. He is the recipient of the Independence Award, the highest national civilian award, bestowed by the Government of Bangladesh. Earlier, he was honored with the Ekushe Padak, another prestigious laurel from the State. He has to his credit 40 books and over 250 articles as author, co-author, editor or co-editor, published at home and abroad both in English and Bengali languages.

The planet Earth is faced with one of the gravest threats of our time–climate change, which puts in peril all our efforts to promote sustainable development and compels us to look for ways to combat this menace. This is the backdrop that dictates the thematic construct of this book. The second installment of a series of anthologies of write-ups by eminent economist Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad on various issues of socio-economic development, this book is a compilation of 21 articles and 12 power-point presentations, written over a span of two decades and a half. The commentaries here deal with the persisting issues regarding environment, climate change and water, which are entwined on various fronts and one of them cannot be really separated from the rest as far as the vast canvas of survival and development of the humankind, even of the planet Earth is concerned.
The write-ups on environment and climate change deal with a range of issues including poverty, livelihood, and environmental balance; environmental protection; climate change, flood, and flood management; climate change mitigation and adaptation with particular focus on Bangladesh, the Asian region, the milestones of global efforts in combating climate change, etc. And the pieces on water resources discuss topics like integrated river basin management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) region, Bangladesh Water Vision 2025, water management with special reference to South Asia, addressing poverty through water action, flood management and local adaptation strategies, Indo-Bangladesh cooperation on transboundary rivers and so on. There is also an article on energy, a key issue in climate change and in the context of sustainable development. Interestingly, though the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals only in 2015, Dr Ahmad had been writing on the importance and nature of such ambitions since the 1980s.

Behular Sari by Muhammad Nurul Huda, an outstanding poet of our time, is a poetic remake of the popular legend of Behula and Lakhindar that has pervaded the ethos of the people who have lived in the Delta for centuries. By his remarkable power of myth making, Huda turns this legend into a stunning sequence of lyrics that portrays a Behula taking the centre stage as an undying emblem of Bengali woman who performs in the heavens, pleases the gods and goddesses and is able to bring her husband back to life. The legendary Chandradhar becomes a symbol of human endurance and defiance against tyranny and finally emerges as the father figure of his race, the Bang. He uses different personae to speak out in their own situations, making even the Sari speak about its origin and its uses and blessings. In fact the title poem, ‘Behular Sari’, is a rare piece of poetry emanating its lyrical intensity which Huda himself has never equaled before.

In the eurocentric culture of the West, as Chaklader Mahboob-ul Alam, the author of this book who had been a regular columnist, sees that people are often blinded by a false sense of superiority and an obsession with skin colour. Everybody wants to be “whiter than white”. Every issue involving ethnicity, race, class and gender is looked at from this angle.

Chaklader Alam observes that European colonialism, undoubtedly, is at the root of this very narrow intellectual perspective of the world. It has given rise to a simplistic oppositional thinking process which uses a binary method of “dividing the world and its people into hard and fast categories like “good versus evil” or “civilized versus savages”. Professor Paula S. Rothenberg wrote in a slightly different context, “this arrogant approach carries with it the rationale for the unequal distribution of power, privilege and opportunity that characterizes society”.

The author has a completely different worldview. In his opinion, there are no hard and fast categories. Everything is constantly changing, adapting to new circumstances and evolving, hopefully for the better.

We believe that this book will arouse curiosity among the readers, provoke them to ask questions and to seek answers from many different sources.

The urge to see the unseen and know the unknown is innate in human nature. People do not like to be confined to a particular place or region for a long period of time; they want to visit new places and explore new areas. Spectacular developments in transportation and communication in the past few decades have revolutionized how one goes to places, allowing anyone with money and interest to visit even the remotest areas of the planet.
This is a captivating story of a family constantly on the move, traveling to newer places, and facing unimaginable troubles and travails as a result of tensions and conflicts. It begins in the colonial period, progresses through the momentous developments of partition of the Subcontinent, exploitation, and oppression of the Bangalees during Pakistan time, the War of our Liberation, and flourishes in a newly independent Bangladesh which secures its rightful place in the comity of nations. It is the story of a boy in a district town with an atlas in hand, dreaming of journeying through the world, without any idea how to realize that dream. In the end, joining the Foreign Service after completion of higher studies helped me achieve that objective, living essentially the life of a Musafir. There palpably are dangers on the road, predicaments, and worries in various places far away from home, as the writer had faced in Afghanistan, Hong Kong, Syria, Jordan, and many other places.
Traveling not just broadens one’s horizons, but also enhances fellow-feeling and understanding among nations and peoples. I hope the story will resonate well with the students, professionals as well as general masses who dream to travel through the globe to enjoy the exquisite natural beauty of distant lands and expand knowledge by getting to know different peoples and cultures firsthand.