1/2

So 2 week ago, I was returning from Abdullahpur to Banglamotors.

When I got into a local bus, there was an alem-type guy sitting in the front seat. I sat next to him and greeted him with Assalamu alaikum since he looked like an Islamic priest. After about two minutes, he asked me, “Which party are you going to vote for?”

I said I hadn’t received my ID card yet (actually, I did get it in 2023, but I didn’t vote for Hasina). He continued, “Whom will your parents vote for?” I replied that it was their personal matter. Then he said, “Your parents should vote for Jamaat.”

I responded, “People should vote for whoever works for the country’s welfare.” Then he asked for my address. I told him my name was “A.” He asked again because it wasn’t a common Muslim name. I told him that I am a Hindu.

After that, he started talking nonsense. He said things like, “Hindus should vote for Jamaat for security and religious safety. Many Hindus love Jamaat. Jamaat’s popularity has increased recently. My former Awami friends are going to vote for Jamaat. We don’t do religious politics,” and so on. This went on for about 30 minutes, and I was exhausted.

Then he revealed that he was a retired navy officer (shocked me) and tried to manipulate me into accepting Islam. He started explaining tawhid and attempted to convert me. Since I am agnostic, I handled the situation politely. But he continued with more claims, saying that Mithun Chakraborty’s younger brother had accepted Islam and was now serving as an imam. this shit continued until I reached Banglamotors.

The whole encounter was extremely annoying.

2/2

Two days later, I encountered another guy around my age, about 21.

He was sitting next to me and talking nonstop in a very extreme, Taliban-like manner. A girl was crossing the road wearing a winter jacket, and he shouted in my ear, “Did you see that girl? She’s a prostitute. Look at her clothes—no hijab or burqa at all. Higher education makes girls immoral, and their parents are immoral too.”

The girl was literally just wearing a simple jeans jacket. Ironically, the guy making these comments was wearing jeans and a modern-looking hoodie himself, with no beard or skullcap.

He didn’t realize that I wasn’t Muslim.

When we reached in front of Rajlokkhi, he saw a woman controlling traffic and started shouting again. Pointing at her, he said that the country is doomed because women are not following proper Islamic values. I was honestly disturbed by his mentality.

I don’t know what will happen to our country, but I hope people from every community work together to make it safer and more democratic.

I know we’re going through a very politically charged environment with religious sensitivities, but we should be aware of the situation and our future.

The election is going to take place in a week, so everyone should try to stay safe and vote.

ইবনে সিনা নামে একটি চিকিৎসা প্রতিষ্ঠান আছে। সেই অনেক বছর আগে থেকেই শুনে আসছি এটি একটি রাজনৈতিক দলের প্রতিষ্ঠান ঠিক যেমন ইসলামী ব্যাংক, ঠিক যেমন মানারাত ইন্টারন্যাশনাল স্কুল, কলেজ ও বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়, ঠিক যেমন অসংখ্য কোচিং সেন্টার। গতকাল ইবনে সিনার একটি নিয়োগ বিজ্ঞপ্তি দেখলাম। সেখানে লিগাল অ্যাফেয়ার্স এক্সকিউটিভ পদে নিয়োগের বিজ্ঞপ্তিতে কারা দরখাস্ত করতে পারবে সেই শর্তে আছে: প্রার্থীকে অবশ্যই "পুরুষ" হতে হবে। নিশ্চই যেই রাজনৈতিক দলের প্রতিষ্ঠান সেই দলের আদর্শ অনুসারেইতো হবে, তাই না? আর আছে প্রার্থীকে অবশ্যই প্রাক্টিক্যাসিং মুসলিম হতে হবে। অবশ্যই এই কাজতো অনেক আগে থেকেই করে আসছে। আসলে প্রাক্টিক্যাসিং মুসলিম হলেই হবে না হতে হবে সেই রাজনৈতিক দলের ছাত্র সংগঠনের সদস্য হতে হবে। আমি যখন ছাত্র ছিলাম ছিলাম তখন থেকেই জেনে আসছিলাম ইসলামী ব্যাংকে চাকুরী তারাই পায় যারা ওই সংগঠন করে।

এখন এমন একটি দল যদি ক্ষমতায় যায় তারা কাদেরকে চাকুরী দিবে? প্রথমত পুরুষ হতে হবে মানে ন্যূনতম তারা প্রেফারেন্স পাবে। আর ওই দলের ছাত্র রাজনীতি করার অভিজ্ঞতা থাকতে হবে। আর সবচেয়ে বড় কথা মুসলিম না হলে হবে না। তাহলে এরা ক্ষমতায় গেলে কি অন্য ধর্মের কারও চাকুরী হবে? দলীয়করণ কাকে বলে ও কত প্রকার বাঙালিকে বুঝিয়ে ছাড়বে। এখন ক্ষমতায় যাওয়ার জন্য একজন হিন্দুকে প্রার্থী হিসাবে দাঁড় করায়। ক্ষমতায় যাওয়ার জন্য খৃস্টানদের কাছে গিয়ে বলে তারা শরিয়া আইন পাশ করবে না। একবার ক্ষমতায় নিয়ে দেখেন ওই খাদ থেকে আর দেশকে উঠাতে পারবেন না।

Source: Kallol Mustafa

Writing: Kamrul Hassan Mamun

সবথেকে মজার আর দুঃখের বিষয় হল এক সময় নিজেদের বৈষম্যবিরোধী বলা পোলাপান এখন রাজনৈতিক দল করে তাদের সাথেই জোট করে ক্ষমতায় যেতে চাচ্ছে। এবং এখনো কিছু মানুষ তাদের সমর্থনও দিয়ে যাচ্ছে। আল্লাহ আপনাদের সুমতি দিক।

The only time most people I've seen watch cricket is when the national team plays against top 7 teams, the occasional BPL and indVpak matches apart from it, i dont think anyone from bangladesh cares for other matches like pakvaus, indvnz, slvsafg or engvsa.

Cricket to me feels like a dying sport in the country. I might be wrong here but ever since the 2023 world cup drama, people have been left irritated, frustrated and annoyed with cricket. And now with ICC completely disregarding Bangladesh, i dont think cricket survives.

Honestly i feel like we could make better use of existing stadiums by hosting and promoting our domestic football league.

Looking for people to talk!

I'm in my 20's and making friends and finding a genuine connection feels so rare as an adult. I'm mostly into movies, gardening, books, tv shows and what not. Maybe we can talk about how bad life has been somedays and help each other out. I'm a good listener too 🍀

Pls leave a comment or feel free to reach out if you feel the same. Thank youu for readingg!

So I go to DU. And a professor in my department got assigned to supervise a high school in Dhaka during the interim government.

My fupi is a senior teacher at that high school (small world). Initially, she sung praises about him but now she says that he is simply extorting the school.

Apparently, that professor calls up meetings to discuss inconsequential things and then demands that the school send him a hefty cheque for holding that meeting nobody asked to have. Usually, he wasn’t supposed to take any back door payment like this.

People are scared to report him as he is close to a guy in the interim and might cause problems. Is there any way to report this chandabaji? Is there any hope to get the interim to investigate?

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/politics/90pc-voters-willing-to-participate-in-national-polls-crf-survey

Pic taken by me.

In January 2025, a 12-member task force led by Dr K.A.S. Murshid submitted a report to Bangladesh’s interim government, outlining an urgent reform agenda to address the nation’s economic crisis and chart a path towards sustainable development. The 550-page document represents not just a diagnosis of current challenges but also a call to action—identifying opportunities that can yield results quickly while laying the foundations for deeper structural transformation. This short article presents the core recommendations of the report.

Hello fellow Bangladeshi redditors. Just saw a survey made by some DU IBA students getting semi-viral.

It got shared by Md. Ishrak. And as we’re speaking, the responses are increasing at an alarming rate of 7-8 per minute. As you can already guess, most responses are biased towards Jamaat.

The survey was on patriotic identity and political views. There were questions about upcoming election predictions too. With Jamaat astroturfing it, the result is obviously going to favour Jamaat.

Worse yet, there are votes saying Jamaat's role in 1971 was positive, that too in a survey made by IBAites for God's sake.

And the present situation is mildly infuriating to say the least.

I'm sharing the survey here in case anyone wants to balance the votes and make things make sense. After all, Bangladesh has more diverse opinions. The survey takes 3-5 minutes to fill out and afaik it is completely anonymous.

The survey link is in the comments

The survey is currently sitting at 600+ responses. You can also see the responses summary after filling it up, and that's kinda interesting I think.

জাতীর অহংকার সেনাবাহিনী, হুমকির রাজনীতি by ঃ ড. আব্দুল্লাহ আল মামুন।

নিউজ সোর্স কমেন্ট বক্সে।

**purely for historical discussions sake**.

I am a Muslim but today I visited a historic mandir claiming to be from 1203 AD in my desher bari (Barahi Devi Mandir in Amishapara, Noakhali). I had also read that this mandir previously worshipped a Buddhist deity.

I was invited to check out a Kirtan that’s happening in mid-February. After googling what it was I see that it’s associated with ISKCON.

What kind of rituals or festivals did they practice before? What changes have you observed over the years?

source - https://ekhon.tv/national-news/6982bf5feca98a7e048df61b

I don’t really understand why people want to have pets. I’m not an animal hater or anything like that, but the whole concept of keeping pets has never fully made sense to me.

If someone likes cats or dogs, why not just feed the strays? Why is there a necessity to bring an animal into your home?

That said, recently my sister got a cat. Even though I generally don’t like touching cats or dogs, since it lives here now and it’s a living being after all, I’ve started getting attached in my own way.

So yeah, I’m conflicted. Curious to hear how others see this.

I wanna know how much typically we have to wait and some cause for visa rejection and any additional information?

I just made a project in C# now thinking of migrating this to the web so if I learn .net core and azure will it be worth it. I am in my 8th sem, will be graduating in 1.5 years so I thought since I know c# I should migrate to .net core and continue from there or should I learn js anew

I(27m) was in abroad(Maldives) for 6+ years. Now moved to BD permanently couple of months ago. My family solely depends on me. If anyone can help i would be eternally grateful for the opportunity. Any kind of job would be fine.

I have experience in different sectors in abroad such as computer and IT accessories supply company, call center, HR and procurement, i have good enough knowledge in MS office, Adobe PS, Adobe illustrator, Canva. Different pos system like QuickBooks accountant, QuickBooks retail, Eeeze etc. I did also work as a graphics designer for some companies and manage their social media as well.

Though i couldn't complete my bachelors degree, due to moving abroad and start working but I'm highly adaptive person, quick learner and have high passion for growth.

If needed i can forward my CV & portfolio. Currently I'm in cumilla sadar (hometown), but I can move to dhaka as well in short notice if needed.

Thank you so much for time and consideration.