19/07/2021

৪ঠা শ্রাবণ ১৪২৮

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖂𝖊𝖊𝖐𝖑𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖗𝖓𝖎

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𝕰𝖉𝖎𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖎𝖆𝖑

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We are in mid-summer and it’s hot outside. It feels especially hot because of the high humidity and I am sure most of you are well aware. Here a lot of us ’hibernate’ during the burring, as that is the running joke. Even kids don’t stay outside for long to play during July-August. So people mostly focus on stay-at-home activities. For me over the weekends, it is mostly reading and writing. This is nice, as I am slacking on both as of late. If you are feeling the same, then I must request you to gear up and put your best out for the next issue, as that will be our 50th issue. That would mean, I have written this column 49 times non-stop. I do believe we took a week of break during winter holidays once, and maybe another week somewhere, if my memory serves me well. There is no other weekly activity that I have performed this long and this regularly that I can remember. So from just a personal point of view this is already an impressive feat. I don’t know how each of you feel about that, but it is not always easy, and not always as fluid as it needs to be. However, the key point is to drudge through it! At least that is what I do, whether you like it or not.

In terms of Hive, we have passed a Hard Fork, and the newest thing is the end of curation sniping. That is a welcome move. The greater hive team put a lot of focus on manual curation and engagement on this hard-fork. There is direct benefit and reward for engagement and manual curation. We are already seeing the benefit of that if you ask me. Please make sure you guys take full advantage of that.

I am still seeing most people of BDC keep their limited engagement within the BDC. This is quite detrimental for your personal growth. You must reach out to the greater hive community. If you don’t network, ultimately you are doomed. This is true not only for hive, but life in general as well. Regarding that, many of you write in Bengali only, while that is okay in the beginning, but you must also pick up English writing. This is simply because most people don’t understand how to read Bengali and therefore, won’t be able to communicate or read your post. English is an international language. Therefore, if you develop English writing and even spoken english skills, that will benefit you personally. Just because some of you get a decent vote because of the community support, which is highly appreciated by the way, shouldn’t prevent you from reaching out to the broader community for networking, engagement and support. This is not optional. From this point onward, please consider this mandatory. We are sorry that we have to write it down for some of you, but this is nothing new and we have said that a number of times and all possible modes of communication. Again, this is for your own good and your benefit.

With that said, let us all focus on better content production in the future. We do this for us, because it simply improves our personal skills. Good luck writing for the next issue.

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Busyness in Indolence

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source

If you're from Bangladesh, the chances are you had to memorize and regurgitate the essay "Value of Time" on the answer sheet. It was one of the sure-shot essays you could memorize. For all the time we had to read it, we never really understood the meaning of it. Later in our lives as adults, when we're reminded of the importance of time, it doesn't mean anything to the mass of the people. When they say, time is money; we cringe inwardly—everyone knows money is money, and time is worthless. Plenty of time. Time isn't going anywhere. We still have time. Let's save some money by grinding instead. And outwardly, we want to avoid the discussion altogether. We would actually love to ignore the people who think in such a line as well. And if we can't ignore them, we think of them as good for nothing romantics.

It appears to me people are constantly going through rigorous efforts not to comprehend what the passing of time signifies—which is understandable; I assume most of them would lose their sanity if they were conscious about it constantly. I would assume I wouldn't like that either.

I've been wasting time in indolence for a long time with random phases of active, acute awareness. And each of them usually sends a shiver down my spine. I soon forget the whole ordeal. Our body is resourceful at forgetting things that have the potential to harm us after all, psychologically or otherwise.

But I have become increasingly wary lately; of how time passes even when I'm not conscious about it. A sort of uneasiness hangs somewhere back of my throat, like an itch you cannot scratch. I feel like there is a duality of presence in me, they are engaged in a vicious dispute. One wants to make most of the time I have on earth, the other one carelessly wants to gossip, play games, socialize, and do some other similar things that catch my attention pretty quickly and keep me distracted.

And I'm torn, utterly torn.

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পাহাড় চূড়া – সুনীল গঙ্গোপাধ্যায়

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অনেকদিন থেকেই আমার একটা পাহাড় কেনার শখ।
কিন্তু পাহাড় কে বিক্রি করে তা জানি না।
যদি তার দেখা পেতাম,
দামের জন্য আটকাতো না।
আমার নিজস্ব একটা নদী আছে,
সেটা দিয়ে দিতাম পাহাড়টার বদলে।
কে না জানে, পাহাড়ের চেয়ে নদীর দামই বেশী।
পাহাড় স্থানু, নদী বহমান।
তবু আমি নদীর বদলে পাহাড়টাই
কিনতাম।
কারণ, আমি ঠকতে চাই।
নদীটাও অবশ্য কিনেছিলামি একটা দ্বীপের বদলে।
ছেলেবেলায় আমার বেশ ছোট্টোখাট্টো,
ছিমছাম একটা দ্বীপ ছিল।
সেখানে অসংখ্য প্রজাপতি।
শৈশবে দ্বীপটি ছিল আমার বড় প্রিয়।
আমার যৌবনে দ্বীপটি আমার
কাছে মাপে ছোট লাগলো। প্রবহমান ছিপছিপে তন্বী নদীটি বেশ পছন্দ হল আমার।
বন্ধুরা বললো, ঐটুকু
একটা দ্বীপের বিনিময়ে এতবড়
একটা নদী পেয়েছিস?
খুব জিতেছিস তো মাইরি!
তখন জয়ের আনন্দে আমি বিহ্বল হতাম।
তখন সত্যিই আমি ভালবাসতাম নদীটিকে।
নদী আমার অনেক প্রশ্নের উত্তর দিত।
যেমন, বলো তো, আজ
সন্ধেবেলা বৃষ্টি হবে কিনা?
সে বলতো, আজ এখানে দক্ষিণ গরম হাওয়া।
শুধু একটি ছোট্ট দ্বীপে বৃষ্টি,
সে কী প্রবল বৃষ্টি, যেন একটা উৎসব!
আমি সেই দ্বীপে আর যেতে পারি না,
সে জানতো! সবাই জানে।
শৈশবে আর ফেরা যায় না।
এখন আমি একটা পাহাড় কিনতে চাই।
সেই পাহাড়ের পায়ের
কাছে থাকবে গহন অরণ্য, আমি সেই অরণ্য পার হয়ে যাব, তারপর শুধু রুক্ষ
কঠিন পাহাড়।
একেবারে চূড়ায়, মাথার
খুব কাছে আকাশ, নিচে বিপুলা পৃথিবী,
চরাচরে তীব্র নির্জনতা।
আমার কষ্ঠস্বর সেখানে কেউ শুনতে পাবে না।
আমি ঈশ্বর মানি না, তিনি আমার মাথার কাছে ঝুঁকে দাঁড়াবেন না।
আমি শুধু দশ দিককে উদ্দেশ্য করে বলবো,
প্রত্যেক মানুষই অহঙ্কারী, এখানে আমি একা-
এখানে আমার কোন অহঙ্কার নেই।
এখানে জয়ী হবার বদলে ক্ষমা চাইতে ভালো লাগে।
হে দশ দিক, আমি কোন দোষ করিনি।
আমাকে ক্ষমা করো।

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𝕯𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓

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We, the bookworms, or book lovers, or nerds; or whatever you like to call yourself, are more or less familiar with Haruki Murakami;the legendary writer who, most of the time loves to throw us into an existential turmoil.

If you are not familiar with this name, Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer, famous for his numerous bestselling novels, short stories and essays. The journey of my Murayama's books started with “Men without Women”. It was more like the debut of my obsession with japanese writers. Haruki Murakami has the ability to create a calm and collected addiction with his words. The books I have read so far managed to build a soothing atmosphere at the beginning, warping in this simple, linear storyline just to push towards the pit of philosophical debates in the middle, which give birth to nothing but more philosophical debates to the end. But today’s writing is not about my love for Murakami's books, it’s more about the experience I had with “Men without Women”.

I didn’t start reading it right away, either because of academic pressure or because I was in the middle of reading another book. Whatever the reason was, for a while the book got carried around in the backpack like leftovers. But one day, during a class period, the teacher forgot to notify us about the class cancelation and we had to sit through a 45-minute class, idly. I was bored with a book in my backpack, so I did what any bookworm would do.

At some point, a boy from my left saw the book title and started to laugh, he called my name and said, “You are a feminist! You are dangerous.” I was a little confused at first, thinking why was this boy, whose name I didn’t even know, calling my name and laughing at me. It took a while to realize the reason but before I could react, the boy started to declare his grand realization to the whole class while shouting and pointing at me saying, “She is a feminist!” The sudden shift of scenario caught me off guard, and my brain couldn’t function what was happening, but before I could plan an appropriate comeback, I heard myself shout back, “And I am dangerous!” The whole class started laughing, and then one girl shouted, “Cool.” while another shouted, “Why?”
After the laughter died down, I went back to reading, hoping no one would bother me this time. But another boy called me from behind and said, “You read Murakami! I love his books”. The admiration I saw in his eyes while talking about the book I was holding, was genuine and appreciable and it felt nice after experiencing the little idiotic situation.

So there you have it, two completely different reactions about the same book, displaying two different types of people, a little shoutout sessions and the beginning of my Murakami journey, all in that 45-minutes canceled classroom.

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𝕰𝖎𝖉 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖕𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖘𝖘

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Have you ever looked for happiness and ended up with sadness? If the answer is 'yes' well, it's natural, sometimes to be in a sad mood. It's also normal to run after happiness and didn’t get, whats not normal is that 'you given up in despair'. There are many ways to find happiness if you really have the volition.

The whole world is suffering from the covid pandemic. The number of patients infected with corona is increasing day by day in Bangladesh as well. The helpless people are facing the most trouble. Meanwhile, the biggest religious festival of Muslims, the holy Eid al-Adha, is coming to the fore. It awakens in the hearts of Muslims the feeling of caring for one another by sharing joy. Though every Eid, regardless of the rich and the poor, the celebration of Eid in a row is loudly proclaimed. But the reality is different.

About 80% of the people in our area have become helpless due to this pandemic. And this year more than in the last few years, there has been an outcry among the people. So this year too we have bought a cow according to the ability to make the helpless happy who are stare at the the riches. That's what makes me happy, and cheerful. Who wouldn't be happy? If others are delighted by you, If an aged blesses you from his/her heart, If your parents feel proud of you. This is where self-peace derivation.

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𝕮𝖚𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖉???

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She was walking around the neighborhood getting to know the place that she’d just moved in. It was noisy and crowded just like any other city that never sleeps; that is probably one of the reasons why she preferred small towns, for their peace and quiet. Deep down in her heart, she knew that cities did hold certain charms.

As she walks on the concrete pavement, she comes across an antique shop that catches her attention. It was a spacious place unlike the dark and gloomy antique shops that she'd been to before. Even with dark green colored walls, royal blue and gold designed wallpapers, the place was roomy and had enough light. There were a few glass cases where antique jewelry, artifacts, and such were placed neatly. They had been dealt with a lot of care and caution. She passed each case at a time, even checking out the wall glass shelves of antiquities. Her face shone with excitement revealing how fascinating she found it all.

And finally, something shimmered bright enough to catch her attention for more than mere seconds.

Hundreds of days, confined to either a glass case or some other safe, isn't as glorious as it sounds; maybe to humans but to this poor little thing, it was an endless prison sentence. What could this poor lifeless thing do other than cozying up inside the box looking pretty! Sometimes it gets a glance from a passerby, like the one standing in front, every once in a while, and sometimes some curious eyes manage to ask the burly man "What's the price?" Often seems overcharged and hardly been adorned by any.

It is as stunning as the story that's wrapped around it. It’s owner has lost track of its whereabouts and as many times as it has changed hands, no one knows who it belongs to anymore. Some think that it was given as a gift to someone of high importance and others think it's not as old as it appears to be but attractive. Nevertheless, it has quite a story to tell. Sitting on the tiny, royal blue, velvet box inside an unbreakable glass-covered case, it looks beautiful with intricate details and studded gems stiking enough to draw attention. And even then it is having a hard time positioning itself where it can wow many others as sometimes other pieces overshone it.

Source

A ring; small yet not delicate but mesmerizing.

Did I tell you that the ring has a story? I did. Then again, it has many stories but none it can tell by itself. Before glamourising this boring-looking case, it was owned by a socialite by her fiance; with a tragic turn and a broken engagement, the ring got tossed out by the angry rich woman. One of the cleaners had found and pawned it to this shop. The rich angry woman thought it was a cheap ring and in a fit of rage, called off the wedding. A beautiful ring in the muddied lawn, wondering if its last prison was better where it laid for a decade.

The place before was a bigger shop specializing in jewelry, old and new. It was sold by a man on the verge of bankruptcy, having no other way to turn to his last resort, his wife's ring. He had bought it only a few years ago from another jeweler for his wedding but the wife loved it anyway. And that other jeweler got it from a homeless woman. Now, this homeless woman knew the older stories of this ring as it was her family heirloom. The ring adorned her mother's finger and as well as her grandmother's. Her mother passed away when she was a child and in her early teens, she found herself homeless after her father's death. Due to extreme poverty, she availed to let go of the only object her mother left for her.

The ring appears to be cursed, doesn't it, luck turns back to whoever takes possession of it. But as soon as the hand changes, luck changes for the better.

The girl in front of the case, gawking at the ring knows nothing about any history. Even if she knew, should she still be looking at this ring as she's doing now?

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রাস্তা

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রাস্তা চলতে চলতে মাঝে মাঝে আনমনা হয়ে যাই। কোথায় চলেছি, কেন চলেছি ইত্যাদি ভাবনাগুলো হঠাৎ যেন মন থেকে উবে যায়। অনেকটা খেই হারানোর মত অবস্থা হয় আরকি। তবে আজ এই অনমনা মনে রাস্তা চলতে চলতে; এই চলন, মনন আর যাপিত জীবন নিয়ে কী একটা যেন মনের কোনে কেমন ঝলক দিয়ে উঠল। সে কথাই বলতে এসেছি। সেদিকেই কিঞ্চিৎ মনোযোগ আকর্ষণ এই লেখার মূখ্য না হলেও গুরুত্বপূর্ণ উদ্দেশ্য বলতে পারেন।

"হাম যো চালনে লাগে য়্যে রাস্তে..
মাঞ্জিলছে ব্যহতার লাগনে লাগে য়্যে রাস্তে.."

গানটা বেশ ভালো লেগেছিল, গুনগুন করে গাইতামও মাঝে মাঝে। তবে এই কথাগুলো অনুধাবন করেছি অনেক পরে। জীবন রাস্তায় আমরা ছুটে চলেছি অবিরাম, এই ধস্তাধস্তি, হুড়োহুড়ি কোন অধরাকে ধরার জন্য তা জানিনা। তবে কারো কারো এই পথ চলাতেই যেন আনন্দ। আবিল এই দৌড়ে তারা খুঁজে নিয়েছে যেন শান্তির বিরাম। লক্ষ্যের চেয়ে তা অর্জনের রাস্তা চলাটাই তাদের কাছে প্রীতিকর।

অন্ধভাবে রাস্তা চললে যেমন হোঁচট খাবার সম্ভাবনা প্রবল, তেমনি রাস্তার শত কোটি অমূল্য চিত্তাকর্ষক বস্তু কিন্তু অগোচরেই থেকে যেতে পারে। এমনকি কেউ কেউ খুঁজে পেতে পারেন অনুপ্রেরণার মন্ত্র অথবা অধিক হতাশায় আশার পূর্বাভাস। এজন্যই বুঝি বলা হয়; "লিভিং লাইফ টু দ্যা ফুলেস্ট"। যাক সে অন্য কথা সেদিকে আর না যাই।

রাস্তা নির্বাচন এক্ষেত্রে বিশেষ ভূমিকা পালন করে। বিচক্ষণতার সাথে এ কার্য আর কজনই বা সমাধা করতে পারে। সঠিক রাস্তার খোঁজ পেতে পেতে অনেকের হয়ত আর রাস্তা বদল করা হয়ে ওঠে না। কি চাই? কেন চাই? আথবা কতটা চাই? অন্ততপক্ষে এই ব্যপারে কুয়ারি থাকা বাঞ্চনীয়। আপনি যদি নিজে আলোকিত না হন, অন্যের অন্ধকার দূর করবেন কিভাবে? হুঁ?

রাস্তা নির্বাচন আর সচেতনতা নিয়ে তো অনেক কথাই হল। এবার আসি রাস্তা চলার কম্প্যানিয়ন এর ব্যপারে। বলা হয় একজন ভালো কম্প্যানিয়ন জীবন চলার পথকে করে তোলে সুগম আর আনন্দঘন। একথা অবশ্য স্বীকার্য যে শুধু রাস্তা চলা কেন, আরো বহুবিধ ক্ষেত্রে এই একজন ভালো সাথী কতটা ভূমিকা রাখতে পারে তার লিমিট নাই। তবে আমার কাছে প্রক্রিয়াটা দ্বি-মূখী। শুধু আপনিই ভালো কম্পানি চাইবেন আর নিজে হবেন না, তা কি হয়? আপনাকেও একজন ভালো কম্প্যানিয়ন হতে হবে। তাইলেই অনেক সমস্যা হয়ে যাবে; জলবৎ তরলং! ব্যপারটা ধরতে পেরেছেন নিশ্চয়।

অনেকেই আমার সাথে এ ব্যপারে একমত নাও হতে পারেন। বলতে পারেন, রাস্তাই যদি অত ভালোই হবে, তবে বাছা লক্ষ্যের পিছনে মানুষ অমন ছোটে কেন বলতো? আমি বলব, কথা ঠিকই আছে, তবে যারা এই অনন্দ নিতে পারছে বা নিচ্ছে তারা বোধহয় বেশ সুখেই আছে। আর অনিশ্চিত ভবিষ্যৎ এর কথা কে আর বলতে পারে বলুন। তা না দেয় ধরা, না করে কারো পরোয়া। ব্যাটা যেন অধরায় থেকে ক্রমাগত উপভোগ করে চলেছে বিধাতার এই অত্যাশ্চর্য মুনুষ্য পুতুলের নাটক। আর আমরা সবাই যেন সে নাটকের নট আর নটী!

শুরুতে বলা গানটার মত তাই বলতে চাই; শেষ করেও যেন শেষ করা হয়ে উঠছে না আজ। রাস্তা চলার কথা বলে, চলার আনন্দের কথা বলে হঠাৎ যদি এই লেখার যবনীকা টেনে দিই; তাহলে কেমন একটা অতৃপ্তি থেকে যাবে। তাই বলতে চাই এই লেখা যদি আপনার তীক্ষ্ণ প্রজ্ঞাকে একটু হলেও ভাবিয়ে তোলে, তাহলেই আমি নিশ্চিন্ত। জানব আমার এ লেখা তখনও এগিয়ে চলেছে তার সুদীর্ঘ এক মানস ভ্রমনের কার্নিভালে। আর প্রজ্ঞাবান পাঠকের স্তুতিই যার আন্তরিক কম্প্যানিয়ন।

আর হ্যাঁ,
রাস্তা চলতে আবার দেখা হবে নিশ্চয়....!

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𝕰𝖓𝖉 𝕹𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖘

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