trying to incorpoate my scattered fragments of thoughts..

The sun of the first day
Put the question
To the new manifestation of life-
Who are you?
There was no answer.
Years passed by.

The last sun of the last day
Uttered the question
on the shore of the western sea
In the hush of evening-
Who are you?
No answer came again."

--Rabindranath Tagore

Pizzas

The Italians have made thier way into people's heart by this very food ! ya, I am talking about PIZZA. People from all over the world, Asian or European, American or Africa, just love it.
Now we have several ernouned pizza corners in Bangladesh too. Pizza hut, Domino's , Shwarma house serve world class pizzas at world class rates ! So, if the price does not seem resonable, you can make your own pizza at home, with your favorite toppings.
The first step is to making the dough: mix all these items : flour, water, east, sugar, salt, egg , milk. Keep 2 to 4 hours in a warm place.

Then prepare the topping: onion, garlic, pepper, tomatoes, meat, olives, mushrooms, capsicum and certainly cheese are the key ingredients for toppings. And oregano creates a nice flavor to this.
After shaping the dough into a roundish shape, add tomato sauce to it, decorate with the topiing and lots of cheese, bake it and voila! your pizza is ready to serve !

Download ebooks of Wilbur Smith: Cry Wolf , Seventh Scroll

Cry Wolf : "The three of them, Jake, Gareth and Vicky, find themselves swept irresistibly from a daring adventure Into a violent confrontation with death among the high mountains of Ethiopia."


The Seventh Scroll

One novel from Smith's Egyptian series. "Duraid Al Simmu and his beautiful half-English, half-Egyptian wife, Royan, were the first to discover the tomb of Queen Lostris. And with it the scrolls in which the wily Taita recorded the burial of Pharaoh Mamose with all his vast treasure.When Duraid is brutally murdered and their research notes stolen, Royan is forced to seek refuge in England."

For more ebook download links, visit here.

Guns n' Roses: new album Chinese Democracy , download songs

Download and enjoy !
After 15 years Axl Rose comes up with his new gang and the new album Chinese Democracy ! certainly a great news for Guns N' Roses fans , specially after so long a wait and so huge expectation! They started to record this album on 1994 and and at last it has seen the daylight.

The 14 tracks of this albums are: ( click the song title to download ..)

1) Madagascar (live) 5:38 minute
2) Chinese democracy 4:43
3) Better 4:58
4) Scraped 3:30
5) Shackler's Revenge 3:36
6) If the World 4:54
7) There was a Time 6:41
8) Catcher in the Rye 5:53
9) Street of Dreams 4:46
10) Riad n' the Bedouins 4:10
11) Sorry 6:14
12) I.R.S 4:28
13) This I Love 5:34
14) Pro-sti-tu-te 6:15

More download links will be available soon :)

The album title is a bit controversial, but it's after all Guns N Roses..and controversy is so natural here.. later I found that Chinese media also was not very happy with that title.. one of the news came to my notice... "China state media blast new Guns N' Roses album".
I love this song Madagascar.. Axl recorded this song 83 times to make it a perfect one !

More about this album can be found here.

Eid-ul-azha: kurbaani eid

Another Eid day has come, it's Kurbani eid tomorrow. My mom is going to prepare all the nice meals: kabab, firni, polaw, meat-balls and other usual items for Eid. So far I don't have any task for Eid day, so I am going to decorate my hands with henna and if possible, will try to help mom( though most of the times, all my attempts to help her turns out as a mess and creates further problem ! )

We are going to sacrifice a cow this year. A very nice black cow , when I tried to feed it , it came to me quietly and I took a picture of the cow. had it realized that it is going to be sacrificed the next day ? When we enjoy the delicious meat curries, we never think of the source of the flesh.. but at the Eid day, it just happens before the eyes.. I don't know what happens to other children, but when I was younger, it just created so much pressure in my brain and I generally do not prefer to go out on Eid-ul-Azha. Sacrificing cows and goats in roads and streets of the city not only pollutes the environment, it may cause stress to children minds. These things should be done outside the main city and be strictly prohibited in residential area.

According to Wikipedia, Eid ul Azha is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide in commemoration of the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to Allah. The devil tempted Ibrahim by saying he should disobey God and spare his son. As Ibrahim was about to sacrifice his son, God intervened and instead provided a lamb as the sacrifice. This is why today all over the world Muslims who have the means to, sacrifice an animal (usually a goat or a sheep), as a reminder of Ibrahim's obedience to God. The meat is then shared out with family, friends (Muslims or non-Muslims), as well as the poor members of the community.This tradition of sacrifice is great , sacrificing is a must for the people whose earning is higher than a given threshold and this earning has to be honest and legal.But sometimes it becomes a way of displaying wealth and power; like this year, as the national parliament election is approaching, the political leaders are going to sacrifice many animals to uplift their image in their locality.This is sarcastic indeed ! How they steal our money and "sacrifice" for Allah in the name of religion !
Whatever ! I am happy that I got a long vaccation.. this is the most plesearable thing that Eid brings with it. We don't haveto go to office and can stay home with our family. My friends and relatives living abroad always say that they miss the Eid day .. in a foreign land it's not the same fun and sometimes they don't even get a holiday in Eid . It's pathetic to work in the biggest festivals of the year. I just hope this year they will be able to have a happier Eid day. Eid mubarak to all.

terrorist attack in Mumbai

After the violent terrorist attack on Mumbai people from all over the world have cast their eyes on India. Live telecast on news channels are broadcast. Frightening faces of horror are published in newspapers and websites .. people have been killed mercilessly.. but would the situation be same if the attack had been on distressed poor people ? instead of the luxurious hotel Taj the attacks could be on slums and more people might get killed.. but then there won't be so much concerns about security ans we son't see such commando operations to save the lives of normal working class people..

Maroon 5 feat Rihanna - If I Never See Your Face Again

[Adam]
Now as the summer fades, I let you slip away
You say I’m not your type, But I can make you sway.
It makes you burn to learn, You’re not the only one
I’d let you be if you put down your blazing gun.

[Rihanna]
Now you’ve gone somewhere else, Far away
I don’t know if I will find you (find you, find you).
But you feel my breath, On your neck
Can’t believe I’m right behind you (right behind you).

download link

[Both]
‘Cause you keep me coming back for more
And I feel a little better than I did before
And if I never see your face again, I don’t mind
‘Cause we got much further than I thought we’d get tonight

[Rihanna]
Sometimes you move so well It’s hard not to give in.

[Rihana]
I’m lost, I can’t tell Where you end and I begin.

[Adam]
It makes u burn to learn I’m with another man.

[Adam]
I wonder if he’s half The lover that I am.

[Adam]
Now you’ve got somewhere else, Far away
I don’t know if I will find you (find you, find you).
But you feel my breath, On your neck
Can’t believe I’m right behind you (right behind you).

download link

[Both]
‘Cause you keep me coming back for more
And I feel a little better than I did before
And if I never see your face again, I don’t mind
‘Cause we got much further than I thought we’d get tonight

[Adam]
Baby, baby Please believe me
Find it in your heart to reach me
Promise not to leave me behind
(Promise not to leave me behind)

[Rihanna]
Take me down, but take it easy
Make me think but don’t deceive me
Talk to me bout taking your time
(Talk to me, talk to me)

[Rihanna]
‘Cause you keep me coming back for more
And I feel a little better than I did before

[Both]
And if I never see your face again, I don’t mind
‘Cause we got much further than I thought we’d get tonight

[Both]
‘Cause you keep me coming back for more
And I feel a little better than I did before
And if I never see your face again, I don’t mind
‘Cause we got much further than I thought we’d get tonight

Download Books by Isaac Asimov: Foundation and Robot Series

The Robot series:

The complete robot
The Caves of Steel
The Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire


The Foundation series:

Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
The Foundation Trilogy [Foundation - Foundation and Empire - Second Foundation]
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth

Eid 2008

The Eid day was boring as usual , but the get together party after a day after Eid was awesome..a wonderful reunion of old friends. After reaching Shefali's home i took the place from where i van see the door well ..so whenever a person came I declared her presence...'now comes Shumi...!!!'...and another splash of laughter , sometimes fake and sometimes real...at least we could laugh loud.

monologue...

sometimes the toughest battle we fight is with ourselves.. and this is true for me most of the times. if anything goes wrong or not according to my wish, I try to blame someone else concealing the fact that it was actually me. no one else to blame for my own mistakes. when what to do actually when someone gets bored of himself? we can't just throw ourselves away or out of sight.. I can't keep myself apart from me..what to do, what to do ?!?!?!

kate nash - the nicest thing

After a long time i got to hear such a true song with wonderful lyrics. Feels like Kate has just started the song and anyone who is listening to it will feel that she also has something more to add.

All I know is that, you’re so nice, you’re the nicest thing I’ve seen

I wish that we could give it a go ,See if we could be something

I wish I was your favourite girl

I wish you thought I was the reason you were in the world

I wish my smile was your favourite kind of smile

I wish the way that I dressed was your favourite kind of style

I wish you couldn’t figure me out

But you’d always wanna know, what I was about

I wish you’d hold my hand, when I was upset

I wish you’d never forget the look on my face,

When we first met

I wish you had a favourite beauty spot that you loved secretly,

cause it was on a hidden bit that nobody else could see

Basically I wish that you loved me

I wish that you needed me

I wish that you knew when I said two sugars, actually I meant three

I wish that without me, your heart would break

Yeah I wish that without me,

you’d be spending the rest of your night awake

I wish that without me you couldn’t eat

I wish I was the last thing on your mind

before you went to sleep

Look, all I know is that, you’re the nicest thing, I’ve ever seen

And I wish we could see if we could be something

Yeah I wish we could see if we could be something

Friends, my favourite series ever

it's the hilarious show ever, and not only on TV. actually the first time I watches it on tv, I was not that amazed, but when I got the DVDs I just became a fan at once.
may be the timing acted as a catalyst, as my final exam was going on and everything except study seems the most precious at that moment- after finishing every episode I told myself, okey, this is the last one, I will start preparing my lessons after that..and this way the whole night passed by.


but even now, when I have almost memorized all the dialogues, and the jokes became stale, I still like it. sometimes I get nostalgic remembering my friends while watching the episodes. the emotions and the ineractions between the characters depict something beyond humor and may be that's why it won hearts of people round the globe and still winning.

Mayan history and architecture on natgeo

On August , 2007 an special issue of National geographic magazine got published with marvelous description and snapshots of the Mayan ruins.

We can have an idea about how advanced they were ... "Though they used neither the wheel nor metal tools, they developed a complete hieroglyphic writing system and grasped the concept of zero, adopting it for everyday calculations. They also had a 365-day year and were sophisticated enough to make leap-year-like corrections. They regularly observed the stars, predicted solar eclipses, and angled their ceremonial buildings so that they faced sunrise or sunset at particular times of year."

And isn't it sarcastic joke to celebrate the "discovery" of America when there already was a civilization with years of cultural background !

Never give all the heart, for love will hardly seem worth thinking of...

For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind of delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all the smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost
For he gave all his heart and lost.

-- W. B. Yeats

Wall-E : Download and Watch

yesterday I heard from my friend about this movies, she recommended to see this one.
then I saw it and really liked it, first i was thinking where is it going...because the tiny robot was just doing the same thing over and over again, but after a while it became interesting.

the characterization of future humans is realistic and funny also.

How we always see the past ...

This very idea freaked me out when I realized for the first time that we always see the past !
Like when I am looking at a star in the sky, it is totally possible that this star no longer exists.. the sky is displaying a snapshot taken in th past. If it's a star five lightyears away from earth, then I certainly am looking at a picture taken five years ago. Light travels at the rate of 30 million metres per second, so even if I am talking to the person sitting right before me, it takes more or less three nanoseconds for light to reach my eyes from that person..so I cannot see his instant reaction untill I wait for more 3 nanosecs :)

Chronicles of Narnia:Prince Caspian

I was only four or five when Narnia-the TV series was being broadcasted on television, at that time we had only one tv channel in Bangladesh, but it was more than enough. What more a kid need from tv when Narnia or Thundercats is going on ! I still remember the day I missed an episode because of power failure and how long I cried ! My mom tried to make me sleep and I used to close my eyes pretending to be asleep and waiting for 3:30 every Friday.
After a long long time , the movie released..now I am grown up enough and yet I believe I will stuck before the tv set if I see that series is going on. wish I can watch it again, but the DVD is not available here,my bad luck .The movie was good enough, but not geat as the tv show, but it's true that I am not that four-year-kid now, so taste can vary !
I am eagerly waiting for the second part Prince Caspian. It is to be released on May 15. I hope it will be more successful than the first episode. I still remember some scene from the tv series of Prince Caspian..the four siblings were waiting on a railway station,.., a gragon,..a ship..something like that. I am greatly excited to recap that memory twenty years later..wow !! What a great summer treat.
The four Pevensie children return to Narnia, only to discover that hundreds of years have passed since they ruled there, and the evil King Miraz has taken charge. With the help of a heroic mouse called Reepicheep, and the exiled heir to the throne, Prince Caspian, they set out to overthrow the King, once again with Aslan's help...I hope someday Silver Chair-the third part will also be released in the silver screen.

Lines Written in Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:--
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

---William Wordsworth

Bird Flu in Bangladesh

The avian influenza is generally known as bird flu and now this is a very familiar term in Bangladesh.Bangladesh has about 220 million chickens and 37 million ducks. Five million people are directly employed by the poultry industry, millions of households rely on poultry production for income generation and nutrition.After bird flu broke out in several farms in Bangladesh thousands of birds were culled and army troops called out to assist police in carrying out an “intensive” monitoring . But the confusion about the prevention still remains. Should we or should we not eat bird flesh now ? And also about eating eggs.
Most often, signs and symptoms of bird flu resemble those of conventional influenza, including:

• Cough
• Fever
• Sore throat
• Muscle aches

Three or four times every century, a flu pandemic sweeps the globe, claiming millions of lives. That the flu can cause so much misery is a result of its ability to change quickly and unexpectedly, to outwit "best guess" vaccines, and to take the immune system by storm.Young children seem especially vulnerable to the virus, although some experts note that children are more likely to have contact with sick birds or to play on ground contaminated with droppings.

Some suggestion from experts about preventing bird flu:

• Steer clear of raw eggs. Because eggshells are often contaminated with bird droppings, avoid mayonnaise, hollandaise sauce, ice cream, and any other foods containing raw or undercooked eggs.
• Wash well. While preparing poultry for cooking, carefully wash cutting boards and all surfaces that have come into contact with raw poultry in hot, soapy water. Wash your hands thoroughly before and after handling poultry and dry them with a disposable towel.
• Cook thoroughly. Cook chicken until the juices run clear, and it reaches a minimum internal temperature of 165 F (74 C).

As our meals depend a great deal on poultry and the government just can't abandone the poultry industry of Bangladesh to stop spreading bird flu, we all have to be careful to prevent it from attacking our near and dear ones.

Diseases spreading on season change

It's glorious spring, but it's also a transition of climate. Winter is passing by and summer is creeping in. This time of year is more vulnerable to diseases like jaundice and chicken pox. And students who are preparing for their SSC examination should be vary careful in this time.

my first Jamdani Sharee !!

This Friday I went to a river cruise on Sheetalakhya river with my colleagues to celebrate the successful completion of project "Template-kit" and "Simple publishing". We started from Demra ghat and after one hour we landed at Murapara where we got to visit a jamidar bari which is now converted to a college. It was the "palace" of jamidar ( lord ) Jogodish Banarjee and now called Rupgonj college. We also visited the nearby nursery and took a lot of pictures.
Then returned to the boat and headed towards the Jamdani Village. Many weaver-family live in this village and their family business is to make jamdani shari.

The Mughal emperors were patrons for jamdani industry . The earliest mention of jamdani and its development as an industry is found in Kautikaya (about 3rd century BC), where it is stated that this fine cloth was used in Bangla and Pundra. Dhaka, Sonargaon, Dhamrai, Titabari, Jangalbari and Bajitpur were famous for making superior quality jamdani and muslin at that time. Traders from Europe, Iran, Armenia, as well as Mughal-Pathan traders used to deal in these fabrics (source:banglapedia) . These villages are the ruins of that time bearing the heritage of that era. As we proceeded farther we could hear the sound of shuttle of jamdani making machine right from the time we stepped there.

After a while we visited one of such jamdani mill. I got to see the jamdani making process and one of the weavers told me that it takes several weeks to make one jamdani shari and no two sharis are of the same pattern.Each and every piece of shari is different from each other. Actually there are similarities , but I noticed that there is a subtle difference in the geometric pattern( Jamdani saris mainly contains floral or geometric motifs , the expert weavers work from memory, they do not draw the design on paper). Jamdani is the most expensive product of Dhaka looms since it requires the most lengthy and dedicated work. When I wanted to buy one, they asked for a very high price, more than twice the actual price . After a few minutes of bargaining I bought two sharis from there for half the price they asked and it was the first time I bought any sari myself . Actually it was the first time I bought any clothing material myself. Generally my mom buys these stuffs. I just make my choices and then the rest of the job is upon her. So I felt a bit " grown up " at that moment.

The first three minutes:A modern view of the origin of the universe

When I read the review I got interested to read this book of Steven Weinberg as soon as possible..and soon I got a copy, but it was a translation and one of the worst translation I have ever read. May be the Bangla tern for the astronomical objects are not standerdized yet or the translator was not efficient enough..I do not remember now ! However, I sopped reading it and decided to find the original one.

The download link is here.

Russian novel

As a book-freak I always admire Russian literature, specially novel. One of my all time favorites is "How the steel was tempered", I can't pronounce its original Russian name though. I first read the Bangla translation which is titled as "Eeshpaat" that means 'steel ' in Bangla, published from Raduga publishers . I was searching for the english translation for long and at last I found it on this web site.

I was so mesmorized by this story that I almost fell in love with Pavel Korchagin (the central character of the novel ). The story is a fictionalized autobiography of the author Nikolai Ostrovsky.
As it depicts the period of Bolshevik movement, we can clearly understand that this book is not much available nowadays, not even in amazon.com !

I also found many other books which I liked during my school days.
Now I am being a bit nostalgic finding them after such a long time !!

Escenic sponsors WALCOM 2008

Workshop on Algorithms and Computation - 2008.. held in BUET on February 7-8 was sponsored by three major software companies of Bangladesh and Escenic is one of them. We feel proud to be a part of the workshop and serve the professors from home and abroad.
The closing ceremony was held on Efes restaurant,Gulshan. Masud Hassan sir anchored the whole program . We got the opportunity to meet with his adviser Dr Alejandro Lopez who came from university of waterloo..he told us that he liked Bangladesh and going to buy a 'saree' as souvenir for his wife!
Although we had the fear to be attacked by bird flu virus it could not hold our boys back from eating a lot of chicken fries !!! The buffet dinner was not bad at all...and above all we got to meet our friends and teachers all under the same roof after a long time .

Cox's Bazar: Natural wonder of Bangladesh

I was brought up in Chittagong, so I was lucky to visit the Cox's Bazar beach several times in my childhood...with my parents and grand parents. It was so regular for me that I never realized how wonderful it is to walk beside the sea and watch the sun slowly drowning into it. I had no idea that the waves touching my feet are actually part of the Bay of Bengal which falls in the Indian ocean.The greatest fun for me then was to drive the crows away and follow the crab raising their heads from their sand hide outs.Later I came to know that this one is the largest beach in the planet. Now I am really happy that Cox's Bazar is at the top of the recently nominated 77 natural wonders of earth.

I hope it will be one of the natural 7 wonders because it is truly a wonder. The voting process for natural 7 wonders of world is still going on. Please visit http://www.new7wonders.com/nature/en/liveranking/ to view the current ranking.