মায়াবী মায়ামি

শীতের ছুটিতে কী করা যায় তার পরিকল্পনা চলছিল অনেক দিন যাবতই , ধারেকাছের তুলনামূলক কম ঠান্ডা এলাকা হিসেবে Florida-র নাম এলো স্বভাবতই. আমি তো রাজি হব হব করে আবার পিছিয়েই গেলাম, কপর্দক্শুন্য মানুষ , না জানি বেড়াতে গিয়ে ঋণের বোঝা মাথায় চেপে বসে কিনা. কিন্তু যেই না ছুটি আরম্ভ হলো, আর তো টিকতে পারিনা, ক্যাম্পাস জনমানবহীন, বরফে ঢাকা রাস্তাঘাট, নাহ , আর থাকা যায় না এর মাঝে. কিছু একটা করতেই হবে. মিশু আর নওরিনের  সাথে ত্বরিত যোগাযোগ করলাম, বাকি বন্ধুরা সবাই দেশে, আমরা কটি অসহায় পড়ে আছি ঠান্ডার মাঝে, একটু সবুজ চাই, আর একটু সতেজ হাওয়া . ব্যাস, ওই দিনই ticket কেটে ফেললাম. কিন্তু কই থাকব, কী করব, কই ঘুরব তার কোনো খবর নেই. গুগল থাকতে আর কী লাগে ! কিছুক্ষণ গুগল এ ঘাটাঘাটি করে মিশুর উপর ভরসা করে দিলাম ঘুম. Orlando নাকি Key west এই নিয়ে সংশয় , অবশেষে Key west জয়যুক্ত হলো. সমুদ্রের কাছে কি আর অন্য কিছু পাত্তা পায় :)

৩১ তারিখ ভোরবেলা আমার ফ্লাইট, গভীর রাতে airport এ গিয়ে বসে থাকা, Baltimore থেকে Cincinnati, তারপর Miami . মায়ামি তে নেমেই আহ কি শান্তি, বরফে ঢাকা ধুসর পথ দেখতে দেখতে ক্লান্ত চোখ একটু সবুজের দেখা পেল, আর গাছগুলো মনে করিয়ে দিল দেশের কথা, ক্রান্তীয় অঞ্চল , কাজেই আমার চেনা জগতের সাথে কিছুটা মিল তো থাকবেই, পাম আর নারিকেল গাছের সারি পথের ধার ঘেঁষে . বাতাস উষ্ণ না হলেও কনকনে ঠান্ডা নয়. হোটেল এ গেলাম একটা taxicab এ চেপে, La Quinta Inn নামক একটা ছোটখাটো সাজানো গুছানো থাকার জায়গা, একটা swimming পুল ও আছে, যদিও আমরা কেউ সাঁতার জানিনা :( পানিতে পা ভিজিয়ে বসে থাকায় সার. ভোজনপর্ব শেষে এবার মায়ামি সৈকত এ যাবার পালা, কিন্তু যাবার উপায় টা কী ! আবার গুগল ভরসা, ছুটির আমেজ, তাই পাবলিক ট্রান্সপোর্ট এর ত্রাহি অবস্থা . বাস আসে এক ঘন্টা পর পর, বাস স্ট্যান্ড এ দাঁড়িয়ে , ফুটপাথে বসে গলা ছেড়ে গান গেয়ে সময় কাটিয়ে দিলাম, তারপর বাস এর দেখা মিলল একটা, driver কে জিগেস করে নিলাম আসলেই এই বাস আমাদের south beach এ নিয়ে যাবে কিনা, আমাদের মত বাকি পর্যটকদের একই দশা, সবাই রীতিমত দ্বিধান্বিত , কেউই আসলে এলাকা চেনেনা , কিন্তু গন্তব্য সবারই south beach , দুটা বাস পরিবর্তন করে নেমে গেলাম Lincoln rd mall এ. যাকে বলে খানদানি এলাকা, চারিদিকে টাকার গন্ধ, আর একটু আকটু ইংলিশ শোনা গেলেও অধিকাংশই দেখি ' hola , como estas ' গোত্র, এ কোন জায়গায় এলাম রে বাবা ! লোকে দেখি ইংলিশ বলে না. Lincoln চত্বরে যেন মেলা বসেছে, লোকে লোকারণ্য. গ্রাম থেকে প্রথমবার ঢাকায় আসা মানুষের মত লাল লাল নীল নীল বাতি দেখলাম, নিজেও থাকি একটা মফস্সল ধাচের এলাকায়, এখানে এসে বুঝলাম আসলেই কাপড় চোপর না পরাটাই fasion . ছেঁড়া ফাটা জামা মানেই সেটা নিশ্চয়ই নামী দামী কোনো designer ব্র্যান্ড . মজাই লাগলো, বছর শেষের রাত, এটুকু তামাশা না দেখলে কি আর চলে :)

হাঁটাহাঁটি করে আমাদের খিদা লেগে গেল, অনেক খুঁজে পেতে আমাদের সাধ্যের মাঝে একটা দোকান পেলাম, গালভরা নামের একটা খাবার অর্ডার দিলাম, আসলে ভাত আর মুরগি, খেতে অসাধারণ, সাথে লেমনেড. রাস্তার ধরে গাছের নিচে টেবিল পেতে খাবার আয়োজন, চারিদিকে বেশ জোরেশোরে গান বাজনা চলছে, সাথে নাচানাচিও , আমরা কেন জানি ঠিক সাহস করতে পারলাম না :( এর মাঝে কামাল ভাই ও তার দলবল চলে এলো, ১২ তা প্রায় বাজে, বড় একটা বিল্ডিং এর ডিজিটাল ডিসপ্লেতে count down শুরু হয়ে গেছে, দিলাম সব দৌড় beach বরাবর, ১২ টা বাজতেই আকাশজুড়ে আতশবাজি, আর পরস্পরকে নতুন বছরের শুভেচ্ছা জানানো. আর তার সাথে ক্যামেরার ক্লিক ক্লিক. এই শীতের মাঝেও দেখি কিছু মানুষ সোজা সাগরের পানিতে ঝাপ দিল, আমরা পা ভিজিয়েই ক্ষান্ত . এক মেয়ে অনেকগুলো সাদা গোলাপ সমুদ্রে ছুড়ে ছুড়ে দিল, একের পর এক, মনে হয় প্রতি গোলাপের সাথে সাথে কিছু wish করলো . সাগরের ঢেউ ফুলগুলো আবার ভাসিয়ে আমাদের পায়ের কাছেই এনে ফেলল. সাম্বা প্যারেড আর আতশবাজির পর সৈকত অনেকটাই ঠান্ডা, চুপচাপ, এবার আমাদের পালা, শুরু হলো তারস্বরে বাংলা গানের আসর. যা যা মনে পড়লো গলা ছেড়ে গাইতে থাকলাম তিনজনে মিলে. পূর্নিমা রাতে সাগরপারে এমন সঙ্গীত সাধনার অভিজ্ঞতা জীবনে আর হবে কিনা কে জানে . না হয় ফাটা বাঁশের মতই আওয়াজ দিলাম, কিন্তু নতুন বছরে পুরনো গানগুলো কত পুরনো স্মৃতি নতুন করে মনে করিয়ে দিল.

sweets ! sweets !! sweets !!!

Today one of my professors brought a piece of Turrón, ( it's a kind of Christmas dessert of Spain and Italy brought to Europe by the Arabs) and it was delicious ! partly because it is made of honey, almonds and mostly because it reminded me of Gurder shondesh, Batasha and all other types of desserts made of 'gurd' (molasses) and nut. I could eat the whole piece but I had to be satisfied with just that teeny tiny piece :( ahh.. if I were home now ... I could finish one whole packet of laddu/shandesh/borfi all alone.
And while I am thinking about all those 'naru', 'gajorer haluwa' stuffs I just happened to remember the sweets I tasted at Khulna on our return from the Sundarban ( can't recall the name...but it had almonds and gurd for sure). And another one of my favorites-the nutty caramelly square shaped sweet thing, does not have any desent name, but usually sold in footpaths, when I saw the shiny decorated packet of Turron, I felt sorry for my nameless neglected street side sweets.

my first Qurbani Eid in USA

কালকে ঈদ , যদিও এই দেশে ঈদের কোনই আমেজ নেই , তবুও এর মাঝেই যতটুকু পারা যায় আনন্দ আনন্দ ভাব করা , নতুন সব মানুষ , নতুন পরিবেশ , বাঙালি অনেকগুলো পরিবার এই শহরে, কিন্তু নিজের পরিবারের তো কোনো বিকল্প হয় না | ভাবতে বসলাম এখন দেশে থাকলে কী করতাম ! আসলে তেমন কিছুই করতাম না , সেজেগুজে বসে থাকতাম, তারপর খালা মামাদের বাসায় যাওয়া, কখন কোরবানির  মাংশ রান্না হবে তার জন্য অপেক্ষা করা, অতঃপর সেই মাংশ খাওয়া , টিভির বাজে প্রোগ্রাম দেখে কিছুক্ষণ গালি দেওয়া :) সবই  রুটিন বাধা , কিন্তু আর যাই হোক, ঈদের দিনে assignmnet করার চিন্তা তো ছিল না , এখন সেটাও করতে হচ্ছে |

Squirrel emergency solved

It was scary...I was hearing sounds, felt like someone was sneaking around, but every time I went downstairs I could not find anyone or anything and guessed that may be my roommate's cats were playing around. But this morning I found the cats were also getting crazy and they were scratching the fireplace window, crying for help. At first I thought some birds or rat got stuck into our fireplace , first I saw its eyes, is it a bird ! now I could see it, a big rat..with a big tail..oh my GOD, now I have to deal with rats :(( when I went closer, I figured out it was actually a squirrel, jumped down into the chimney and then imprisoned itself inside our fireplace.
We never lite fire , so the fireplace is always closed. My job was easy- open the window and let it out. But I was not sure how to deal with the cat situation, the squirrel already wounded himself struggling its way out and the cats were mad because they were not sure what the hell was making the wired noise for hours. I was relieved that at least it was no thief or rat or bird. It would be harder to handle those creatures. What if I cannot let it out ? Will it drop dead inside the fireplace ? I never opened the fireplace and was not even sure if my landlady would be ok with that. Finally we managed to take the cats away, open the fireplace and now it's time to get the squirrel out, but after seeing us, humans, it got scared and then we tried to lure it out with foods, kept the door opened and hid behind the stairs, after a while it realized that no human is going to attack and went outside , I was also relieved that no living creature is going to die inside my chimney , at least for the time being.

my Twitter network

It seems that among all the people I follow on Twitter, Shafi( rajputro) spends most time on twitter and Ragib vai has the most followers.The bigger the circle is, the more is the number of tweets of that person, and deeper shade of color indicates they have more followers. In both cases, Rajputro seems a winner with the largest circle with moderate blue color :) I created this visualization using NodeXL.

Shopping

I used to think that I hate shopping, mostly because after you buy something, you have less money at hand than you had before, and partly because after I return home, the things I had bought do not seem as appealing as they did in the store. But surprisingly , now I don't feel that way anymore. I think the reason is now I shop in a different environment, no bargaining, no one telling what to buy and what not to, I can spend as much time as I like, and no hurry to return and yes, finally, I can trial all the dresses :)

Obama speaks at College Park, about the health care reform plan

Barack Obama just finished his speech 30 minutes ago, his words were vigorous as always , and though I am not an American citizen, it was inspiring for me too, it is always great to see a nation walking forward for change ! I went to the University of Maryland Comcast center at 10:30 am, September 17th,2009 and it is so huge that even I reached late there were plenty of available seats. People came with their children and parents, so it became more of a peublic event rather than campus campaign. A number of medical professionals, army people and congressmen were there.You can read more about it here.

As a student of UMD, I did not have to make much plan for it, just came to the campus at usual time and followed the crowd. I thought there would be a scene with security check at entrance, but the security people were quite easy going. I remember I could not enter the American Embassy in Bangladesh with my pendrive, but here they did not mind at all.Obama enteried at 11:48am , and finished his speech before 12:30, and the crowd really enjoyed because he gave much emphasis towards the young audience. One guy among the audience started booing him but could not make much of it, because another supporter lady was just about to punch that guy :) Then the security people came and take him outside, otherwise I think it would not be safe for him to stay among a hall full of supporters and shout against health care reform plan.

I still do not understand much about USA health care system, but it makes me really surprised that how can people go against this kind of initiative. Right now I am signed up for a class project that analyse US Health insurance situation, for this project I still need to gather more domain knowledge in this field, but what I understand is that if government wants to provide something more, there should not be any voice against it at all . And it is always great to have a leader who can cheer you up with his words of hope ( no matter whether they come true or not ) , 'cause hope and confidence can indeed make the difference.

Obama finished his speech heating up the atmosphere and instilling energy among the students, as a mere observer I can just hope that he succeeds with his mission for change.

visit ot Luray Caverns, Virginia

after arriving at the USA my first few days were really exhausting, and I was tensed as I could not find any suitable place to live yet, at that time I was not that excited about visiting any place, but still made the trip to visit the legendary caverns in Virginia.

We started from Washington, DC and the journey took at least two hours. As we went closer to the caverns, the nature around us became more and more beautiful.But the real beauty was yet to discover inside the caverns. It is amazing how nature has created this marvel that resides underground, the walk was long but worth it.

visit to my school Agrani

after a long time, I went to visit my school. I become so nostalgic that even when I go to that area I do not enter the school premises, but today was different, I felt the urge to take farewel from my teachers who worked so hard for us to build up our lives . It is amazing that  even so many years have past , but my beloved teachers have not forgot my name or face, and they bestowed their love and blessings without any reservations, I sat with them and talked as if I was one of them, and the one thing that binds us all together is our love for the school, wherever I go, I will always belong to my school, Agrani.

Preparation - 1

now I have got my visa and bought the ticket, so starts the final preparation; My friends know how clumsy I am , and thanks to all of them, they remind me the 'todo's time to time, the list of works I should finish before leaving home. the most important thing in my todo list is to sleep and I am happy that after a long time I am enjoying my time lying in bed all day long :)
We also prepared a list, the items one should bring with to USA from Bangladesh, I will be missing a lot of things, but there will be little room for all these things, so I am filtering out the less important ones .
My sisters bought presents for me with the money they saved , and I also got nice presents from my colleagues. I was surprisingly nervous on the last day at office. Still wondering how will it feel at the airport !

F-1 Visa Process

thanks to http://www.phdcomics.com

Novels by Ernest Hemingway: ebook,pdf

Across the River and into the Trees : ebook

For Whom the Bell Tolls : ebook 

A Farewell to Arms:   ebook

 

The Twilight Saga-Stephenie Meyer- download pdf and read

All the 4 'Twilight' novels of the series by Stephenie Meyer are here :

The books in the series in chronological order:

Twilight

New Moon

Eclipse

The Breaking Dawn

Finish reading before you see the movies :)
The download link is this.

Bangladesh Liberation War : A History in Short

We have read books about the Liberation war of Bangladesh, we watched films that depicted the sacrifices of our freedom fighters, yet politicians have tried to use this glorious history for their own interest. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, a renowned and popular author of modern Bangla literature has tried to give a short narrative of this history from a neutral point of view on his book "Muktijuddher Itihash ( History of Liberation War)" . The great thing is we can download this book for free and read the whole book in just one sitting. This book is available both in Bangla and English in pdf format.

Some more web sites for dependable information about Bangladesh liberation war :

Muktodhara

Genocide Bangladesh

All Quiet in the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

It's one of my most favorite books [pdf] .
I have shared a copy so that anyone can download this classic .

Higher Studies-1

yes, the breathtaking, suffocating wait is over now, I have at last got my admission offer.. and not from only one university, what a relief.. after all the sleepless nights, efforts and praying, Allah bestowed His blessings upon me, and it was more than I deserved !
It was hard to make the decision, which university should I select to apply to, and what was my chances ? Am I really capable of ? Am I being too optimistic ? Am I being too negative about myself by not applying to the big names ? I still cannot figure out what was the algorithm to choose those 10 among the list of 00 universities of USA and Canada..
And now I have to choose which university's offer to accept ! Ya, it feels good to have options though there's always the risk of making the wrong decision, but that's life, and we always need to choose.
I finally decided to go for University of Maryland , college park, one of the big names that come when we talk about higher studies in Computer Science, so I was more than happy to get their acceptance.
Then comes the time for preparation !

are we really in a free country ?!

If people of armed force are killed so brutally, then what is the security of mass people, people like us who are living on the edge ? it's hard to believe, almost impossible ! can't sleep with all these questions and all the fury ..

just heard something , a sound from outside, is it another gunshot ? I know it's not.. but the experience of the last few days is keeping me awake.. what about the children who had to undergo the scariest nights of their lives ? Can't we do nothing more than just praying ?

we are observing 3 days days of mourning, is it enough just to mourn for the dead ? I am lucky that I am alive, that my family is safe now, but how long ? the passerby, the rickshaw puller, the vendors who died by gunshot...I could be one of them. Will there families be compensated ?

If such massacar can happen towards army personnel, then it can happen to any of us at anytime.
Don't know how the history will interpret this but we have the right to know the actual story as all of our lives are at a stake now.

some poems by Jibonanada Das

Bonolota Sen

For thousands of years I roamed the paths of this earth,
From waters round Ceylon in dead of night
to Malayan seas.
Much have I wandered. I was there
in the gray world of Asoka
And Bimbisara, pressed on through darkness
to the city of Vidarbha.
I am a weary heart surrounded by life's frothy ocean.
To me she gave a moment's peace -
Banalata Sen from Natore.

Aabar Bochhor kuri pore

Amidst a vast meadow the last time when I met her
I said: 'Come again a time like this
if one day you so wish
twenty five years later.'
This been said, I came back home.
After that, many a time, the moon and the stars,
from field to field have died, the owls and the rats
searching grains in paddy fields on a moonlit night
fluttered and crept! - shut eyed
many times left and right have slept
several souls! - awake kept I
all alone - the stars on the sky travel fast
faster still, time speeds by.
Yet it seems Twenty-five years will forever last.
(After Twenty-five Years translated by Luna Rushdi)

Aat bochhor ager ek din

Nevertheless, the owl stays wide awake ;
The rotten still frog begs two more moments
in the hope of another dawn in conceivable warmth.
We feel in the deep tracelessness of flocking darkness
the unforgiving enmity of the mosquito-net all around ;
The mosquito loves the stream of life
awake in its monastery of darkness.

-One day eight years ago, translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury]