Shakib Al Hasan- the first sporting icon of Bangladesh

An icon is someone who transcends beyond his or her respective field of expertise and becomes part of social lores... Icons are important for holding the social fabric together by complementing other essential building blocks of a functioning society. Bangladesh is not a traditional sporting nation (like, USA or Australia) and does not boast any national sporting icon so far... But, Shakib Al Hasan, with his exploits on the cricket field and demeanor off the field, has successfully caught the imagination of a nation. Bangladesh, starved of any sporting success to mention so far, has experienced jubilation with Shakib single-handedly pulling off wins both at home and abroad..

Still at an early stage of his career, Shakib Al Hasan is bound to improve on his already formidable array of skills and bring accolades for his country. In this process, if he is able to keep his composure as he has done in his career so far, his countrymen will adore him and bestow upon him that halo of an icon for generations to come.....

Neo-Asset Bubble!

Economist Risk Alert, dated Oct 22, 2010: the rising and large scale capital flows to risky assets like emerging market equities are creating asset bubbles and potential bursting of the bubbles could mire the global economy into 2008-sque financial crisis....

....all the small investors in emerging capital markets (including Bangladesh), TAKE HEED! The next big market correction may be just round the corner.

Do Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol?

Where does it take us?

Does 'language' limits our capacity to think?

Read this rather interesting discourse.....

It seems to be an old debate initiated by Benjamin Lee Whorf, a US chemical engineer, about 70 years back. He hypothised use of words and associated concepts can effectively limit our capacity to think or visulalize. Using languages of North Amaerican natives as an example, he pointed out how due to absence of the words or concepts, they are unable to conceptualize the very notion of 'flow of time'.

Whorf's fantastical point of view, however, did not sustain because of a lack of hard evidence....

....Until more recently, about 50 years ago, when Roman Jakobson espoused the maxim: “Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.” Example? They provide some interesting ones - Say, you are an Englishman and you are saying "I spent the last evening with a neighbour", you are keeping the neighbour's sex in context; but, if you are German or French, you would be 'forced' to chose a 'sex' for the neighbour because of the very make up of the language. So, Jacobson says, when one speaks in a particular language, the language compels the speaker to make a habit of thinking certain concepts and notions or in a certain pattern which would be otherwise for another language.... (Ref: NYT)
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Note: how the topic has transformed over time - from a mechanical or functional discussion to a philosophical discourse.

To do or not to do....or yet another option!

Mr. 'X' is a friend of mine. He is educated, a rational human being. In practical aspects of things, he can be described as an averagely smart individual who can navigate in this complex world of ours without much fuss. He is not too naive or not overly endowed. All in all a general citizen.
.....Now, the dilemma faced by Mr. X that I am about to describe started a few months back, when his father Mr. Y suddenly fell sick. Mr. Y is an octogenarian biding his time among family & friends as a retired public servent. He is diabetic but otherwise of average health. One day, while playing with his grand son at home, Mr. Y felt a suddent but acute chest pain; he is not totally unknown to pains in this long life of his, but this was something different. He was left breathless by the sudden attack, and sweating profusely, clutching his chest, he almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, his son Mr. X was close by....
Once in the hospital, all the usual tests were duly completed. The doctors had no doubt that something serious was afoot concerning Mr. Y's heart. So, came the ECG, the EET, and the angiogram. To cut the long story short, doctors diagnosed 'angina' in two of the major arteries in his heart. Upto this point, everything was pretty straight forward!
...Mr X, now consults a number of heart specialists to find the right treatment for his ailing father. But, alas! specialists through at him a number of options-
He can either choose angioplast, which does not require a surgery, but is expensive and not sure to cure his father; or he can go for the major heart bypass surgery, which will almost definitely cure the heart condition but, itself is a risky procedure, and it does not help the fact that Mr. Y does want to face the horror of an open chest procedure; or there is yet another option called EECP, which is totally non-invasive and an exercise of the heart, but for which the efficacy is not proven.... Mr. X is in real dilemma... what to do or not to do or yet another option!

The martian footmark!

The martian rover on it's 43rd mission over a period of five centuries picked up a number of materials with scientific interest; but, out of them all stood this 3-D photograph... of a small mark on the planet's surface... in the northern hemisphere. With earthly experience, some one can misread this mark as a human foot print. All sorts of scientific dating procedures have indicated its age to be close to 250 million years... a close contemporary to the Jurassic age of Earth... 2 scientist at the international Center of Paleontology and Astronomy are pouring over the photographs... both are in deep thought interrupted by occasional brief words of observation or infrequent questions, which sound more like an introspection rather than a debate with the colleague..... (this should glorify the power of deductive reasoning!!!).... The stage should be like a Human skull from the broadside.... A drama

Why so much hatred?

(Mayhem of 25^th February at BDR Headquarter of Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Final score: 70 plus dead including women and innocent bystanders, untold instability, long-term distrust among the forces of the country, and irreparable damage to the country profile.. Not bad for a two-day event! (continue reading)