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Dhaka city wore a colourful look on the occasion of the 13th SAARC Summit. Hundreds of people came out to the roads at midnight on November 14 to enjoy the beautifully decorated roads, roundabouts, roadside buildings, trees and parks which stretched for nearly twenty kilometres. People from different walks of life made use of vehicles of every description; private cars, trucks, CNGs, maxis, motorcycles and last but not least, rickshaws.
   Everywhere, one could hear exclamations like ‘Ah! What a beautiful sight’ Shima, a young girl thus expressed her joy at seeing the SAARC Fountain, while asking others to take a photo of her.
   The decoration of certain areas of the city for the SAARC Summit could not be enjoyed by the public because of the tight security measures taken by the government for VIPs and VVIPs. As soon as the summit concluded, people hit the roads with family members and friends wanting to be a part of the festivities taking snaps and making videos, just like Shima did.
   On the occasion of SAARC, the Dhaka City Corporation used about 50 lakh tiny fairy lights on the major roads for a length of about twenty kilometres, covering six thousand trees, three thousand still structures and ten thousand boulders.
   Nahla, a class four student of Scholastica who was accompanied by her sisters and parents said, ‘I have not seen such a beautifully decorated town before. Hearing the late news on TV, my parents suggested taking short trip. We gladly agreed as we did not get such an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of Dhaka at night.’
   A group of people from Lalbagh hired two trucks and drove through the major roads singing in merriment. When an on-duty traffic sergeant stopped the trucks, all of them replied, ‘sir, we are enjoying ourselves, please let us go.’ Advising them to drive carefully, the officer let them go.
   Simab and Rowsun and Liton, three friends and employees of different companies hired a rickshaw on an hourly basis and roamed through all the major thoroughfares and expressed their feelings saying, ‘The night takes a festive mood and we, along with other people, are enjoying it without any fear. Moreover, we are very proud to be a part of the festival.’
   Law enforcing agencies were still on-duty to ensure the safety of the late night travellers. An official said that they were still on duty to ensure the safety of the people, who generally do not get out late at night.
   A police constable, ‘I consider myself very lucky to see the town adorned with beautiful lights and decorative pieces.’
   When asked about the heavy traffic, a police sergeant told New Age that a good number of vehicles had been plying the roads since 10:30pm, most of which were coming from the direction of Shahbagh.

Juneer Kibria’s solo art exhibition titled Fragile was inaugurated on the 10th of this month at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in Dhanmondi. Eminent artist Mohammad Kibria, father of Juneer Kibria, inaugurated the exhibition while artists Rafiqun Nabi and Mahmudul Haque, director general of the National Museum, were present as special guests. The creations of the artist are an amalgamation of materials and ideology to make a powerful body of paintings.
   The recent works of Juneer Kibria are untried, both abstractly and aesthetically. His creations are a juxtaposition of stylistic elements in a series of abstract, yet emotional pieces that focus on the fragility of memory. Memories are semi-permanent in nature and often flawed. Memory is depicted as fossil-like, yet delicate and fleeting in the artist’s work; thus exuding the fact that it is a collective study of fragile memories. The expressions in all of these works are a resonance of the fragility of memory.
   The artist is the son of the Mohammed Kibria and had first picked up art from his father. He made considerable progress under his father’s watchful eyes. He has completed his BFA in printmaking from Wittenberg University in Ohio. The artist can boast of quite a few group exhibitions, although this is his first solo.
   Unlike the typical media used for painting, he uses wax and oil paint and collages of paper, wood and resin to create layers of textures. The artist utilises them to create a combination of permanence and fragility. Juneer uses his material well to create an abrasive and rock like texture in his work. The resin is deftly used to capturing objects in time. The collage of wood and paper in his works are fragments of memory, but they are chipped and burnt.
   Footprints, leaves, words and other recognisable symbols also feature in the artist’s creations. The loss of a person is symbolised by the footprints in the Ode to a Wall I and II. The footprint seems fossilised in the barren stone, whilst the dark voids are whittled; it illustrates the suppression of memories which are too sad to bear. Yet memories can be arbitrary and random. For instance, the words on the torn paper in the Memoirs series are very decrepit and they are burnt and some covered with resin.
   The exhibition will end today.

Popular theatre group Loko Natyadal has split-up again. Some of the founding and senior members formed a new executive committee on October 11 for the term 2005-2006 after calling a general meeting to run the group, which will retain its name.
   The members of the new committee organised a press conference on November 15 at the auditorium of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity at Segun Bagicha.
   The organisers condemned Liaquat Ali Lucky, the director of Loko Natyadal, for his corruption and misuse of power.
   According to the executive members, Liaquat Ali Lucky was portraying the activities of People’s Theatre Association and Loko Natyadal as the activities of his own NGO, called Rakhal, to get funding from foreign donors.
   They said that, for portraying the activities of these theatre groups in the name of Rakhal, Liaquat Ali Lucky got funding from different international organisations, including the International Theatre Institute in Sweden.
   They also denounced the director for his exploitation of children’s productions by the People’s Little Theatre.
   They also said that, though being experienced, Liaquat Ali Lucky is not allowing them to perform and he is enrolling new faces for the plays.
   Among others, Ugine Gomage, Ali Iskandar Ahmed, Kamrun Noor Chowdhury, Selim Chowdhury Labu and Aslam Shihir were present at the conference.
   The theatre group, which was formed in 1981, first split up in 1988.

Singapore’s ambition to groom its nascent media industry received the thumbs up Tuesday from acclaimed Indian movie director Shekhar Kapur who believes the city-state can be the next Hollywood.
   ‘I would not have come here if I did not already believe in the potential of Singapore’, Kapur said at a media conference organised by a government-backed panel to explore ways to nurture the local media sector.
   ‘It could potentially be the next Hollywood’, said the Kapur, who is a member of the panel comprising of several foreign media experts.
   Kapur, who gained international fame with the Oscar-nominated movie Elizabeth, said Singapore’s reputation for protecting intellectual property (IP) rights, status as a financial hub and getting things done were its main draw cards over other Asian cities.
   ‘Singapore stands uniquely in that place to do that because it has the financial structures’, Kapur said.
   Singapore has stepped up efforts to grow its media industry in recent years with the aim of raising the sector’s share of gross domestic product from 1.56 percent in 2001 to three percent in the next 10 years.
   The city-state’s efforts have yielded dividends with international media companies housing their regional operations here including ESPN, MTV and HBO.

With an overbearing mother and a hardline ex-military man for a boss, it's no wonder Willard (Glover, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle) turns into a sociopath.
   Ridiculed at every turn, Willard befriends and "bonds" with the rats in his basement. When his new friend --- a white mouse named Socrates --- is killed by his boss, he calls upon his army of rodents to exact revenge.
   Willard is deliciously evil and borders on manic, and his charisma as pied piper soon sees his every wish their command, until he dives off the deep end.
   Willard
   HBO
   9:30pm
   Starring
   Crispin Glover