If science fiction writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal ever wrote the story of his life, it would have more unexpected twists and turns than all the radical space-age thrillers he has ever written... [ + ]

Professor Sirajul Islam
Making history
In 2002, days before it was to appear in print, Banglapedia, the ten volume encyclopaedia that holds information pertaining to Bangladesh, ran into serious trouble with a vested quarter of intellectuals and the media and was almost pulled off production. The editors of Banglapedia were accused of tampering with history, and a section of the nay-sayers blamed Professor Sirajul Islam, chief editor of Banglapedia, of showing contempt towards the prophet Muhammad. The government, the biggest sponsor of the project, even issued an order stalling the production... [ + ]

Farhad Mazhar
And the seed shall set you free
‘Seeds,’ says Farhad Mazhar, when i ask him about the focus of his agricultural movement. The man behind the Nayakrishi Andolon (literally, the new agricultural movement) leans back and ties his long grey hair in a pony-tail, fixes the beads round his left wrist. We meet at the first-floor conference room of UBINIG (a Bengali acronym for Research on Alternatives to Development), the organisation spearheading the movement. The room itself stands out as a time-capsule of the 58-year-old’s life, which has been as eventful, as it has been controversial... [ + ]

Selim Al-Deen
Telling our tales, our way
‘The tales of my farmers,’ he says as he takes a long drag from the tightly-held cigarette between his fingers, ‘is no less heroic than the Herculean feats of Achilles or Prometheus.’ Dying rays of a winter afternoon get caught up in the ensuing smoke, and as Greek tragedies fade away behind the veil, from behind his desk at his second-floor office in the dramatics department of Jahangirnagar University in Savar, Selim Al-Deen tells me a quintessentially Bengali tale. It is the tale of fighting against nature’s wrath, of fighting with tigers, of clearing dense forests for cultivation, and it is the tale of one man’s search to bring the soil and soul of a race to the pages of literature and the stage of drama... [ + ]

Shamima Khatun
Biralakkhi to New York
New York had a visitor from Biralakkhi last November. Shamima Khatun wasn’t visiting the financial capital of the ‘free’ world to try out her luck; she’d made it already. She was after all the owner of the most innovative business in the world. Shamima was there as a guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the International Year of Microcredit, where she was awarded for the ‘Most Innovative Business of the Year’, one of four winners of the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards. It might have been her first journey from one of the southern-most villages of Satkhira district to New York, or to even Dhaka, for that matter, but Shamima is no stranger to long journeys. Her journey from a landless housewife to an ambassador of Bangladesh’s success story with micro credit was long. More than a decade long, in fact... [ + ]

Professor Rabiul
Husain
Visionary philanthropist
Two of professor Rabiul Husain’s marked characteristics are that he always talks straight and that he is unapologetically no-nonsense. These are evident on first acquaintance. None of that politically correct, polite dribble. He always tells it like he saw it... [ + ]

Brother Ronald Drahozal
A mission apart
The ceilings are festooned with shiny coloured paper and balloons dangle and sway in the late afternoon breeze. The showcase holds candles, all with ‘for sale’ and ‘homemade’ signs. Outside, deep voices argue about football. It’s Christmas day at Apon, and as we sit in a ground floor room, Brother Ronald Drahozal smiles benignly... [ + ]

Kanak Chanpa Chakma
Brushstrokes of brilliance
Sitting at the window of her house in Rangamati, right by the river, a young Kanak Chanpa Chakma would often stare in fascination at the bustle of the nearby bazaar. ‘The tanchangya tribe would be dressed in their best attire for these market days. They would bring in their produce from the valley and exchange them with goods brought in through the river,’ recalls Kanak. Those days would remain with her throughout her life, and the valley by the river, would become omnipresent in her work, a regular setting for her paintings. ‘Our house was on a two acre land, and you had all the trees you could have including coconut trees and date palms. In many ways, I feel, my passion for art is an effort to relive those days, to bring back all that is gone,’ says Kanak... [ + ]

Kazi Zahedul Hasan
The chicken king from Harvard
From the huge office space and the buzzing work atmosphere the first thing that is evident is the success of the enterprise that is behind it. Behind the desk is a polite, polished man, Harvard educated, well read. He looks like a professor-type, almost custom made for the university environment you would think. In fact that’s what he was doing at BUET after finishing his Masters in architecture from the iconic American university... [ + ]

Rokun Ud-Dawla
Man on the street
‘The court is on the second floor, he presides over the 16th Magistrates Court,’ said the duty police officer with a look of suspicion in his eyes. The court is packed, so I take a seat on the docket and put my bag on my lap. Instantly, I attract attention since I have a beard and a bag and I am asked to identify myself. ‘I am from New Age, the daily,’ I respond and the room comes to a pin drop silence. I am whisked to a room which is simple yet extraordinary, the shelves lined with dangerous chemicals. Behind the desk, a simple, amicable man with a purpose in his eyes gives me a smile. He is magistrate Rokun Ud-Dawla, scourge of the food adulterator, and possibly one of the most instantly recognised faces of the law in Dhaka city. Since early 2005, Rokun Ud-Dawla’s merciless exploits with the mobile courts has been a regular fixture on news bulletins... [ + ]