LIFE AS IT IS

When will our society stop raising boys with the idea that only if they suppress their emotions and act macho, they will be considered "men?" It is unhealthy for these little boys, the women they will love when they grow up, and the world at large. I was reading, probably in TIME, that a suppression of emotions actually makes men weak and vulnerable - it even pushes some into dangerous practices and habit-forming behaviors like smoking, drink and substance abuse. I was also reading Dr. William Pollack's work yesterday - parents, who have sons, could use his book, Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood.      style="display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px"      data-ad-client="ca-pub-1412858923217987"      data-ad-slot="2221625556">

It's not about what you have, it's about whether you are happy with what you have. Some people have a lot and are still unhappy, whereas some are happy with the very little that they have.

এই শীতল সময় কবে শেষ হবে? পাগল হয়ে যাচ্ছি তো!

We see what we want to see - we exclude the visual details that inconvenience us. -Wara

I was just reading a write-up by a friend on Falgun (the Bengali month that marks the beginning of spring in Bangladesh) where he compared the season and the festivity around it with Vincent van Gogh's "Wheatfield with Crows." A prolific writer, my friend's writing carried me back to the Falguni days I left behind in Dhaka. Years come and go but I do not get a chance to watch and enjoy the Falguni festivity, something that I so looked forward to in Dhaka. I would always wear something yellow, never a sari though. I am still not comfortable in a sari. I would just wear a yellow salwar kameez and a dozen or so glass bangles. No, no flowers. I cannot recall tucking a flower ever in my hair. Don't get me wrong - I love flowers! I like to give and receive flowers. Anyway, I used to see girls on my college campus and on the streets wearing a yellow rose or a strand of marigold, or just a single marigold in the hair - they looked beautiful! Young men would wear orang...

I don't want to be judged by you or anyone else. You took your journey and I took mine - I do not know what your journey was like and you do not know about mine. So, let's not judge each other! -Wara

Thank God, no one can see what's on our minds! -Wara