LIFE AS IT IS

I don’t remember the first time I read Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice (P&P). But I do remember reading this eighteenth-century novel five times in my life. If I can allow myself some free time in the days to come, I would probably peruse it again, feel deeply once again the finer sentiments scattered in its lines and pages. P&P has always been a pleasure to read – the handsome Mr. Darcy is like a dream. The protagonist Elizabeth was indeed an intelligent, witty and bold woman of her time. But I never had an opportunity to watch TV or film adaptation of this classic until recently. When I first read on Wikipedia that BBC aired P&P as a serial, I knew I had to watch it. The social networking sites have made things so accessible to the modern day humans that all I had to do was search for it on YouTube. Voila! On YouTube were all the episodes of this magnificent 1995 television adaptation, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I spent seven long hours watching the

Rebecca, in her twenties, was beautiful enough to turn heads. Today, very little of it is left in her. Her jet-black hair has lost its volume, her complexion its lustre and her eyes their glitter. Rebecca who was born and brought up in a respectable family of Dhaka, even today, finds it hard to believe how her marriage to an unfaithful man had shattered all her dreams into bits and pieces. In her short-lived conjugal life of four years, she bore two sons. When she left her husband's house, she left it with her sons, for she knew that without a mother's love these children wouldn't live. At the age of 25, Rebecca began to live the difficult life of a single mother. In the early '80s although words like single mom and divorcee weren't unheard of, people still raised their eyebrows when they heard of women like Rebecca, single and beautiful. Rebecca refused to take refuge at her parents' house, for humiliation engulfed her and her very existence. It was a lov

There was a time when making a piece of furniture meant a huge hassle for the buyer and the manufacturer/ seller as well. Although characterized by stressful tasks, the whole affair of making a piece of new furniture would at the same time flood families with excitement. Some 30 or so years ago, people used to free up their courtyard to facilitate the carpenters do their job at ease. Making furniture mostly meant hiring carpenters and bringing them home for the work. The carpenters were gladly treated with glasses of tea after every one hour. The children would swarm around them with eyes full of eagerness, enjoying the conversion of sturdy chunks of raw wood to skillfully carved bed, table, armchair or cupboard. But those days are long gone, gone are the days when home furnishings used to be bulky and less user-friendly. Today, very few people think of bringing carpenters to home to get their work done. There is no need to shoulder so much of strain when elegant plus affordable ready-

Trambunctious rallies, elaborate spreads, music and poetry, and traditional garb...all work together to make the celebration of the Bengali New Year a truly unique one. The streets are filled with Bangali belles, elegant in their red-and-white saris, flowers in their hair, red alta on their feet, and of course, a rainbow of glass bangles adorning their wrists. This year too, our girls and women are making preparations to welcome the Bengali New Year 1413. Besides purchasing red-white saris, women are crowding places like Gausia Market, New Market, Piraan, Banglar Mela, Mayasir, Jatra, Deshal, Ideas etc to get hold of the latest bangles. The custom of wearing bangles by women is centuries old and the tradition is still going strong thanks to our fashionistas. If you want a little folk saying on bangles then know that gold bangles are believed to herald prosperity and well-being for hubby dearest. Thereby, gold bangles are usually seen on the hands of married women. However a dozen

There was a time when life meant crawling out of bed at 7 a.m. in the morning, getting ready for school, returning home in the afternoon and then dozing off in the evening with books wide open on table. School days are long gone, yet I wake up at 7 a.m. in the morning to catch the early classes of university. But waking up from bed no more entails constant shrieks of my mother, or the ear-splitting blare of the long standing bedside clock. My biological timepiece now seems to work better than the mechanical ones. As time is flying, life is unveiling itself with new a definition. What life meant 10 years back does not mean the same right now. And I know that life will not mean the same 10 years from now. A life is a journey, as you might say. There are ups and downs, you move through boulevards as well as alleys, you taste freedom as well as captivity. We become mature with time. This is possibly the reason why I now fret when the telephone bill skyrockets, when our maid snoozes whil

There was a time when wearing nose pin by women was a custom; every married woman wore one. Nose ornament was considered more than just a trinket, it was believed that every married female should pierce her nose and wear gold to bring good luck for her other half. In many religions, women take off their nose ornaments when their husbands pass away. But those days are long gone; today young and unmarried girls pierce their nose and wear trendy trinkets as a symbol of stylishness. In our day wearing a nose pin is more a craze than a custom. It was during the late 1990s when wearing nose pin emerged as a fashion symbol among teenagers and adolescents of Dhaka. High school goers flocked to beauty salons like Woman's World, La Belle and Persona to have their nose pierced. At one time, piercing nose was a matter of panic for most women. The reason was that the entire process of pricking nose was intensely painful. However, this scenario is not true anymore. Today, you can pierce your