The Unfinished List of 2025

Creating a Difference in 2024

What makes people pursue new goals even when they're in their mid 40s? I think the answer lies in the desire to create a difference in the world when you yourself have gone through many life experiences and changes. My plan for a PhD now has a bigger purpose– to make language skill development for adult learners more effective. The first half of this year saw some good work in terms of my thesis development; May 2024 was the most productive. After I returned to Dhaka in July, though, research work was halted. 

My year started in Kuala Lumpur and a day trip in the beautiful Portuguese established city, Melaka. When I came back to Dhaka to conduct the pilot study (conducted at a garments manufacturer company in Khagan) for a few months, I didn’t miss Malaysia much, as I knew I would go back again. After I finally came back by the end of June, however, I felt so sad leaving my dorm room at the campus with all its establishment for the temporary stay, the USM campus in Penang, Apu’s place in KL… As I look back now, it seems like another time! 

One good news to kick off the new year was my moral child Sawda Khatun successfully completed HSC and started her university studies in Begum Rokeya University Rangpur. A small joy I experienced this year, and one I’d like to share, was how I randomly kept finding money in my bags. I’m not sure why, but it made me really excited. I also enjoyed deshi food after a long break, which brought a relief to my taste buds. Connecting to friend and acquaintances is always satisfying and I had one such occasion while attending the golden jubilee of Tiny Tots and Summerfield Int. School which was my first workplace. My Stamford colleagues remembered me when they published a magazine Parnassus from StrayBird and sent it to me. This kind of gestures made me feel so special!

The Charismatic Anjum Apa

Work

During my 4-month long return to Dhaka, I attended DIU Family Day and the 11th Convocation at Daffodil even though I was on leave. I also went on a day trip to Chandpur to meet the teachers of Daffodil School for a training session. I started presenting news during this time and had to listen to crap about how difficult it is to rejoin after a long break. After coming back finally and rejoining, university work consumed my time extensively with teaching 3 courses to undergraduate students, leading a few corporate training programs, preparing a draft for honors program in collaboration with Purdue University Fort Wayne, and organizing a few programs here and there (like the 14th NAQCE). 

Work Pictures 

Even though I taught the courses before, there was new content for the 20th Century Poetry course for which I needed further preparation. What I didn’t know was that we wouldn’t be able to conduct classes and things would come to a complete halt with the students’ protest about quota. 6 days without any sort of communication with the outside world was momentous. Things escalated from mid July and reached the peak on 5th August with Hasina on the run. I went to Jahangirnagar University, and places around Uttara to show solidarity. I feel thankful for the fact that I was able to stay unharmed, since in different places, people were even dying.

Revolution

The political situation is still not stable and sometimes I feel scared about the future, but people still hope for better days– life moves on with the survivors mourning for the dead. Right after the upsurge, we observed wakes, and Parisa went out a couple of times to paint the roads and walls of the city. Also, Poly left Bangladesh for University Louisiana at Lafayette. Afterwards, the country suffered from one of the worst floods ever, which meant the newly-appointed Interim Government faced a lot of bumps in managing the situation. Things started rolling again at the end of August and we celebrated Bangladesh 2.0 in September with our loved ones. Meanwhile at Daffodil Shykh Seraj Sir dropped by for shooting for Mati o Manush and we talked after ages! Talked to Harun Bhai after a long while too. It was great to know that Joyee is all grown up and studies in Medical Science at the University of Arkansas.

Apart from my regular classes, I started conducting training sessions for 5 different organizations (for example, ACI) and this put extra pressure on me. This also contributed to commuting long distances in Dhaka, having no time for myself and my thesis, and getting a terrible flu which lasted for days! Ahadnan had a terrible accident which made HRDI a bit unsettled. I continued hosting programs for the golf clubs, but still didn’t get payment for one which taught me the importance of saying NO to people.

One exciting thing that happened was to attend ‘The Untold Journey’ for Campus Radio. I also interviewed the Deputy Chief of Mission, IOM and Acting High Commissioner of Australia in BD for Campus TV. My advising 20th batch arranged a get together (kind of a farewell) where I was overwhelmed with the gifts.

Advising Batch

New Skills/Interests

I enrolled myself for driving lessons early this year and managed to learn the basic stuff. Still, the thought of actually driving on the roads scares me.

On 18 October Tompy and I attended our very first marathon organized by Trail Break. This was due to Amir’s persuasion, but I’m happy that I started this. I joined 2 more marathons - UCR and BOA in December. 

Marathon Finisher!

I finished 3 books (Intimacy by Hanif Qureshi, Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Vegetarian by Han Kang) this year, went to visit puja mandaps in the old town after a long time and some of the sights gave me the feeling that some things never change in that part of the town. Like when I visit Dhanmondi, I feel that I don’t know the place anymore after living there for 3 years (2005-2008). Things have changed so much!

Friends

Zareen and I watched ‘Crew’, had iftar, went to Charukola the day before ‘Pohela Boishakh’, attended a Renaissance concert which brought back so many girlhood memories, and visited Helen’s place for an invitation. Tanya dropped by in October again, but Zareen didn’t come and meet us. Apparently, she’s having some sort of friendship crisis. Met Asma/Alpana and Shampa in January, Zia Bhai in April, Dr. Mustafa in July, Mahtab also came for a visit from London in November, and Bushra and Azad came from Australia in December.

Outing with Buddies

Tomtom

Tomtom and I continued exploring different food joints, having sehri at a place, attending boi mela, shopping, and taking rickshaw rides. One rewarding experience for both of us was visiting Hajera Apa and her children in Bosila. She wrote a piece on this gold-hearted woman and submitted for Harvard Crimson Golden Essay Competition. But more than writing an informative essay I think meeting the children who were over the moon getting those small gifts from us was more fulfilling.

Hajera Apa

Just before I left for Malaysia, she had to go to the dentist and we found several caries which needed immediate attention, and finally she completed her dentist visits later this year. She cut her long hair short and then colored the ends orange on 31 August. Parisa showed significant development in her academic and extracurricular activities for which I am super proud of. She obtained the first position in her class along with achieving bronze in the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition, getting awards (special mention followed by outstanding delegate and best policy paper) for Model United Nations, playing for a band and performing on the stage (she even made a logo for their band ‘Noise Control’), playing volleyball etc.

Tompy's Achievements - Int. Language League at NSU & Scholastica MUN

She scored the highest for the midterm exam and earned a new Vivo phone. But the greatest feat is the completion of two books, one of poetry and another a novella. We're so excited at the prospect of publishing the novella in the Ekushey Boi Mela next year! The publishing house, Creative Dhaka Publications, is a promising one too. 

Family

Family gathered at my place on my birthday and Eid day which was fun, but property issues sneaked in and no matter how Raj tried to evade it, things started rolling in and we had to make some unpleasant decisions. On 12 October we went for a short trip to Shayan Resort and had a good time. We celebrated Tompy’s birthday at La Mirchi and had a fun experience there as the workers and some other customers participated in our celebration too.

Family

Abbu came over a couple of times, but the last time he couldn’t climb up the stairs to come inside our place due to having weak knees. Abbu also keeps forgetting stuff. One of the painful incidents of the year was the goodbye to Khala in April. After living with us for more than 16 years, she had to go back to her daughter Rina’s family to spend time with her two grandchildren and one grand-grand child. It was a difficult decision, but I had to do it. 

Goodbye to Khala

Unfortunately, Baba was hospitalized during Ramadan and had to go to Birdem for a few days. Sasuma has been suffering from different ailments and appears to be shrunk in size. 

Malaysia Days

By the end of April I flew back to KL first and then to Penang. The stay with Apu and V2 Bhaiya was pleasant and yummy as they always stuff me with food. I got settled in Shapla’s room when I reached campus and had a painful experience in hauling all my stuff from H06 to H51 by myself only to discover that I got my own room (no. 150) within a month! Luckily it was in the same building and the shifting was less of a trouble. Bought a fridge from Shapla and some other necessary stuff and my own room looked the best! But good times don’t last long; another student popped in in the adjacent room and she was messy with our common toilet. Apu and V2 Bhaiya came over to Penang in May to celebrate Apu’s birthday on the 17th. As usual we stayed at the age-old luxurious Eastern and Oriental for a few days and did a photoshoot. Bhasha, an ex Stamford student, came over to meet me for a while. I also attended a meeting with the Vice Chancellor of USM when the Bangladeshi Ambassador came for a visit, a piano recital and a play by a French writer. May was the most productive month as I finally finished the drafts of all 3 chapters and submitted them to my supervisor. Just before leaving for Dhaka, he was able to sit with me to give feedback on Chapter 1, and I was amazed at his scrutiny and admired how he delivered his comments. Poly had her baby girl Yusra on 30th May and I had a video call to see the newborn. It was so exciting that I cried!

Raj and Parisa came to Penang on 13th June and had a week-long trip. We stayed at a service apartment in Penang, went to roam around an age-old mansion, the Gurney Bay where Tomtom had a soothing time, Batu Ferringhi Beach, Gurney Plaza to explore Book Xcess, and finally the USM campus on a terribly hot day, thus couldn’t explore much before heading for the airport to catch our budget flight to KL. Apu and V2 Bhaiya had an addition to their family– Mimi, along with their son Milo. We spent 4 days there eating (a lot!), exploring TRX (The Exchange), Petronas Twin Towers. V2 Bhaiya cooked biryani for Eid and Raj finally gave a treat at their favorite hill-top restaurant. Spent a day shopping and Tomtom bought a very expensive pair of boots. 

Malaysia Family

Made friends with Kim from China, Noha from Egypt, Nabia from Pakistan, Fairos and Faris from Malaysia, Richard from Malawi, Hanif from Indonesia, Joul from Morocco and two girls from Thailand at the Bakti Cafeteria. There was almost no contact with Emina and sometimes I wonder how she is in China. Meanwhile Miao got engaged to her police boyfriend and Faris had a son. Meeting Ethan and Jacob again in person was fun too. I felt sad saying goodbye to them too as I felt this might be the last time we would see each other physically. The journey back home was distressing as Malindo had a dreadful delay. Even though they offered free dinner, it was tiring.

Our 2024

Globally the genocide in Palestine is still going on even though the Assad regime toppled in Syria. There was not a single day when news from these places didn't horrify me. Many people passed away in 2024, but a few made me more saddened like DIU Registrar Fazlul Hoque Sir, Harry Potter actress Maggie Smith, The Shining actress Shelley Duvall, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Tany’s mother, BIT’s founder principal Lubna Choudhury and our own Samad Mama. The cycle of life and death goes on with people passing away and Pikachu babies like Yusra coming in. That's life.

2023 - a year of growth and separation

The year started busily with a Colloquium, Teaching Apprentice Fellowship Program, and newly recruited teachers training where I took sessions, training at DIS, 21st founding anniversary of DIU, DIU convocation program, family day where Parisa recited Shakespeare's poem. 

Then, we went to IUBAT with students to watch Macbeth performance, and to Momota Palli for our family picnic. Meanwhile, my registration at USM was complete, so I kept attending online workshops as a warmup activity. In March, adjudicated debate after ages at a program organized by Dnet, felt nostalgic thinking about Stamford Debate Forum... Going to the Joy Bangla concert was also exciting, but didn't enjoy as much as I had expected. Talking about performance, Parisa was Rosalind on the stage for As You Like It and she rocked! 

She also added more feathers by becoming the runner up in an essay competition and securing the 2nd position in the final exam while being promoted to class 8. She continued to participate in debate competition and gladly got back her interest in piano playing. The year ended with her yearly recital. 

Met Mukta Apa and Humaira as they visited Bangladesh. Parisa and I kept trying new places to hang out and eat. During Ramadan, eating iftar together in different groups continued and then Eid came over. Parisa suddenly seemed all grown up with a different look. 

During Eid a groundbreaking thing happened; that is me and my daughter went to Abbu's place, and he treated us with juice and fruits and was very happy. Abbu's place looked just the same, my books, the room I lived in...as if time left my room untouched! It was a very nostalgic experience for me. 

During Eid I visited a few places of family members just to take doa as I'd be leaving soon. Meeting Chachi was something that I'd be always be grateful about because that was the last time I saw her. Tanya came over, so had our friends' outing too. I went to Tangail with Tithi, and loved visiting her house and eating all the delicacies by her mom.

People's love always showers and surprises me. Just before leaving for USM, I was showered with many goodbye gifts, hugs and love. My students also presented skits of alternate ending to Shakespeare's plays we studied, and some productions exceeded my expectations. 

But this year will be marked as a special one for I've been away from my country, my family, friends and loved ones for the longest period. I missed deshi food and hugging my people the most. All this is due to my long due PhD and finally as I registered myself at the School of Educational Studies of USM, I feel thankful for doing this. Abbu became the happiest and I hope he can see the completion of the journey. Living by myself has its perks, but I think I managed it pretty well. In terms of studies, I suffered from a couple of bumps, especially with the prospectus presentation. But I'm learning by doing and getting a little better along the journey. Learnt a new language Bahasa Melayu as well. This was a bit demanding with the research work but enjoyed that too. I became one of the Excos of USM international students' body and this inclusion led me to visit new states - Kelantan, Perak, Selangor apart from the already visited ones - KL, Johor Bahru, Putrajaya, and Penang. Participating in the team building in the health campus and the Buddies Jamboree in UKM was really invigorating experiences. 

I helped organize the International Food Fiesta in September and Postgraduate Orientation in December. I made many new friends on the way, a few I'll definitely keep in touch; not to mention trying new food which I love. But one thing I can't really stand is Malaysian's love for gula (sugar) in almost everything! My love for spicy food rather increased. I worked for a voluntary organization called Tzu Chi. That was a rewarding experience too teaching English to Malaysian kids coming from low-income families.

This year will be also noteworthy because of the genocidal attack of Israel on Palestine. Being a commoner staying far away I could do what could be done - boycotting, and sharing in social media. There were days when I cried uncontrollably looking at the horrific images/ videos. 

As I'm traveling on the final day of 2023 and feeling really excited that I'll see everyone very soon and will be able to hug them, a sense of longing fills my heart, and I look forward to 2024.

2022 - a year of love, growth & progress

Family

2022 became special for so many reasons. In case of Parisa, she became a teen with varied interests in volleyball, karate, acting, debating, writing fictions, and piano. ☺ Parisa had her first experience in debating in April at Language League, but then she took up Model United Nations organized by A Foundation, then Scholastica and again A Foundation. Now she's being chosen as Campus Ambassador for BIT in A Foundation's moderated caucus. She learnt volleyball quickly and participated in a competition at AISD by the end of September, started her karate lessons in August but then gave a break for mid exam, and coincidentally she is going to perform in Shakespeare's As You Like It (a text I teach in my Shakespeare course at DIU) in 2023!!

She surprises me with her steadfastness and approach towards things, though her expression of emotions doesn't match mine. But it has a positive side. I savor the rare moments when she comes and hugs me and says 'I love you'. In my case, a giant leap is enrolling myself in a PhD program at USM (yes, finally!). This time I submitted a proposal which is of my interest and from my work area unlike the MPhil proposal which was far fetched. The prospect of going away from family even for a short while is a bit unnerving 😓 taking into consideration the financial constraints that we'll be facing but at the same time exciting. 2022 was also an FB free year for me and I consider it quite an achievement! Staying away from social media isn't an easy decision. Interestingly in the physical world, I celebrated my birthday with 4 cakes! The usual birthday celebrations in the family continued though Raj's one was low-key with us and Jico, Rana at Sao 26. Parisa's birthday was spent with her friends; this time I didn't cook anything or order a special cake. Eid celebration went to a peak with Mami's gift of an expensive Aarong shari.💥 Shopping with her is quite an experience! We had Qurbani with Poly's family like the previous year. Wedding celebrations also took place - Mukit got married, I couldn't attend the wedding, so we took them out to a Trouvaille dinner. Jico got hitched again in May only to be divorced again within 2.5 months. 😔 Samiha got married to a doctor in December and I couldn't make it either. 

The year started with a visit from Liza from the UK, Nishu and then Halum & Azad from Australia, Dr. Ahmed Mustafa (met him for the very first time), Emrul from Australia & Zisa from the USA. 

Friends & Family from Abroad

Parisa got into trying out new recipes and baking. She also stepped out of her comfort zone to try out Korean, Japanese dishes. Her tolerance for spices also increased. Her love for anime grew which was manifested by attending the Animecon, buying animes, reading and watching them. I watched Fullmetal Alchemist & Attack on Titans with her and started Assassination Classroom. In the academic field she scored poorly in Bangla and Mathematics in the first session of class 6, so we hired Orbeen as a private tutor for her who did an excellent job with math and science in 6 months! She improved so much that she came 2nd while being promoted to class 7 and came 9th in the Math Olympiad in November. But then things didn't quite work out with Orbeen and we had to put her in a coaching group. Luckily, she got accustomed to the different teaching techniques and became an independent learner. Can't say how proud I'm when I see her studying on her own, researching for debate motions, going to school alone…. 💙

My HRDI jobs became demanding and revenue oriented. Started going to corporate houses (SGS and ACI Ltd) for conducting English courses. I think a few white hairs on my head are due to this pressure. Involvement with HRDI grew with iftar gathering, birthday celebration, eating outs etc. Shajal went away in May for his PhD and had a little bit of trouble in managing things. Moreover, I made myself productive by conducting some value-added workshops under the HRDI banner on news presentation, breathing and mindfulness, and English for professional use.

I went back to Stamford to conduct a workshop on news presentation and nostalgia hit hard by visiting the Shiddheswari's old building. One sad news was Rumana's demise in December at such an early age leaving two kids with Oli. Academically this year also became a milestone with my first Scopus publication. Will remember the Google Meets with Subrata and Poly to finalize the paper. Physically, I could do a moderate arm stand in yoga. The excitement I felt after doing it for the first time was evident with a shriek. 

One heartbreaking news of the year was Halum and Bossy's divorce. Came to know about this in April from Halum, and Bossy came for a visit in December only to talk about things when they were finally done. Another divorce rocked Dhaka which was Tania Apu's. She came to our place for the first time and we got along pretty well. Tanzu got another reception in June only to leave for Australia. Attending the program was a better experience than before because I didn't cry this time! Raj's love for Marvel didn't diminish and we watched Thor Live and Thunder, Wakanda Forever etc in the theater. Tanya came in August and the 3 of us got back together and did some roaming around in the city. Friendship at this age has its strains, but I am happy that I could reconnect with Arpi. It was numbing to know what she went through with Aunty’s sickness during Covid, her own physical problems, struggles of Nabiha and especially 😔 because I didn’t know any of these. But everything is healed with time. 

Department got busy with arranging programs like the seminar on Post Modernism, English Olympiad, accreditation etc. My reception for the Olympiad in 2021 was given in March. My students created alternate endings to Shakespeare's plays that we studied and a few were excellent productions! Shakespeare Production (Merchant of Venice Alternate Ending

I hosted a show on TV on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth's passing away in September which was special as an ex-ambassador joined. I continued hosting programs for the golf clubs, hosted AUAP Change Together at DIU etc. People like Sakib, Mainul Bhai, Rubel, Rebekah Apa, Nahin left jobs and went to new destinations and hopefully for better prospects.

Went to watch 12 Angry Men at the theater and felt really good experiencing live theater after a long time. World Cup Football took everyone by storm and Raj was jubilant at Argentina's win. 💥

Things didn't go well with Baba as the meetings over property left a bitter taste for everyone. Raj's family also went through some financial and sickness related hiccups. However, the year ended with a reinventing yet cold trip to Narail making memories with warm hearted people of Niloy's family. 

2021 - a year of losses & gains

When I titled this as 'a year of losses and gains, I didn't just mean monetary loss/gain, but meant the passing away of loved ones and gaining new relationships, new meanings to life. 

Well the year started with a fantastic Galaxy Note 10 Lite gift from Raj and this was very special because he never gave me any mobile devices before. I also got a new laptop and when I started using the new Lenovo, I couldn't believe how I survived the online classes, meetings etc with the old tortoise-speed one for a year! Raj treated us at Hong Bao on the occasion of getting a bonus and at Thai Emerald on our anniversary. Cheers to his changes (he still continues to be nagging and annoying though...)! He also started going to the gym and the result is now pretty visible. Raj is up for a slow-mo video on a beach being topless. 😝 I am not even that much motivated about yoga like he is for the gym!

Sattar, Yasmin and Nawal in 2021

All our birthdays, Eid days were celebrated at home at a small scale. But family and friends came over as usual. Jico was extremely happy as we threw a big party on his birthday. Auronjoni celebrated her 50th birthday with us which made us feel very special. Another special thing happened when Nabiha also celebrated her birthday at our place! 

Birthdays

I particularly was moved by Forty Rules of Love written by an Egyptian writer though it took me many days to finish the novel. I had a haircut and colored my hair (a long awaited wish fulfilled) but ruined the quality of my hair in the process. But in the family things were strained with Baba, my brother and his wife, and I left it as it is after creating a ripple. In the other family Tanzu got married on 22nd January and it was an emotional experience for me seeing her in the red attire... and not to mention that I cried at the wedding! I could fix things with Amma but I didn't put that effort. Abbu did alright but had a little accident towards the end of the year which caused a nosebleed and he stopped walking outside. Choto Fupu had a terrible highway accident. I had a little accident on day after Eid while going to Sasuma's place in a cng. The experience was scary...

We started the year with a family picnic in Gazipur. Afterwards I went to Brahmanbaria with Poly on a special occasion and loved the warmth of the people there. It was the chilly winter time with shorisha flower, hot cup of tea and pitha. Felt like going back to village after ages and it reminded me a lot of Dadu Bari. We had short visits to 'golap gram', sunflower field and here and there...  

Trips

Hassib's Ammu, Quamrun Nahar Madam, Faria's husband, Mou's husband passed away. These losses were untimely and sometimes I was shook to my bones... 😔 Dilruba left for Sweden. In the pet world Chimty lost her new born kittens once and then ended up having only Nero during her second pregnancy. Our house has become a shelter for cats and we also babysat a neighbor's cat! We lost TT, then Maya on 9th November. I can't erase the ashen tongue and the look on Maya's face as we found her dead in the morning... 😭 Khala was terribly upset. She also had her doctors' visits frequently as her health deteriorated due to high diabetes after Ramadan. 

Maya ❤

Apart from all these upsetting experiences, we carried on, tried to find happiness in little things... Our cover of 'ek paye nupur' was a hit! Our Song The foundation day program of the university took place online but I had to travel to the city campus to host it live from the media lab on my birthday. 😓 That created quite a rush because I had guests coming to my place! But right at 12 midnight I got a great surprise from Poly and Ibti. It was hilarious too!

Parisa hit puberty, and the talk with her about the birds and the bees was smooth. Surprisingly, she just had one obvious question! We watched Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and thoroughly enjoyed the series. Doing things with her is really fun! Raj and I both got vaccinated, but it was very impactful for Raj after his first dose. Vaccine Impact Raj also managed to get hold of a PS5 and an Xbox, and this made home a heaven for both him and Parisa. I found it quite interesting to see that Raj took interest in home decor (but it was mostly done because of setting up those gaming consoles). 

I had a depressing time early on in the year but the department assigned me with this heavily loaded English Olympiad program and  I had to pull the whole show off in 2 months dealing with 900+ participants from Bangladesh. Thanks to two youngsters of the department - Mahmud and Sakib, without whom it would have been impossible. 

The Flyer

Campus reopened after 19 months on 9th October, and physical classes started which was a great challenge. Even during the online classes I was surprised at the showering love of the CSE students. These are little rewards of teaching. ☺ I had a trip with students to Tanguar Haor. This was also special because Parisa accompanied me, and a lazybones like her survived the sun and the painstaking trip! 👏I am glad that she decided to go out again towards the end of the year and spent 3 days in Cox's Bazar with us. Her school also opened for physical class but once a week. She started having home lessons with Zubaer to improve her results. I continued to teach her Bangla and it was sometimes a desperate task! It was surprising to see her getting interested in the Halloween program at school and her appearance with makeup surprised me a lot! My daughter is growing up! Sometimes I marvel so much about her wit, beauty and talent that I ask myself if a mom should do it. 😛

Things changed a lot at the station and I had to suffer mentally due to some drastic decisions taken by the new ED. Though things were worse at the station, things turned up at the university - I got involved in proctorial committee work, then was appointed as the Additional Director, HRDI on a special day - 7th November. I hosted 3 programs for the golf clubs; it also felt like going on to the stage after years as all activities were suspended due to Covid. I also got involved in a great project of storytelling and the first shoot was done on 20th November, till now we have two episodes (1st episode and 2nd episode). I hope one day my dream for giving voice over for animations will come true too.

I met my school friend Helen, Stamford colleague Farhana and it felt that after ages I went out with Joy to visit the puja mandaps...but there was a turmoil in the country during the time and depressing news got out about the desecration of the idols in different places. Antara came back after 5 years to celebrate puja with her parents and in-laws, and it was great  to catch up with her. I met Niloy first time this year (though I taught him first in fall 2020) and the bonding between us was amazing at the beginning, but soon we discovered - it is because we're indeed very similar in nature; he is a great soul and this I would consider as one of my gains this year. I've a son! 

Pagla Niloy

I also met Ayara's mom at Parisa's birthday and it was amazing to see how she raised her girl through lot of troubles. These human connections/relationships make my life worthwhile. Parisa continued her friendship with Farina, Nabiha, Ayara and MAK, though the boy created some tensions in the group (puberty is to blame I guess)...Parisa met and bonded really well with Raya even though their craziness over Genshin Impact is sometimes annoying. She continued her endeavors at digital art and her works actually showed gradual improvement. I hope she earns in dollars for her work! 😁 She also took an interest in cooking (snack items mostly) and most of her dishes turned out really goooood! She picked up anime music in piano and her playing also showed improvement. I don't want to comment on her music taste... it's a mixture of many things at the moment and I don't like quite a few. We watched couple of good movies which got out this year - Raya and the Last Dragon, Shang Chi, Boku no Hero Academia. Her taste buds had a change and now I have a new buddy in trying out variety of dishes. Gelatissimo and Chatime have become a favorite of both Parisa and me. She also got her bank account open at Prime Bank and I can now take loans from her. 😜

Parisa's Birthday

When I started writing this to sum up the year 2021, I thought may be I wouldn't have so much to write, but here I am finding the year as yet another significant one for our family bringing new changes...and that's what life is all about!

The Terrible 2020

We welcomed 2020 with Tutul Bhai’s song at Fire & Ice, had the family picnic in Reverie Resort, NPSB picnic in Savar Dairy Farm, DIU family Day & 18th Founding Anniversary at our Ashulia Campus, weddings, birthdays, Parisa’s school sports, Abbu’s get together for Chacha-Chachi coming from Australia. I even took students to Dhaka Art Summit at Shilpakala Academy, and to watch Hamlet in the theater. We had ‘bashanta boron’ at Uttara Campus and an international conference on Postcolonial Perspectives in February at Dhanmondi Campus. Parisa took part in a choreography from school to celebrate the 21 years of The Daily Star and also in the 9^th Inter-School Bangla Olympiad where she recited 'abar ashibo fire' but didn't get any prize. She also participated in a shooting for a program titled 'Tiffin er Fakey' for NTV. 

Parisa with her friends and at different programs

The year started in such an eventful manner but who knew things will change so drastically from March? We stayed home, played games, made funny videos, performed songs with Raj, continued teaching from home. I cooked a lot trying out YouTube recipes, I also became a barber as I gave haircut to myself, Parisa, Saniyat and Raj, but we had our proper haircut at Nagomi when businesses started opening up. Pohela Boishakh and Eid were celebrated at home. When I felt very suffocated, Raj took me to 300 feet or Dia Bari. One such memorable trip was to the 54.7 km four-lane Dhaka-Mawa Expressway. But gradually people started mingling in small groups. Ma called us and eventually in Kurbani Eid they all came to our place. Restaurants opened and we went to Horse and Horse, Coffeelicious, Tabaq, Trouvaile, Coffe Beans and Tea Leaf...our favorite places looking at cautious people. Our anniversary followed by Parisa’s birthday was celebrated at a small scale at home. Asma’s birthday was celebrated in a grand manner at Sao 26 (another favorite place) and even after the birthday dinner we kept eating and drinking.

Family Gatherings

I discovered in October that Parisa had trouble with her piano teacher Shimul Sir for long but never talked about it until I overheard one of her painful online classes. So we shifted her to DIMA. She also lost interest in her school's online classes and kept saying ‘I will study myself’, ‘I don’t understand anything’ etc. She sat for her midterm exams on her own. And now I am dreading the results. Another dreadful thing happened at news towards the end of the year and I was outrageous. I think this happened because I opened my mouth at a presenters’ get together... Well, this petty issue could be overlooked as this was nothing compared to the great loss I suffered from. I lost my Khala on 14th March and Boro Fupu on 17th May, Raj lost his Boro Khalu on 10th August – the losses were too much to bear. I felt really guilty thinking I couldn't do enough for Boro Fupu who took my mother's place when I was away from Ammu at a young age. 2020 was a year when death news became so normal that we forgot to feel stunned. Many big famous names from national & international media also disappeared. The emotional turmoil that I thought I would not experience anymore became evident when Abbu came over one day with my birth certificate and he had tears in his eyes. I cried like anything when he left. Parisa witnessed it but didn't know what to do as she had no idea how to offer solace to a grown up crying woman. 😛   

Friends

Parisa changed a lot! She became glued to the screen of the phone (we had to buy her one because of the online classes), gaming, TV etc. We watched Avatar: the Last Airbender together. The change is we used to race each other in reading books and now we watch series in Netflix. She did a few sketches, wrote chain story, did some canvas painting, created & played crossword puzzles but mostly she was glued to the screen. She took interest in digital art. She also took up cooking, made yummy pancake for which Jico went crazy, made a delicious chocolate cake for me on Mother's Day of which I ate half, also made Daduni happy with her cake, made one for her birthday as well. She has become very witty and straight forward in her comments/opinions. I found certain changes in her as to she doesn't like to be held close much, she has short responses, not emotionally expressive, but I think this is part of her growing up. Her friendship with Nabiha and Mak became stronger, as Labiba left for Dubai, she lost connection with her. Cats took over our house due to Tomtom's overenthusiasm about them, she became so involved with TT that it was a pain. When TT became sick, she cried her heart out and I had to take her to the vet. 😑

                                                                             Our Activities

I took my first online class on 18th March and this continued for the rest of the year. We had so much pressure at work that I felt suffocated at times and even thought of hibernating. The connection with present and ex students was strong. Peuly invited us at her place and cooked all her yummy dishes for us. We started attending physical office from Fall. Going to Ashulia was like a picnic for Poly and me as it gave us fresh air to breathe and a scope to roam around, soon students started to join, and we had lovely addas at Bono Maya, food at Dewan Restaurant where Shanto attended us as if we were queens. We had a great get together at Momen Sir’s place and then went for a boat ride. 

Students

I conducted couple of international programs for Daffodil, attended plenty of webinars/sessions online and ultimately became so tired of them that I would do something else after joining the session. I took part as a discussant in 2 online talk shows - Corona's Impact on the Education Sector and Women Empowerment. I continued doing yoga and saw the result shedding almost 12 kg of weight. For my appearance most of the time I faced negative comments. 😕

Colleagues 

I never write a lot about Raj but two things to mention for 2020 are - his excitement at getting PS5 and his sickness. I think Raj had COVID-19 as he became really sick early September. We had to nebulize him at home first. Then he went for COVID test which came out negative but he had all the symptoms. The doctor said he had lung infection with high BP and he gradually recovered. My in-laws also had COVID but they recovered in due time.

The three of us 💖💖💖

Well the terrible 2020 came to an end and I do hope things will go back to normal or 'the new normal'. The thought that overpowered me the most in the year was human connection. I found how life offers new connection, new relationship, new bonding so that people continue having their support system to function fully and continue living to the full extent.