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
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.
