2025 did not yield results that I can be proud of, but I should say I survived the year with dignity to move on. I feel my social circles have grown so big along with the increased pressure at work, that it sometimes hinders my thesis work. I became the Director of the Honors Program at DIU which is challenging yet time consuming along with instant projects apart from my regular course work as a faculty member. This year my procrastination took another turn to surprise me even more. Right after coming back from the Europe trip, I attended a couple of programs - the drone show at Manik Mia Avenue, drama fest and Change Together at Daffodil, Milon Mela at Channel i. It was surprising that Shykh Sir called the old ones and gave time to hear from us. Went to Savar this time for Puja Mondop hopping and the music, dhaak and ambience were awesome! 💥
In July we witnessed the Milestone tragedy where an unprecedented airplane crash took the lives of many children, teachers and staff. August marked the one year of the July revolution and gave rise to so many questions about how things were during the uprising and where the country is moving towards. We went to Ma’s place for khanadana and this was the last time I think Ma was completely 100%. By the end of the year she suffered from pains and became terribly weak with loss of weight. Khala is also suffering with high diabetes and a growing infection. 😟
On 2nd September I had my proposal defense online - waking up at 6am, presenting my 3 chapters to the examiners, getting loads of corrections on the loopholes. I dreaded the outcome but my supervisor informed me a couple of hours later that I passed. Weirdly, after this I lost almost all motivation to redo the chapters. I just worked on the surface level to finalize with my supervisor about the next direction in October before he left for South Korea for a conference but didn’t do much substantial work. It’s bugging me constantly at the back of my head, but the procrastination is not going away either. 😣
In November nationwide panic started due to the 5.4 earthquake striking Dhaka with 4 aftershocks and 10 dead because of it. After a long break I visited an art exhibition in Dhaka at Shipakala Academy and felt how much I miss doing these things. Hosted a couple of programs at KGC including the 15th Mobil Cup Golf Tournament's closing.
On 19th December I participated in the Infinity Run for the Earth (7.5 km) after a one-year gap. The last 1.5 km was killing me, but I made it and it gave me such a confidence boost!
I just practiced for 3 nights at the Friends Club field prior to the run to get back my stamina for the marathon. Physically this wasn’t a great year as I did way less yoga and chikungunya had its toll. Suffered so much! I could start working at the university after a week, but it made me so weak and the continued pain in joints was too much, especially early in the mornings. So I am just happy to get back on track. Also started organizing a run on the occasion of 25th DIU Founding Anniversary. Finished 4 books this year - Intimacy, Not Quite Dead Yet, Two Can Keep a Secret, and The Wedding Day. 💪
Work
My year started with Induction Training for the newly recruited faculty members and the closing of a long training held at Data Crafters. We handed over certificates to the participants on 11th January and this corporate experience will always be in the list of my fulfilling experiences. Daffodil Family Day took place with vibrant colors and I got an award for one of my photos under the “Colors of Life” competition. Visited IOM Office in Gulshan for future collaboration for our students and I hosted two podcasts on the occasion of International Migration Day. On 24th January we had DIU Founding Anniversary and the department celebrated it in a different manner. On 3rd February the whole HRDI team went to the Basecamp and had a fun team-building day: it was physically challenging. On 9th February DIU's 12th Convocation was held. We had a little rough time at the program conduction committee. The freshers' reception took place on 13th February and we all wore bashonti colored attire to celebrate Falgun. I joined the International Student Conference on English Studies as a session chair invited by the Head of the Department of Stamford University. It always feels so warm being remembered by the colleagues of my previous workplace.
We had a short tour to Sreemangal at the end of February with the department's students and a few faculty members. During the tour I went to Shuvonn’s (an ex-student of Stamford) house and met his parents and nephew. Two phases of training sessions were conducted for Dewhirst Group in February and April. I was invited as a special guest at the 12th freshers debate championship’s closing on 12th March at Stamford University. It brought back so many memories…thank goodness that the guards recognized me as I stepped into the familiar yet new Siddeshwari Campus.
On 30 March I started for Spain in Saudi Arabian Airlines. My first trip to Europe!! Starting with Camp Nou in Madrid, then UCAM Campus, Archeological Museum, Museum of Fine Arts and Cathedral of Saint Mary in the beautiful Murcia, Roman amphitheater of Cartagena, the Gothic Quarter and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, then heading to Paris for 2 days seeing the Eiffel Tower, viewing the artifacts in the colossal Louvre Museum, walking nonstop and trying different cuisines summed up the trip pretty much. This was all under the Erasmus+ project; I mainly went to attend the staff mobility week at UCAM.
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| Spain and France |
Towards the end of May I organized TEDx as a co-convenor and could bring only 5 speakers on board. The best talk was by Dr. Awsaf Karim and right after he stepped into our campus, we bonded so well. In June we developed a logo for the DIU Honors Program. In July we had a fatafati potluck party at the department and big changes happened at the university - new VC and Pro-VC got charge of academic affairs.
Shajal left his job earlier, but we arranged a farewell party for him during a boat journey. His leaving left a big hole in me at the workplace, though we haven’t worked together on projects for quite some time now. 😔It was Shajal who brought me into HRDI. The department's regular semester-wise orientation program was also held and we brought the assistant director of Bangladesh Betar, our alumnus at the program, to provide career guidelines to the new students. I also participated in a departmental podcast titled ‘Beyond the Syllabus’ as a guest. In July I moderated a session titled ‘Soft Skill Development: Bridging the Employability Skills Gaps’ at the IACSummit 2025. Two mega events were held at the university in which I took part as an organizer and a facilitator. I conducted a session on ‘The Art of Pitching’ for 8 foreign students as part of the Asia Summer Program. HRDI organized the Asia Pacific Faculty Development Program (APFDP) in collaboration with the International Office. At the same time we had the inauguration of DIU Honors Program. Unfortunately, I had chikungunya and couldn’t attend the last two days of the program.
In August Hanif Bhai left the station; it was an unfortunate incident. The HR Director also left the university, another unfortunate incident. I started working on a creative writing competition project with the Library. From the department we had a student research presentation program for 2 days on AI in education. We also hosted the ambassador of the Philippines and Duke of Braganza at our campus.
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| Picturesque Philippines |
On 9th September Eiten and I travelled to the Philippines for a 10-day long official trip where we visited 4 universities i.e. Pampanga State University, Biliran Province State University, Samar State University and Northwest Samar State University. We conducted sessions for students and faculty members, presented plenary speeches at ICMAR 2025, attended cultural immersion programs, tasted food (I gained weight!). I even brought back Filipino shutki and a filipiano (which I still haven’t got a chance to wear). The visit to Dalutan Island and giving interviews were really exciting. In the same month we organized a farewell party for 4 of our colleagues (Nujhat, Shishir, Bipasha and Adnan) who left the station.
In October Prof. Mustafa came for a visit from Purdue and we had a busy week in organizing all the events including the teaching excellence award ceremony and a couple of workshops for him. He brought a beautiful perfume for me. Shajal gave us a treat in his honor at the Royal Garden Restaurant. We had an unfortunate clash between students of City University and DIU. It led to the injury of many of our students and I paid a visit to the hospital to see an English student.
On 8th November I went to AIUB to evaluate students’ research paper presentations and met many former colleagues. The department orientation program was a blast in November as it was held in Bonomaya and teachers participated in a fashion walk. Otijjher Haat was also a blast! Conducted a session on Communication Strategies for the educators of MGI group at the end of November. I conducted special sessions for the students of Employability 360.
In December we had the TESOL BD-DIU International Conference and it was an opportunity to meet my former Stamford colleagues along with luminaries from the ELT field. We had international guests too and I hosted 3 podcasts with them. Even though it was a success, we had to go through a lot during the last 2 weeks coordinating many things. On 4th December HRDI team had an outing at Sunset Beans in Mirpur and Director Sir gave us a sumptuous treat. HRDI’s regular outing and eating out has become a norm and we have the treat timeline in writing now on our glass wall.
Weddings
Nusrat's wedding took place early this year and the puran Dhaka kacchi was yum! Many people started tying the knots as the wedding season began later - Obayed (after his long search for a perfect bou), DIU colleague Sanjida Shoma (loved the boarding pass wedding card!) and cousin Alisa in October, HRDI colleague Nadya in November, SA TV colleague Farhana in December and Brishty in November and December with 5 programs (haldi night, sangeet, nikah, kawali and reception) in total. Apu came over twice to attend the programs and it was such an emotional trip for her after 9 long years of Khalamoni’s passing. Had to miss Dr. Awsaf and Shanto’s wedding programs due to other involvements.
Friends
Antara and Shampa both coincided their arrival in Dhaka in January and we had a quick short meet-up together. Monir came from Australia in February and called me up to meet. Suddenly, my place was filled with a lot of haukaus, the smell of food and memories about Stamford and SDF. We also had SA's presenters hangout in March and September. Bushra came over in July and we watched a very different type of movie - Simon’s Onnodin and roamed around the old part of Dhaka, especially Ahsan Manjil for a day and ate Hanif Biriyani, paan and drank Beauty shorbot. Mahtab also came for a visit from London. Zia Bhai came over and we had a breakfast outing this year. His presence is always inspiring and I love the Stamford reminiscence, especially after Feroz Sir and Madam’s passing. Tanya came over in October and we had lunch at the hyped place Durbin Bangla. I could finally meet Arpi for an outing in March but she has been going through a lot with Uncle-Aunty’s health issues along with hers later and I kept tapping on her to see how she has been doing. Along the way we had some deep conversations. Mukit came to meet us in November only to say goodbye as his flight was on the same night. Met his son Mohammad and his mom for the first time. Humaira and her family returned to Dhaka in December for a short visit and we reconnected over rooftop BBQ and roaming here and there.
Tomtom
The publication process for Comes the Dawn started including page makeup, and proof reading in January. Azad Bhai (the publisher) himself did a photo shoot for Parisa and the photos came out beautiful! 14th February was a Friday and we were invited to Shampa-Mamun's newly built home in Kapashia and during the day we came to know that Comes the Dawn is coming at the stand that very day! It was so exciting for us! We rushed back to Dhaka after lunch and then headed for Bangla Academy. The Creative Dhaka Publications’ stall had the hot-from-the-press book ready and we were over the moon. The long project finally materialized! We had a soft launch right in front of the stall on 15th Feb with the writer cum colleague Zakia Noor Matin, Stamford students and a few friends. Parisa attended a couple of interviews and nailed it!
Eating out with Tompy has become a hobby and foodie passion. Parisa gave me a fuchka treat and I secretly started planning for her birthday in November. The birthday party was a blast except for the fact she didn’t like the cake. On 18th December I took Parisa and her 3 friends to attend Aarong’s Fake Wedding (the holud night) and it was fun. Parisa bagged quite a few awards in her bag including the best delegate (Crisis Committee) at Sunnydale MUN Session IV, the best delegate (UNGA) and the outstanding delegate (UNSC) at Scholastica MUN Session IX, special mention 1 award at DRMCMUN and silver award at the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition. She also bloomed as an organizer and helped BIT organize Lit and Art Fest as President and BIT MUN Session V as the Under-Secretary General of Academics. She changed the name of her band to Five Second Elevator and continued playing volleyball etc. Can’t say how proud I feel when I look at the strong opinionated girl! 😀
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| Tomtom ❤️ |
Attended the celebration for 50 years of teaching for Dr. Syed Manzoorul Islam and Syed Anwarul Huq on 22nd January and sadly SMI Sir passed away towards the end of this year which was heartbreaking for so many of his direct students and mentees. 😟Choto Khalu passed away in November. I was very saddened about the deaths of Jane Goodall, the primatologist, Anas Jamal, the Palestinian journalist, and Rakib Hasan, teen goyenda writer. December saw the passing of Osman Hadi and Begum Khaleda Zia and the worry about where the country is heading to as election date was announced in February 2026. As we say goodbye to this year and welcome the new year, I hope our country fares well. I’m also desperately hoping that I can get over my procrastination and progress on my thesis as well this upcoming year.
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