A compilation of all the cover and inner illustrations I've done in 2021 for The Daily Star, the largest circulating daily English language newspaper in Bangladesh.
Who here remembers Snapchat's infamous "flower crown" filter from 2015? A show of hands, please.
Everyone with a smartphone simply couldn't get enough of it… until there was a new augmented reality (AR) filter to top the flower crown's popularity. And then came another. And yet another, leading up to the massive collections of AR filters that are presently available on every other social networking application.
Facebook eventually caught up with Snapchat's AR technology in 2017, with the release of Camera Effects on the former's platform. By 2019, AR filters had evolved from being a product from personal use to being an essential tool in promotional strategies...
Dyslexia is a learning difference (or a disability) of neurological origin that manifests itself when a person begins learning to read. In Bangladesh, dyslexia is a concept alien to most educators and parents, and many dyslexic people themselves.
Dyslexia can be found in people from all walks of life, if diagnosed well. Although the demographical data is likely to vary, dyslexia is said to affect roughly around 10 percent of the population globally. A study in 2015 revealed a 9.02 percent prevalence rate of dyslexia in the primary schools of Dhaka...
Flipflopping on decisions and positions has become enshrined in law in Chapasthan.
A parliament session decided that under the Retraction Act, which has wide-ranging and ever-evolving power, the government will be able to change any policy decision at any time.
Also under the act, no one will be allowed on the streets unless they go right back in again, and then emerge outside again, said a lawmaker who had nothing to do with the decision...
Fleeting days, lingering nights. What's expected to sink the mercury yet makes it reach great heights. What am I?
You guessed it right, it's a sorry winter.
As lowest temperatures "surge" every season and headlines obsess over cold wave forecasts, overtime, we have witnessed changes in Mother Nature's bitter cold guise. I am supposed to be shivering under covers, sipping hot tea (or hot chocolate as I'd prefer) with my numb fingertips prancing across the keyboard. It is mid-January; the calendar should scream winter. But, #WhereIsMyWinter...
Climate change is a global issue impacting every country on every continent, albeit unequally. Vulnerable groups and populations who are least responsible for this mess are on track to suffer the most. Some countries and companies are bigger emitters than the rest. The inaction of world leaders and exploitation by major corporations are significant drivers of climate change.
What is really going on...
This entire city was engulfed in chaos.
Everywhere he went — the kachabazars, the bus stands, the banks of the poison-black river — there seemed to be no respite from noise, or from the concrete blocks of buildings, towering over him imposingly. Instead of trees, the roads were flanked by electric poles, and instead of branches, they were threaded by coils of wire more tangled than a crow's nest...
On March 22, 2020, the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exam was announced as postponed due to Covid-19. This ensued a series of more delays and taxing uncertainty on the students' part. Many resumed preparing for their HSC exams and started preparing for admission tests simultaneously, many could only find it within themselves to handle the stress that comes with the former...
A young man walks into a concert at his university, dressed in clothes that bring out his best. With a fresh trim and a spring in his step, he walks up to a group of friends from school he hasn't met in over a year. Before a conversation develops, someone quips, "Dude, you're getting rounder every day, heh?"...
Liquid (noun) [C/U]: a substance that flows easily and is neither a gas nor a solid.
From the given definition, we can gather that a liquid's most distinguishable characteristic is its ability to conform to the nature of its surroundings, be it a vessel or just a flat surface. Could the same theory be applied to people who mould different aspects of their personalities according to the company they keep...
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
We have been trying to find an answer to this question for ages now, and while some scientists may have come up with their own versions of the answer (is there a correct answer?), what's more interesting is the debate the chicken and the egg have created. On a very different note, studying abroad too raises some questions that warrant debate. After all, it's education; dreams are on the line, the future is at stake...
