Life, Dreams and Reality -- Sohel's Blog

When January comes every new year, many of us make new year's resolution that includes exercising more and eating healthier food along with many other noble goals. By the end of January, many of these goals dissipate into increasingly fading memory. Many events in life happens, we get busy at work, family, sickness, rushing to appointments, studies, and many modern distractions play in synchronous mode to get us disarrayed from our goals set at the onset of a new year. To ge t back on the noble set goals to be healthier, one of the first things we can do is to measure our current level of fitness status. Attached are two images that show tables where one can measure his or her fitness level, that can sometime proves to be inspiring to return to a healthy living. These two tables are available in  https://www.topendsports.com/ How to do push ups correctly? Check this link:  https://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Push-Up How to do squats correctly? Check this link:  http...

Stoicism talks about not to worry about the external events that one has no control of. Epictetus said, "Some things are in our control, while others are not. We control our opinion, choice, desire, aversion and in a word, everything of our own doing. We don't control our body, property, reputation, position, and in a word everything not of our own doing. Even more, the things in our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unobstructed, while those not in our control are weak, slavish, can be hindered, and are not our own." As the world entered into the human invented calendar year 2020, the drumbeats of war are reverberating, from one crazy theocratic and dictatorship based nation to another that unfortunately has a commander in chief who shows brazen instability in his words and actions. Stoicism says not to worry about the external events as an ordinary man or woman does not have any control over it, however, it brings more stress. Stoicism has good point. Do...

I thought I knew about distress, bottomless poverty and boundless miseries that many human beings under a totalitarian regime go through. I thought I understood how dehumanized many feel in every second of their brutally suppressed life. Masaji Ishikawa shattered my trifling understanding, by his slender book describing his and his family's endless sufferings in North Korea.  This is not an easy book to read. Not easy in the sense that I was in repeated shock reading the detail description, how desperate the condition in North Korea actual is, "the land of paradise" in propaganda jargon, but in reality just the opposite for most in that mysterious nation secluded from most of the world.  This is indeed a good book to read, in the sense that the English translation that I've read was done very well, detailing Masaji Ishikawa's misery filled life in depth.  Masaji Ishikawa and his family, his Korean father, Japanese mother and siblings were duped in 19...

Bangladesh Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu termed the U.S Embassy's rightful statement regarding the beating of students in the peaceful protests as "poking its nose in Bangladesh's internal politics in an indecent way" - that does not sound coming from a minister of a democratically elected government, representing a nation which is also signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Here is what US Embassy in Dhaka had stated in its Facebook post: " Nothing can justify the brutal attacks and violence over the weekend against the thousands of young people who have been peacefully exercising their democratic rights in supporting a safer Bangladesh" US Embassy as everyone one else has the right to speak against any brutal attacks and violence on unarmed middle school, high school and university students that did happen mostly from Saturday.  There was no need of this reprehensible crackdown. Students were protesting peacefully, t...

Nah! It's all rumor, lies and deception The earth is flat and the sun moves around We never gone to moon, all fabrication Only the words of throne hold the ground Didn't they tell all will be well and good? Goons will not beat the innocents with sticks And machetes but will bring delicious food Dangerous roads will be cleaned, free of freaks You have the full freedom of expression Can say anything, do peaceful protest No one will imprison you, commotion Will not be the norm, nor be the pretext To maintain the peace and tranquility Of a loving "desh", full of fragrant rose Where ministers serve with humility and kisses, so alive! Not comatose Where the people have the backbone intact Not afraid to say what has to be said And the children can learn, play, and react Running boys and giggling girls with black braid --------------------------------------------------------------- August 6, 2018 Mahbubul Karim (Sohel) This satirical poem is ded...

We live in the age of internet when quick communications through social media is the norm. Some of these news sources look to be true and some of them seem to be dramatized to pursue an ulterior agenda. Seeing various news sources, including some videos and news articles regarding Bangladeshi students protest movement that started last week after at least two high school students had lost their lives when a bus hit them while they were waiting to get on the bus, I am trying to understand actually what is happening in Bangladesh, a country where I lived my nostalgic childhood, where my siblings, parents, grand parents, cousins, uncles, aunts, long gone ancestors and many of my close childhood friends were born. This particular tragic event stirred a movement among the students whose demand is to have safer roads in Bangladesh, where thousands of people die every year from road accidents and many of them are students going to school or returning home from school.  When I was g...

Modern nation states need trade. The unprecedented prosperity, stability and peace that exist in majority of world nations, except some heartbreaking war zones, need uninterrupted trade between nations. The recent tariff set by various nations that hurt a wide segment of the business world, and eventually the general populace bear the cost. It's not productive. It does not bring peace in the end. Historically, from ancient time to recent memories, violent wars broke out among various nations due to miscalculations, misinterpretations and to placate domestic political constituents. The legitimate and sometimes not legitimate fears of rising nations by the nations with the most global or regional power at the time, put otherwise friendly nation states at each other's throat. It begins with manageable small skirmishes, then it expands to larger battles, and full scale war as it happened during First and the Second World Wars, costing the lives of millions of innocent people, de...

Astrophysics does not need to be filled with the unexplained technical jargon that only specialists or very keen readers can decipher. Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the finest astrophysicists who, like another prominent astrophysicist before him named Carl Sagan, has mastery in explaining complex astronomical concepts and mysterious cosmic phenomena in a tone and accessible language that most readers can grasp. I am glad I have read his "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry". The title kind of indicates that it's written for a quick review of astrophysics. It's true, but it also gives an illuminating glimpse of our mysterious universe and an urgency, like the word "hurry" to have some sense of our very existence. From the very start, the 0th time of big bang to all the way of 21st century's era of technological marvels, Tyson gives a good synopsis on how everything came about that surround us every moment but most of us remain oblivious to its origin....

"Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" is a very well written book, a sequel to Yuval Noah Harari's magnificent "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". The writer's accessible way of explaining the technical and societal trend and unmistakable destination where humanity is heading to I found to be exhilarating but sometimes frightening too. It is fearsome to think about a world where humanity as we know of does not exist, but supplanted by unconscious intelligence, far superior than human beings could ever imagined to be. To reach his striking conclusion Harari showed how we treat other animals with utter indifference toward their pain and sufferings, even farm animals for food as if only for that reason their existence is justified. Humanity boasts its pureness, its love toward goodness, but these goodness does not apply to the animals as we treat them having lesser intelligence. As the writer argues, when we reach that inevitable point when artificia...

This is the second novel I've read written by Eowyn Ivey. Like her " To the Bright Edge of the World ", The Snow Child is a memorable story based in Alaska's snowy wilderness. The pain and anguish of a childless couple in Alaska's cold winter, their yearning for a child in the depth of wintry chill leaps out of the early pages of this empathy filled novel. It has the mystical elements along with its detail description of Alaskan lively nature. At first it seemed it would be a novel filled with magic and fantasy, but it turned out to be celebrating the life's joys and also facing the inevitable griefs. So good the writer's description of Alaskan natural world that I felt I was right there in early 20th century, beside a stoked fireside where chopped woods were crackling in fire. The gist of this mesmerizing story begins when Mabel recollects a memory of her father reading her a book when she was a child, it was the story of a Russian snow maiden that c...

It's a novel predicting a grim future where climate change and internal conflicts have caused tremendous damage. North and South are divided, not by the racial lines, but by the usage of fossil fuel, so severe the division is that a second Civil War starts in 2075 and ending in 2095, costing millions of people their lives in the process. Omar El Akkad's American War is written well, has good characters development, plot and fast moving story, and I felt while reading it that the writer has written this novel as a metaphor, pointing to the eerie similarities between our contemporary world in early 21st century with the mere six to eight decades in the future. The story of an innocent girl named Sara T. Chestnut (Sarat) and her family, suffered from the war's violence. A born curious and exploratory girl, who might in better condition could have become a great scientist or a writer, Sarat gets manipulated by war veteran man named Gaines, who utilizes his charm and eloque...

I thought it would be a very different sort of book, like adrenaline pulsing adventure story. The Lost City of the Monkey God - A True Story by Douglas Preston turned out to have more nuanced actions but more thoughtful observations about the archaeological exploration, Honduran politics, academic squabbling and the terrible parasite based disease called Lieshmaniasis, a disease that the millions of people in bottom rung of the economic ladder have to face without generating much interests from the big pharmaceutical companies as less money to be made from researching and developing vaccines and other medicines combating this "poor" world disease. The author's exploration of the lost city in the La Mosquitia region of Honduras, along with archaeologists, film makers, photographers and military proctors, are well described, including the tremendous daily struggles that all of them had to go through. Historic accounts were given about the lost city, and earlier explore...

In November I finished reading two books. First was Benjamin Percy's The Dark Net and the second one was Blake Crouch's Dark Matter. Both of them are thrillers, well paced, good story plots. The Dark Net felt like a science fiction in the beginning but it turned out to be a super natural story. Not bad as a page turner, but I think the author Benjamin Percy has much more potential than he displayed in The Dark Net. He pointed some of the darkest corners of the web and how it can spirals out of bound, ushering in the dark ages of future. Plausible. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch has a good story plot, that unfolds fast and furious. The quantum mechanics based theme, the Schrodinger Cat theory, alive and dead at the same time, the multiverse, the intense longing to return to the loved ones made the reading memorable. Blake Crouch's writing was fluid, some of the words and sentences I found to be profound, quoting a few below: "And maybe that’s what makes tragedy ...

Dan Brown's latest novel "Origin" is an entertaining book. Like his previous novels, the author has created a page turner, though the main plot of the book I found to be not too shocking as I could deduce it from the very early on, however, I found this as an absorbing reading because of its presentation of two very basic questions of humanity: Where do we come from? Where are we going? Like the other classic Dan Brown's novels, the protagonist professor Robert Langdon embarks on a whirlwind adventure finding out the puzzle left by a brilliant scientist and futurist Edmond Kirsch and his progeny the artificial intelligence entity called Winston. What is a bit different in Origin than say from Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons is that unlike the more narrower scope of previous stories, this one tries to answer the existential questions of humanity. Some of the pros and cons presented regarding life's origin, it's undeniable future progression and the ri...

Terry Hayes' I am Pilgrim is probably one of the best spy thriller books I've read in recent days. More than 800 pages long but packed with heart pounding actions, deep character development along with the writer's observations of socioeconomic malice abundant in many parts of the world. The protagonist and the main villain, both of them brilliant and determined in their own cause, and the various events that led to the final climax was breathtaking. This was a page turner and the writer Terry Hayes is prolific in his words, describing scenes in detail as if I was watching a movie. It proves the brilliance of the writer's screenwriting ability that he transformed into this unputdownable book. Some of the acute observations that protagonists and other characters made are memorable. Here is a quote: "Edmund Burke said the problem with war is that it usually consumes the very things that you’re fighting for—justice, decency, humanity—and I couldn’t help but think...

An instrumental music of a nostalgic song from my childhood. I don't remember all the lyrics but still remember the melancholic tune that I played in my keyboard tonight. A few lines of lyrics that I can remember: সারাটা বিকেল আমার একেলা কেটে যায় শুধু তোমায় ভেবে ভেবে সময় যে কেটে যায় ছোট্ট বেলার পুতুল খেলার সঙ্গীরা কোথায়? এখন দিন গুলো যেন বছর মনে হয় আবার রাত গুলো যেন বছরে ফুরোয় ....... এই অবেলায় এই অবেলায় -------------- ছোট্ট বেলার পুতুল খেলার সঙ্গীরা কোথায়? English translation: My all evening passes alone Only thinking of you all the time is spent Where are all the childhood friends? Now the days seem like years Even the nights ends in years ................. In this wrong time In this wrong time ------------------- Where are all the childhood friends?

Rocket man goes Look at me, look at my shiny toys They fly higher, girls and boys I am the scariest, craziest loon Can eat ice cream without the spoon My dancing is the best and daring As my frown frazzles the fools blaring Idiotic tirade at me and my people Who have freedom like the best sheeple Con man goes Look at me, look at my grimy palm While I scare the hell out of calm My toys are bigger, stronger, snappy I have the smartest brain from almighty My loud mouth is the coolest and caring As my cold stare rattles the louts flaring Nonsensical protests at my twittering policy I love liberty and life for the docile polity A toddler goes Toddle, toddle, toddle I am walking! Don't befuddle! Cuddle me! Hug me! Me! Me! Me! Me! Feed me and stop watching TV Daddy! The Rocket and the Con Man Are too naughty to play 

Good pointers from a Forbes article regarding success: "Do what you are passionate about. Without passion, your work is not your love and you can never be your best or be better than others who are running with their passion." "Do something that you are inherently good or talented at. We all have our relative talents but spending your life doing something that is inherently more difficult puts you at a disadvantage to other more talented people." "Do something that creates value and can be sold into a market present or future. Creating a widget that nobody but you wants may be self satisfying, but it certainly is not going to make you your fortune nor lead you to personal or professional success." Here is another quote: " It’s simply a determination to never ever give up. That is the most important element of success: dogged determination.  " 

Photo source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRPzcsgjgoF0_LD_GM98TQHtgxJWt0n6cXCoWAIxU7p_mOP06xZTNImjrZZBEXAIjnJsUk4ldzeY52T0LmfRcCCf6F-c_BEsUZmn0-hY7TrEPy0XHKnNVbD8foG_f5VhDL0Usx3g/s1600/r1.jpg They are uprooted from their burnt out villages. Their schools are demolished. Homes are ransacked and bombarded. Malnourished children fleeing with persecuted parents. The faces of traumatised Rohingyas, begging, pleading for help. Thousands of them drowned in sea while attempting to flee by boat and many more died in jungle camps, many of these are run by brutal people smugglers. And when the news of ethnic cleansing started pouring out of Myanmar, the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's response was shocking as she takes the trumpeted "fake news" to brush aside the concern. How easy has it become to brand any valid concerns and the gross violation of human rights of citizens as "Fake News"! Aung San Suu Kyi is respected worldwide be...