Volume IV, Issue V
Spring XX
Brac University 2.0: Turning vision into reality Sadrina Afrin Mowna Zamima Islam Sabaa Journalists On January 23rd, Brac University was selected as the only university in Southeast Asia to be part of the Open Society University Network (OSUN), along with 11 other universities worldwide. The announcement was made by billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting held at Davos, Switzerland. Endowed with $1 billion, OSUN seeks to prepare its students for global challenges by promoting liberal ideologies, freedom of expression, and other integral values of an open society. The new vision of BracU known as “Brac University 2.0” perfectly coincides with OSUN’s quest, since they both wish to create a new model of higher learning, which extends beyond geographic boundaries. The participating institutions, headed by the Central European University and Bard College (USA), will collaborate curricula, courses, and research projects to boost civic engagement. Being part of such a community will enable BracU students to engage in integrated network courses and joint degree programs at institutions across the globe. Students
will also be fostered in an environment that addresses social injustice and fundamental challenges such as climate change and human rights, resulting in more critical thinkers and global citizens. The project will not only play an integral role in mobilising the progress of BracU but will also serve as a unique approach to higher education in Bangladesh as a whole. In another effort to make BracU a part of the global network, an agreement with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Foundation has been signed to run The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award programme in BracU. The memorandum of understanding was signed on January 28th. The BracU VC and the National Director of DEA Foundation, Bangladesh shake hands after signing the deal Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is a noncompetitive programme that was complete a series of self-improvement activities. A established in the UK in 1956 by His Royal Highness, certificate demonstrating the student’s work will the Duke of Edinburgh. The Award programme will be awarded after each student has completed the be offered to BracU’s 11,000 existing student body and programme. Achieving internationally recognised will be made a mandatory experience for incoming awards such as this will help improve students’ freshmen. This internationally recognised award interpersonal skills and promote qualities that will opens up a platform for students who want to explore help them in their future. their hidden talents and acknowledges students who
BracU celebrates Saraswati Puja
Club Fair Spring 2020: Spring Juvenescence
Dipita Saha Shweta Journalist Brac University celebrated this year’s Saraswati Puja, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Hindu community, on January 29th at the Building 02 Indoor Auditorium. The event served as a reminder that BracU demonstrates equal attention to all kinds of religious communities and activities and promotes multi-diversity on campus. According to Hinduism, Indoor auditorium glammed up for Saraswati puja Saraswati Devi is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, creative arts, and language. During Vasant Panchami, a festival that celebrates the arrival of spring, people pay their respect and pray to the goddess of knowledge. The puja was made possible by the diligent members of the Hindu community in BracU. The conveners of the community are Shib Narayan Kairy, Treasurer; and Zainab F. Ali, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Architecture. The event planning began in December, 2019, with the budget being passed in the same month. The total budget for the event was Tk 2.51 Lacs, which was fully funded by BracU. The puja commenced at 9.30 am at the Indoor Auditorium. Around 11 am, the Anjali took place and the student and faculty devotees received the blessings of the Devi. The Prasad (devotional food offerings) was prepared in the university premises the night before, with the assistance of a catering service and distributed in the campus later on. Meals were cooked for nearly 2,000 people and included Kichuri and vegetable dishes along with Shondesh for dessert. The event concluded with a cultural show in which many artists from BracU performed. The highlight of the show was the performance by the special guest Sadi Mohammad, a renowned Rabindra Sangeet singer. The show was graced by the presence of students and faculties from all disciplines. The event ended in the evening followed by Protima Bishorjon on February 4th marking the completion of Saraswati Jayanti.
Building 2 adorned for the festivities
Moumita A. Mallick Journalist Brac University’s three-day-long club fair commenced on February 3rd in the Building 02 Indoor Auditorium. The event, known as Spring Juvenescence, was organized by the BRAC University Leadership Development Forum (BULDF). Staying true to its theme, the entire campus was decorated in the youthful colors of spring. The inauguration ceremony of Spring Juvenescence took place at 10 am. Following the inauguration, there was a registration period when student-run clubs of BracU took in students, new and old, to join their clubs. BRAC University Cultural Club (BUCuC) actively participated to entertain the audience with musical performances. The day ended with the most-waited segment of the event, concerts by Thunder and Warfaze. On the second day, Brac University Film Club’s (BUFC) screened the movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and more performances followed from BRAC University Drama and Theater Forum (BUDTF). The third day saw a day-long food fest organized throughout Buildings 01 and 02.
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BRIEFS Building a career in the animation industry Tiash Roy On January 27th, the BRAC University Computer Club (BUCC), in collaboration with Archer Animations, arranged a workshop called “Building Career at Animation Industry”. The workshop was conducted by Shamsul Arefin Erfan, founder of ELC; Jamshed Shovon, founder of Archer Animation; and Walid Bin Nur, co-founder of Archer Animation. They discussed the opportunities available in the 3D Animation industry in Bangladesh. They also introduced some popular animation making techniques and software, as well as concepts such as character design, product design, and set design. The workshop provided the participants with a guideline to help them build a career in the animation industry.
Israr Hasan made UA campus ambassador
CAMPUS NEWS
EN-DRADER: two places in their first robotics competition Ashabul Islam Journalist On February 15th, BRACU EN-DRADER secured the 2nd and 6th place in the Robo Cup segment of Innobotics - a robotics competition held in the United International University (UIU). Open to all students, Innobotics was a platform for robot enthusiasts to show off their creations. There were several segments including a poster presentation competition, a project showcasing and various games pitting the robots against each other. Robo Cup was a competitive segment involving remotely controlled robots battling it out in the form of a head to head football match. A total of 52 teams participated in this segment, 7 of which were from BracU. BRACU EN-DRADER was one such team consisting of BracU juniors Farhan Hasin (CSE), Saif Sheikh (CSE), Ebon Ahmed (EEE), Farhan Razy (CSE), and Rudaba Farhin Aunindita (CSE). They had two soccer bots participating in the Robo Cup segment: Dashbox Eternal, which placed 6th by beating NSU’s Haumau, and AFK-hoonigan, which became the first runners-up after being defeated by AIUB’s Furious. The AFK bot was made by Saif Sheikh before he had joined
Strategy and Case Competitions 101 Irfan Akram On February 9th, the BRAC University Entrepreneurship Development Forum (BUEDF) arranged a hands-on workshop on strategy and case competition. The purpose of this event was to help potential participants attain a better understanding of case competitions. The event was conducted by Afra Tasnim Samonti, Brac University alumna, who is currently working as an Operations Excellence Specialist at Uber. She discussed case competitions in detail; the background, types of cases, the steps that should be followed while solving an issue and important guidelines on presentation techniques. She also included various insights and stories from her personal experiences in participating and winning case competitions.
EN-DRADER, and had made it to the quarter finals in CUET Techtronics and USTC Technovation. Fuelled by their passion in Robotics, the team believes they can bring innovative changes in their robots through perseverance and by focusing on their specialities. They are currently working on improving their bots while looking forward to building line following robots and drones.
BUPS blood donation camp
Samila Sobhan Israr Hasan (Senior, ESS) recently became the campus ambassador for the Global Undergraduate Awards (UA). UA, also referred to as the Junior Nobel Prize, was founded by the Irish Government to recognise and reward exceptional undergraduate research around the world and to connect students from different cultural and educational backgrounds. As a campus ambassador, Israr aims to promote UA to students at BracU by working with clubs, faculties, and other students. Israr hopes that students who are passionate about research will submit their work to UA. Students can submit their work to one of 25 categories. The submissions will be evaluated anonymously by a group of international academics.
Team EN-DRADER
Sumaita Faiza Journalist World Cancer Day is observed every year on February 4th with the aim of saving millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness of cancer and encouraging action to detect, prevent, and treat cancer. The theme for 2020, “I Am and I Will,” raises the questions - who are you and what will you do? BRAC University Pharma Society (BUPS) answered these questions by organising the BUPS blood donation camp on February 9th in the Building 02 Indoor Auditorium from 9 am to 3.30 pm. The event was jointly assisted by the Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. The tag line for this event was “Every drop counts”. The event was honoured by the presence of Dr. Eva Rahman Kabir, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Pharmacy. There were a total of 46 blood donors, all being students of BracU. Many eager students were unable to donate due to physical unfitness. The collected blood samples were
Students donating blood
donated to the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society to help cancer patients. Furthermore, an awareness booth was set up on the ground floor of Building 06. In this booth, leaflets regarding cancer detection and treatments were handed out and people received free BMI and blood pressure checks.
BUCuC organizes Boshonto Boron 1426 Arfin Akter Journalist On February 16th, the BRAC University Cultural Club (BUCuC) organized the Bengali Spring Festival at the Building 02 Indoor Auditorium. The Office of Student Life cordially invited all students, faculty, and staff of the university to the event. The event officially began at 11 am and continued till the evening. The event featured many musical performances in solos and groups. All songs performed represented the rejuvenation of spring and the revival of life from the gloominess of winter. Following songs, dance performances were staged. The program concluded with a poem recital and performances by the band Conclusion. The entire event was sponsored by Pizza Guy who, along with Butter and Flavouri, had set up stalls to serve students sweet and savoury selections.
BracU students celebrating Boshonto
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OPINIONS & ACADEMICS
BracU: flying high and diving deep
Tanzila Kaokab Kazi Tanha Annoor Journalists In an always expanding world of science, the youth of our country has not held back. Proudly participating in the progress, the students of BracU have made multiple extraordinary strides. 2 such projects are the BRACU Mongol Tori, a next generation Mars rover and BRACU Duburi, which is an autonomous underwater vehicle. In 2018, a group of 22 young inventors from BracU, led by Md. Zahirul Islam, took part in the University Rovers Challenge competition held at Mars Desert Research Station, Southern Utah, United States of America. The event hosted 35 rovers and over 500 students from 10 countries. Amidst tough competition, Mongol Tori achieved the thirteenth position. This rover has been designed specifically to search for evidence of habitability, taphonomy and organic carbon on planet Mars. Even so, the team has not rested. They are still developing the design and claim that one day this rover can work alongside human explorers in the field. In the future, they hope to explore a variety of rocks and soils that might hold clues of past water existence on Mars. For now, the aim is to return to the stage in URC and win the first
position. While Mongol Tori is designed to be able to work in space, the students of BracU have also been working on yet another project, BRACU Duburi. Duburi is the first autonomous vehicle in Bangladesh that is designed to function and navigate underwater in an independent manner. It is capable of ultrasonic localization and machine learning infused with underwater computer vision. Duburi acquired seventh position in the Singapore Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition in 2018. Now, with its reformed version, the team is going to attend the Singapore AUV Challenge (SAUVC) in April. As a part of the competition, team Duburi had to submit a one-minute video showcasing the tether-less operation of the vehicle swimming underwater for at least ten seconds. They also had to demonstrate how pressing the “Kill Switch” stops all the thrusters straight away. The organizing committee will select 30 teams with the best vehicles in order to compete in the main arena. However, the SAUVC authority recently announced
Safety second? Ashabul Islam Jamiur Rahman Journalists
The Mongol Tori
difficulties in hosting the event due to the risk regarding the novel Coronavirus situation in Asia. The whole event may have to be cancelled if the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) risk status in Singapore is severe. Nevertheless, we wish them all the best and hope that Duburi brings back another success story.
Workshop on competitive programming held by the ACM
Brac University has been making great strides in improving the safety of its students: a bus service has been implemented, so that students may have a safer journey to and from the campus, signalling lights along with traffic guards have been deployed to ensure that students can safely cross the bustling roads between Buildings 01 and 06. RO filters have been installed to prevent a myriad of possible health concerns. A less appealing modification was the removal of digital identification. Nevertheless, it is necessary to help prevent outsiders from getting in. Even though all these steps are commendable, there are many issues still hampering the security. One such problem is the alarming number of students packing themselves into the elevators. There had been widespread panic when the ceiling décor of an elevator fell off, leading the students to believe that the elevator itself crashed. This rumour prompted many students to take the stairs for a few weeks. Another issue is the increasing number of petty thefts. Students have been losing belongings from computer labs, libraries, cafés and even from their bags. While these can be shrugged off as carelessness on the victims’ part, the authority should take necessary steps in assessment. A more pressing concern, one which cannot be brushed aside, is the targeted mugging of BracU students. There have been repeated reports of a local offender abusing his political influence to rob innocent students, often in broad daylight. He lingers in a few locations around campus, waiting for the crowd to thin. When the opportunity arises, he approaches students inquiring if they are from BracU, following up with threats demanding for their belongings. In one extreme case, a student was held captive for over an hour, robbed off of all that he possessed and sent off with a death threat. These muggings have been going on for years and students have even named and photographed the mugger, but to no avail. BracU authority needs to address these issues immediately by reaching out to local law enforcement to deal with the offender. Meanwhile, students must be alerted regarding the danger and asked to be more cautious. Moreover, students must work hand in hand with the authority to help catch the offender. These are merely temporary solutions until the campus becomes safer.
Workshop being conducted by the BracU ACM, student chapter
Aryan Rahman Journalist The Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) of BracU has initiated workshops on competitive programming for BracU students. This workshop aimed to guide the students into solving problems based on real-life through the use of code. 2 workshops were held on February 6th and 13th from 5 pm to 7 pm for the students enrolled in CSE110. Workshops were conducted by the members of the BracU Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Chapter. Masrur Ahmed (Senior, CSE) proposed this idea, which was initiated with the help of Mahbubul Alam Majumdar, Professor and Chairperson (CSE) and Sadia Hamid Kazi, Deputy Head (CSE) and Assistant Professor. The workshops primarily taught students how to use online judges and build programming logic. Online judges are websites where people can look for problems to solve, submit their code and automatically check whether their solution was correct or not. Concepts such as number theory, coding practices and libraries were also taught. The organisers hope to find potential participants for programming contests through this initiative who are going to represent the university in international and national stages. This is definitely a step towards pushing BracU to reach new heights.
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SPECIAL FEATURE
SPECIAL FEATURE
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Illustration By: Saad Ahmed Baset
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OFF CAMPUS
SAUFEST- the long-awaited melting pot Ahmed Mayeesha Reza Agomoni Aysha Zaheen Journalists The South Asian Universities Festival, known as SAUFEST, is an international cultural festival hosted by a South Asian country, bringing together University students from participating countries to celebrate diverse perceptions and cultures. SAUFEST 2020 took place at Kurukshetra University, Haryana, New Delhi, from February 24th to 28th. The festival is a melting pot of Asian traditions; a great opportunity to engage with wonderful souls and participate in healthy and educational competition, showcasing their respective country’s artistic heritage, as well as strengthening the kinship among the participating countries. SAUFEST provides a unique perspective on the neighboring countries’ cultures and creates an environment where one can embrace foreign languages and gain integral education. Through this, they can assimilate amazing synergy, irrespective of belonging to any caste or creed. The
idea of organizing SAUFEST was initiated to motivate the youth from the South Asian countries to stand on a common platform and share stories of perspectives, innovations, and traditions. On this renowned stage, 4 students from BRAC University were selected to represent our country - Ankan Kumar Roy ( Junior, ENH), K Taeen Zaman (Senior, ESS), Aninda Nahiyan (Senior, MNS), and Zarin Tasnim Rafa (Sophomore, MNS). Taeen Zaman expressed her enthusiasm saying, “It’s an amazing opportunity to represent my country, as well as my university and to experience many new exciting things. I hope we come back with a smiling face, that’s what matters”. When asked, Zarin Tasnim Rafa expressed great joy for being able to travel abroad for the very first time to represent her country, “This is
Moshal: bringing happiness, one step at a time
Representatives of BracU on their way to India
one of the biggest stages for us to uphold our glorious culture and do it proper justice. We really hope to sing our hearts out and make this experience worthwhile for everyone!”.
BracU students get published at the book fair Tasneem Karim Journalist
Team Moshal
Chowdhury Nusaiba Binte Sayed Journalist “Charity is not about pity, it is about love” - Mother Teresa The dictionary would simply tell you that charity is giving help to those in need. However, as the quote above promptly puts into perspective, charity involves cherishing the basic humanity in every individual. With such a mindset of selflessly helping others, a group of students from BRAC University took up the initiative of Moshal – a charity group pledging to ‘bring smiles to the faces of everyone around, especially the ones who are often ignored’. Moshal was conceived during an idle gossip session of a group of freshers, a group united in their feeling of concern over the inequality around them and aiming to spread happiness in whichever way they could. Their first event was on the occasion of Eid-ulFitr in 2017, when they distributed new clothes to 30 street-children. Later that year, they banded together to provide food, medicine and clothes to around 140 flood-affected families. They fed beggars around Dhaka, provided Iftar to orphans in a Madrasa and in their latest events, handed out new clothes to street-children around BracU on the occasion of International Children’s Day this November. You do not need to be rich to help others: Moshal has proven this over and over again. Seeing their persistent willpower to help those in need, others have often come forward to put in their own contribution, including BracU faculties. Moshal wants to reach out to more people - and for that they are always looking for kind souls who would like to donate. If this initiative has inspired you, please do consider helping them. Every little bit counts, and your wonderful gesture can be the reason behind someone’s joy. Contact here: moshalfoundation@gmail.com
Edited by renowned poet, journalist and sports writer, Quamrul Hasan, “Ten Square: HundredWord Stories From Bangladesh,” is a book that was published in the Ekushey Boi Mela this year. The book brings together a hundred stories penned by people from various walks of life. The very first volume was published on February 22nd. The writers wanting to have their stories published were allowed to submit a maximum of 3 stories, out of which only 1 would be chosen. Ten Square: Hundred-Word Stories They were given the liberty of submitting any kind of stories, following any genre and exploring any theme. The only constraints were the use of English language and limitation to an exact 100 words. While most stories were fictional, some of them were based on real life incidents. Some of these people to have their own stories published are students from Brac University: Anindita Bose, Faiza Khondokar, Hiya Islam, Mashaekh Hasan and Puja Sarkar. Thrilled at having one of her stories published, Puja was amazed and described her stories as rather vague. In retrospect, she felt that it was easier to evoke the sense of insanity and fear as she had done with her story, through a strict word limit. Anindita too, wrote her story with something similar in mind. Such books are great to portray peoples’ thoughts and perspectives, bringing out raw emotions and beliefs of the writers. Yet, some of us still struggle with writing and ponder if we should write at all, fearing criticism. The finest advice to them is to go on writing without putting too much thought into it, because at the end of the day, criticism must not matter if it is not constructive.
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SPORTS NEWS
BracU sports teams put to the test at NSU Sports Carnival Sk.Shahiduzzaman Siam Journalist
The rivalry between BracU and North South University sports teams is not a secret. So with an aim to leave a mark in enemy territory, sports teams from BracU went to participate in an event hosted by NSU named NSU Inter Private University Sports Carnival, which ran from February 2nd to 16th. BRAC University Football team The new manager Tousif Bandhan selected a relatively young squad, led by Captain Shashwato Pratik and Vice-Captain Onez Chowdhury. The first day of the tournament started with a 1-1 and 0-0 draw against BUFT and IUB respectively. On the second day the team lost 3-0 to BUFT but in a do or die match the BracU team won 2-0 against IUB. In the semis the BracU football team were up against NSU, and in a hard fought match that ended 0-0 in normal time, BracU Football team triumphed over their opposition with a 4-3 on penalties. Despite doing well against IUB in the group stages, BracU
Football team lost 1-0 against IUB and became the runners-up. BRAC University Basketball team Captain Tahsin Amin and ViceCaptain Masnun Rahman led the team, ending the first day with 2 losses to NSU and EWU. The second day ended with the team losing 49/28 and 40/16 to NDUB and IUT respectively. IUB won 50/36 against the BracU basketball team on the 3rd day. Vice-captain Masnun Rahman later told BracU Express that, “If the university provided proper facilities for practices the team would have done much better”. BRAC University Badminton team The tournament started and ended very fast for the badminton team of BRAC University, as they lost 5-0 to both NSU and EWU in the group stages in a 5 match format.
BUCHC brings home 2 trophies
BRAC University Football team
BRAC University Table Tennis team Captain Onez Chowdhury led the table tennis team in a 5 match game format. The first day ended with a 5-0 loss against NSU and a 3-2 win against IUT. The second day ended with a 4-1 and 5-0 win against AUST and SUB respectively. The BracU TT team ended their good run in the tournament losing 3-2 to IUT in the semis.
Esport controversies: blizzard and freedom of speech Sheersho Zaman Journalist Blizzard Entertainment, known as one of the pioneers of the esports scene, to this day still continues to spearhead the esports industry to new heights with games like Overwatch and Hearthstone. Due to their contributions to the scene, they were beloved by people from all over the world, but in recent times, they have suffered a fall-from-grace.
Members of BUCHC at DRMC
Iqra Risalat Journalist The BRAC University Chess Club (BUCHC) participated in 2 back-to-back chess tournaments organised by Notre Dame College and Dhaka Residential Model College. On January 24th and 25th, Notre Dame College hosted the AIUB Presents 6th NDCC National Chess Carnival. A total of 66 teams participated in the tournament from reputed universities like Dhaka University, BUET and Jahangirnagar University. The tournament followed the blitz time rule of 5 minutes, with 2 second increments. BUCHC came in as the runner up, with the team BRACU Minority Attackers defeating BUET Red. The fight for the second position was an intense one and it ultimately came down to a tie breaker which followed the blitz 3+2-time format. The participants from BUCHC were Shihab Shahariar, Sarowar H. Mishkat, Mohammad Shakil, and Abdullah Al Muhit. The second tournament was DRMC Science Club Presents 13th DRMC National Science Carnival, hosted by the Dhaka Residential Model College on February 5th to 8th. It was a rapid tournament of 15 minutes for each match. 5 members from BUCHCtook part in the tournament, where a total of 60 universities from around Bangladesh participated. Anata Choudhury (fresher, MNS) claimed the championship trophy, while Abdullah Al Muhit and Mohammad Shakil secured the second and fourth positions respectively. Anata and Abdullah battled for the trophy head-to-head and were tied, where the tie-breaker matches got Anata his lead. When asked about his experience Anata said, “After the final (fifth) round game there were only 2 players with full 5 points and interestingly both were students of BracU, me and Abdullah Al Muhit. Therefore, a 2-game tiebreak match was arranged between us. I convincingly won both of the games and became champion. It was my first tournament playing for BRAC University Chess Club and representing BracU. It was no doubt a great and memorable event for me”.
In late 2019, after winning a match at the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament, Chung Ng Wai, a Hong Kong-based player that goes by the tag “Blitzchung”, showed support for the Hong Kong protests happening at the time by appearing on stream after winning his game, wearing a gas-mask used by the pro-democracy protestors and chanting a protest slogan commonly used in the city. These protests started after a bill was passed in China that would have allowed criminals of Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China. By then, the civil unrest had escalated by a large extent, with news of altercations between law enforcement and protestors becoming increasingly common. Following this show of solidarity for the protestors, Blizzard reacted by not only suspending Chung for a year, but by also making him ineligible to get any of the prize-money he won. The two commentators on stream that were conducting Chung’s “winner’s interview” also received a year-long suspension. The ban came, according to Blizzard, due to violation of the official Hearthstone Grandmasters rules. To paraphrase, Blizzard implied that by supporting prodemocracy protestors in Hong Kong, Chung brought himself (and the company) into “public disrepute” in mainland China. Even if this was the entire truth, the most a company would do for it, from a neutral standpoint, would be a “slap-on-the-wrist” fine, or even a week or month-long suspension. The extreme action taken seemed very out-of-place and in accordance with some hidden agenda. Some speculate that Blizzard might have been trying to gain ground on the Chinese market, where they have a surprisingly low player-base. It is also worth noting that Tencent, the Chinese multinational conglomerate, has a 5% share in Activision Blizzard, Blizzard’s parent company. After the news broke out of Chung’s ban, Blizzard was met with a lot of criticism worldwide. A few employees of Blizzard even promptly quit.The “Boycott Blizzard” movement started trending on Twitter. Protestors in Hong Kong even started to use Mei, a character from Blizzard’s Overwatch, as a symbol for their protests. Blizzard, in response to all the harsh criticism, went ahead and reduced the ban to 6 months for the parties involved and allowed Chung to collect his winnings from the tournament. However, it was a little too late as the damage had been done. The world has now come to a point where even global politics can directly influence esports and vice versa.
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Embrace the Romance Fariea Yoshi Islam Nashrif Shaniz Chowdhury Journalists
Executive Panel Editor-in-Chief - Shahad Muktadir
Romance novels are one of the highest selling genres, and yet most non-readers term it as trash. This is most likely a result of recent mainstream books such as Fifty Shades, or because of the super corny Nicholas Sparks books. However, they remain oblivious to the subgenres of romance such as Contemporary, Historical and Young Adult, which have taken the reading community by storm with the recent additions by debuting authors. Here are some we would like to share. While It Ends with Us (Colleen Hoover, 2016) maybe an erotica, it is an extremely honest and powerful book. It peels back layers of characters and their relationships to do something that so many other authors have tried and failed to do - to make you understand a situation that for most people makes no sense. Moments when we do not prioritize ourselves when we should. Instances as seen in It Ends With Us. “Do we all repeat the same words in our heads in the days following being abused by those who love us?”. As questions about Lily’s relationship with Ryan overwhelm her, so does Atlas’ return and his connection with her past to some persistent problems. Because not all problems can be overcome, and in the end it does not always work out. “Naked truths aren’t always beautiful”. Some books show us that even in platonic relationships, you can find the comfort no one else can fulfill. My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, delves into the bittersweet journey of Aysel and Roman, two teenagers whose haunting histories pull them closer. Both of them are plagued by their insecurities and are prone to emotional instability since Aysel is paying the price of her father’s misdeeds while Roman blames himself for his sister’s death. From online suicide partners to sharing an unexplainable intimacy, the author cleverly executes the dynamics between them to tell a poignant story that leaves the readers clenching their hearts. The evolution of their relationship plays a huge role in changing their outlook of the world. Then
there
are
some
critically
acclaimed
Managing Editor - Hiya Islam Creative Head - Sajid Hossain Administrative Director - Md Tawsif Ur Rashid Web Media Manager - Afra Antara Anjum
Editors News - Jahin Kaiissar Opinions and Academics - Farah Anjum Husain Features - Hiya Islam Off Campus - Zaria Amreen Readers know no limit
novels that not only address the social devastation but also bring light to current political movements, and why they are so important. The right to live, the right to love, the right to choose whom you love.
Written and directed by the critically acclaimed Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story isn’t necessarily a tragedy about a relationship; it is more about the long, grueling legal procedure that is capable of poisoning the noble intentions of those involved. The movie opens promisingly enough: Nicole, an actress, and Charlie, a playwright, are parents to an 8-year-old son and are just beginning the process of getting legally separated. Although the film is about a divorce it is not consumed by it. It shifts between different tones and moods, with enough hopeful and hilarious moments to balance out the emotional devastation. Although working from his own divorce experience, Baumbach’s approach does not condemn divorce, regardless of how ugly it might get. Instead, he managed to portray the complexities of marriage and how it is easier to blame, rather than understand the other person. The movie devotes great care into showing not only how these
Entertainment - Subyeta Binte Sarwar
Associate Editors News - Tasneem Habib Aniqua
“The problem with my life was that it was someone else’s idea.” Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an extremely powerful coming of age tale of two souls irreversibly changing each other’s lives after their first meeting at a swimming pool. Both boys have their own personal secrets, family turmoil, yet inevitably they have mutual tragedies to deal with. Aristotle “Ari” Mendoza is a loner of a few words, but with a head full of ideas, raw emotions and unanswered questions. On the flipside, we have Dante Quintana living a life full of laughter, poetry, art, and swimming. Their worlds collide as if the universe itself was complying to keep them together. While the pages contain tragedy and pain, there is also a deeper sense of truth and realism. For instance, the book sings with the way Aristotle and Dante discover the beauty of laughing together, learning the tiniest of sentiments that make them click, and even the wonder of realizing how unformidable and loving their parents are.
Marriage Story: the agony of divorce Shehreen Ferdous Journalist
Sports - Samiu Mostafa Ishan
two people have drifted apart, but also why they have drifted apart and why they cannot turn back. During their most intense conflict — when the thin line between love and hate seems to have been irrevocably crossed; surprisingly, there is still a level of intimacy between them. Nicole refers to Charlie as “honey” not in hopes for reconciliation but to limit the damage each inflicted on one another. Noah Baumbach’s spectacular work is a highlight reel for everyone involved: Scarlett Johansson as ‘Nicole’ and Adam Driver as ‘Charlie’ both give the performance of a lifetime, with astounding supporting roles from Laura Dern and Alan Alda as the divorce lawyers. Both the leading actors and Laura Dern have received Oscar nominations for their respective roles. In the end, Marriage Story’s strength lies in its sincerity and honesty, captivating people with its brilliant performances and sharp dialogue. It is definitely worth checking out on Netflix.
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