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Residential problem hampers academic environment at JU
Nasir Muzahid, in JU
Students of Jahangirnagar University (JU), the only residential university of the country, suffer from acute accomodation crisis. After the 38 years of it's' establishment, the university is yet to provide full residential facilities to the students.
Unauthorised occupation of hall rooms by the passed out students, control of seat arragemnents by the student political leaders and session jam in many departments are the main reasons behind the accomodation crisis in student dormitories, the students observe.
As per the university rule, the authorities are supposed to arrange residential facilities to the students. But after two months of academic year, the 1st year students are yet to have a seat in their hall. As a result, they have taken shelter in hall common room, T.V room, Prayer room, Reading room, newsaper room and even in the Dining rooms. These rooms are known as 'Gonoroom' & in each room 30/40 students have to stay together.
Meanwhile, the University authorities have already notified the students about their inability to provide residential facilities for the first year students. As an alternate arrangement, the authorities arranged shuttle bus service with five more double taker buses to transport first year students from Dhaka to campus and the journey back.
The first year students of Shaheed Salam Barkat Hall complained that those students are getting seats who involve with politics. A first year female student of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning who lives in the Common room of Pritilata Hall said, "The place where we are forced to live do not provide us the environment for reading and even decent living".
In accordance with the information of University hall office, 800 students live in Al-Beruni Hall against the allocated seat of 424. Similarly, 642 students stay in Shaheed Salam Barkat Hall where seat capacity is only 396. In Meer Mosharaf Hossain Hall 1150 students are staying against 716 seats while for 1150 students live against 760 seats in Mawlana Bhasani Hall. Similarly, 398 seats are available for 650 students in A.F.M Kamaluddin Hall and 768 seats for 1200 students in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibor Rahman Hall.
On the other side, condition of the dormitories for female students is more miserable. 700 students crowd in Jahanara Imam Hall were only 504 seats are available. Iin Pritilota hall too, 504 seats are allocated for 700 students while 212 seats are available for 320 students in Fazilatunnessa Hall. In Nawab Faizunness Hall, 340 seats are available for 420 students and 512 seats are abaile for 640 students in Begum Khaleda Zia hall.
Under such residential crisis the authorities are planning to open more four departments under the faculty of Business Administration from the next academic year. After the launch of these departments, the crisis will be more severe.
To meet the residential crisis, at least two more dormitories for the male students and one for female students are urgently needed, the students.
In order to reduce this problem, construction of the new hall consisting 576 seats has been started. The new hall, to be the 12th residential hall of Jahangirnagar university is named 'Rafique-Jabbar' after two martyrs of language movement of 1952, Shaheed Rafique and Shaheed Jabbar.
University Treasurer Prof. Dr. Nasir Uddin hopes, "After the construction of the new hall, students accomodation crisis will be eased in many respects.'' Chairman of the Department of History, Prof. Luthful Hye Jami said, "Session Jam is largely responsible for seat crisis. If the chairmen of all departments take necessary steps, this problem will be reduced soon.''
Vice Chancellor Prof: Dr. Sharif Enamul Kabir mentioned "At this moment it is not possible to completely overcome the seat crisis. This problem will be solved gradually.''
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A short sketch on Manipuri literature
Tithe Farhana
Manipuri is one of the tribal communities in Bangladesh. Their original mother country is Manipur, once a small sovereign state and now is one of the northeast states of India. In the early days, Manipur had different names such as Kyangleipak, Kyangkleipang, Kyanglei, Meitrabak, and Mekhali and the Manipuris were known as Meitei. During the reign of Maharaj Garibniwaz (1709-1748), some missionaries came here from Sylhet. It is said that they renamed the country as 'Manipur' and its people became known as Manipuris.
Ethnologically, Manipuris belong to the Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-Burman family of the Mongolian race. But a good admixture of Aryan and other blood groups also took place in the Manipuri nation. Because of its unique geographical location and as a result of several religious and political interactions, Manipur became the melting point of different ethnic groups and cultures for a long time. This assimilation resulted in the formation of the modern Meitei people who are now widely known as Manipuri.
Meitei Lon or Manipuri language, the mother tongue of the Manipuri people, belongs to the Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-Burman sub-family of the Mongolian family of languages. Manipuri literature is ancient. It has a prosperous and multicoloured history and traditions.
The earliest pearl of Manipuri literature is Ougri, a lyrical verse, which is supposed to have been sung in honour of the sun god in 33 AD on the coronation ceremony of the Manipuri king Pakhangba. But the first written Manipuri literature is found in a copper plate of the 8th century, inscribed during the reign of Maharaja Khongteckcha. A distinctive feature of old Manipuri script is that each and every alphabet is named after a limb of human body. Their shapes are also consistent with those of the limbs. The script was subsequently replaced by Bengali script in the 18th century during the reign of Raja Garibniwaj to forge a closer relation with the newly preached Chaitanya School of Sanatana Dharma which originated in Bengal.
Rabindranath Tagore was the supreme patron of the Manipuri culture and literature. It was him who popularized the Manipuri style of dance in the outside world. He deserves a place of honour to popularise it should be recognised as the "Pioneer of Manipuri dance and culture". From Tagore's writings and other accounts we came to know that on 6 November, 1919, Tagore visited Bishnupriya village of Machimpur, an isolated village in Sylhet. Bishnupriya Manipuri comminity gave him a warm reception at the time. Goshtha Lila, a Manipuri dance composition was presented by the local women. He was simply overwhelmed and he wanted to know more about their dance and culture.
He met Superintendent Mr Tanu Singha and looked for a Manipuri Oja (dance teacher) who could communicate in Bangla. Mr Tanu Singha introduced great Guru Nileshwar of Baligaon to him. Tagore intended to bring the dance teacher to his idyllic institute, Shantiniketon. On November 7, 1919, in his speech at Sylhet M.C. College Hall, Rabindranath mentioned about his experience in Machimpur and the Bishnupriya Manipuri people to the students. The speech was published in a literary journal "Akangkha" of Shantiniketan (1920).
There is also influence of popular Manipuri tunes in many songs of Rabindranath. There are many Rabinra Sangit's which involves Manipuri dance and dance such as Sribas kache theke dure..., Aji basanto Jakarta dare..., Redone vora a bosonto etc.
The compilation of the dance drama, "Chitragada" was fully based on various elements of Manipuri dance. His "Bhanusingher Padavali" depicts the influence Manipuri songs and philosophy. The Vasihnavite work "Bhanusingher Padavali" was compiled during Tagore's visit in the state on Tripura and during his contact with the king Virchandra Manihya.
The King of Tripura was married to a Manipuri princess named Monomohini Devi alias Thoraleima. Queen Thoraleima contributed a great deal in the movement of wiping out Satidaho, a discriminating Hindu custom for widowed women. No doubt, Rabindranath Tagore provided a vital link towards the progressive cultural revivalism to the Manipuri people and produced a band of local artists who enriched their culture.
Some of the earliest prose works in Manipuri are Numit Kappa (10th century), Naotinkhon Phambal Kaba (16-17th century), Lethak Lekharol (17th century) and Pantoibi Kangul (17th century). Govindram Nunganba is considered one of the leading Manipuri scholar-poets of the 18th century, whose Takhel Ngamba is a pioneering historical ballad in Manipuri.
Khwairakpam Chaoba Singh (1895-1950), Lamabam Kamal Singh (1899-1935) and Hijam Anganghal Singh (1892-1943) are the three most important Manipuri poets of the 20th century. Besides being a poet, Hijam Anganghal Singh is a well-known essayist and dramatist, renowned for his magnum opus Khamba Thoibe Sheireng (1940), which is a poem of 39,000 lines considered to be a 'national' epic of the Manipuris. Khwairakpam Chaoba Singh is one of the best-known writers of modern Manipuri literature. His historical novel Lavangalata (1939) is considered as an outstanding work in Manipuri. His other prose works are Vakhalgi Icel, Vakhal, Phidam, Kannaba Va and Chhatramacha. Lamabam Kamal Singh's Madhavi (1930) is recognised as the first modern Manipuri novel. His collection of poems called Lai Pareng (1931) has been acclaimed to be 'the most significant poetical works of this century'.
Arambam Dorendrajit Singh (1907-1944) is another pioneer poet and dramatist whose works include three dramas, viz. Miorang Thoibi, Bhagyachandra and Kaurav Parajay and two epic poems, viz. Kansa Badha and Subhadra Haran. L. Samarendra Singh (b.1928) is one of the forerunners of modern Manipuri poetry. He is renowned for his poetic collections Wa Amata Hiage Telanga, Mamang Leikia Thambal Satle and Khun Amagi Vari.
H. Guno Singh (b.1927) is an acclaimed short-story writer in Manipuri. His important works include Khudol, Langjim Manghrabi Kishi, Laman, Aroiba Paodam and Aikhoigi Tada. He also translated Sukumar Sen's History of Bengali Literature into Manipuri.
Pacha Meetei (1940-1990) set a new trend in Manipuri novel by introducing contemporary social problems in place of the romantic and passionate atmosphere prevalent in the Manipuri novel in the first half of the 20th century. He is acclaimed for his novel Na Tathiba Ahal Ama.
Written documents of Bishnupriya Manipuri literatures of older periods are unavailable, because records and historical books including literatures had been destroyed and efforts had been made to destroy the history of Manipur and Manipuris. There are, however some rudiments of folk-literatures of Bishnupriya Manipuri which are of elder origin and are handed down to this day through oral traditions. These elements originated during the period from the 16th century to the beginning of this century. Thus the history of Bishnupriya Manipuri literature can be broadly divided into two periods, namely ancient Folk-Bishnupriya Manipuri literature and modern Bishnupriya Manipuri literature.
The general trend of writings was spiritual rather than secular and creative. The post modern writers have given up many time-honoured conventions. They have come to contact with English, French and German literature which are rich in all respects. There is also the influence of contemporary Bangla, Hindi, Assamese and Manipuri Meitei literature of Bangladesh, West-bengal, Assam, Tripura and Manipur.
Varieties of Bishnupriya Manipuri literature began to be produced very rapidly in a different and changed atmosphere. The Modernism has its manifold effects giving rise to a complete shape of the literature in prose, viz. dramas, stories, novels, travelogues, essays and criticisms, biography etc. and in poetry viz. lyrical and modern.
Translation of a number of classical works of Sanskrit and world literature was done successfully by Bishnupriya Manipuri writers. Of them Srimadbhagabat Gita, Ishoponisad, Meghodutom and Ritu Samahar of Kalidaso, Rubayaate-Umar-Khayam, Greek drama Anigone, Eliot's The waste Land, Japanese Haiku, Poems of Rabindrnath are worthy to be mentioned.
Bishnupriya Manipuri literature developed a lot within a very short period and it has become possible only due to the sacrifice of the writers, who invites endless sufferings due to economical, social problems and also due to the disturbance from government authorities and other antagonistic forces on the mother language issue of Bishnupriya Manipuris.
The history of Manipuri literature took a new turn in 1975 with the formation of 'Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad' and publication of Manipuri literary magazine Dipanvita. Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad publishes an irregular journal named Meira (flame). Many other Manipuri organizations have also been publishing literary journals such as Epom, Shajibu, Mitkapthokpa and Khollao. In 1982, Bangladesh Manipuri Sahitya Sangsad published a book of Manipuri poems Basanta Kunnipalaji Leibang, which is the first of its kind in Bangladesh. In 1990, it published another book Bangladesher Manipuri Kabita containing 20 Manipuri poems of 10 selected Manipuri poets of Bangladesh. Subsequently, 2 other books of Manipuri poems Myang Mapei Marakta and Wakhalji Nachom were published. Some books on Manipuri subjects have also been published in Bengali language.
At present, Manipuri literature is growing very fast and many a writings of the modern Manipuri literature have been honoured in India with the Sahitya Academy awards. In the field of translation also Manipuri does not fall far behind. It has to its credit the translations of Ramayana, Mohabharat, Sreemadbhagavatgita, Bible in addition to many a classic writings of Robindranath Tagore, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Homer, Bernard Shaw, Sophocles, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay.
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KALEIDOSCOPE
A TRIBUTE
Humayun Rasheed Choudhury
(11th September 1928 - 10th July 2001)
Nasrine R. Karim
"Bangladesh wants to make a contribution to the better future our people deserve. Bangladeshis are a peace loving people.....Our political commitment is certainly important but even more is the demand for peace for our citizens, in the heart of the common man, in the villages and in the cities...." Late Humayun Rasheed Choudhury, Speaker of the 7th Bangladesh National Assembly, speaking at the historical inaugural session of the foundation of Asian Parliamentarians for Peace, in Dhaka on September 1999. Thirty seven Asian countries represented by their parliamentarians, civil societies, media personalities in Dhaka at the invitation of the late Speaker.
"We need peace to build up justice for the mass citizens who live their lives in poverty. In a world where resources are wasted without shame, this poverty is especially bitter for those who constantly see through the mass media the fruits that wealth can bring but are condemned to live a life in misery. For this reason, the only battle we should be fighting is for dignity and development....A nation can only pursue this objective when it does not fear, when it is not threatened, when it does not constantly consider the means of self-defence, when "protection" more frequently refers to a hospital, school or a dam than to a weapon..."
Leading is more than just vision alone. It is also about dedication and absolute belief that change is necessary. Late Humayun Rasheed Choudhury spent a lifetime serving his country. His vision was to implement true democratic ideals in his beloved Bangladesh - to change the existing social order to bring peace and a better existence to those most in need. He was the voice of the millions of Bangladeshis and his concern for those who bear the brunt of decisions made by the policy makers made him one of the most respected, enlightened and formidable characters in Bangladesh history.
A distinguished career diplomat, his exposure to the world afforded him key opportunities. He was instrumental in freeing his country and was actively involved in stages leading up to the Liberation War in 1971 when Bangladesh gained its independence. A remarkable man, his life was full of "firsts". He was the first Ambassador of the new Bangladesh to Germany and also to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where he was instrumental in engendering the warm relations that these two countries share with Bangladesh today. On the home front, he served as both Foreign Secretary and Foreign Minister.
The world too recognised his merits. His cosmopolitan-view and vast experience in politics, human rights and security issues led to his election as the 41st President of the UN General Assembly in 1986. Subsequently key international appointments would follow such as founding member of the World Council of UNGA Presidents as well as membership of World Council of Foreign Ministers, Representative for Asia of the Steering Committee of the Millennium meet of the International Parliamentary Union. He masterminded the formation of the Asian Parliamentarians for Peace (APP) and brought Asian parliamentarians together to debate peace in the region.
But in spite of his professional achievements, he was a highly spiritual man. In his lifetime, he helped many achieve their dreams. A devout Muslim, his willingness to aid and listen to others was relentless. Within his own home, he was a pillar of incredible strength, inspiration and love to his family. The zenith of his philosophical outlook came to fruition when he became the Speaker of the National Parliament. In the five years of his tenure, he was able to fully endorse his deep convictions that justice, freedom and peace should prevail in the society, if true democracy is to follow. He cared passionately about the rights of the common man and made sure that the most- affected and under-privileged sector of the society was given a say.
His legacy will remain in the many forms of legislations that have helped strengthen parliamentary process and build Bangladesh into the democracy of today. His avid interest in the digital age led him to encourage all technological advancements in his country. By bringing the world closer at hand, he had hoped to lead a modernized Bangladesh into the future.
Humayun Rasheed Choudhury knew how to inspire and encourage. He loved his country and his family with a passion. His keen intelligence and focused approach won him admiration, goodwill and respect amongst everyone that knew him.
For his family, he shall continue to live within their memories, imbued with happiness and love that he so effortlessly gave to them. For Bangladesh his demise was a true loss of a role model and a national hero.
His sudden passing on the 10th July 2001 left a huge vacuum in many a heart. He will never be forgotten, for it was a privilege to have had him as a parent, a true friend and an irreplaceable guide.
Alas Bangladesh today could have benefited from his wisdom.
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ICT to Foster development in Bangladesh : BAU VC
Holiday Report
Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr. M. A. Sattar Mandal emphasized the importance of information and communication technology as a means of and fostering development in Bangladesh combining advanced knowledge with ethics.
Speaking as chief guest at the certificate awarding ceremony of a one year Post Graduate Diploma Course in Information and Communication Technology (PGD-in-ICT) held at the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology Gallery of the Bangladesh Agricultural University(BAU), the Vice-Chancellor added that a very first step for 'Digital Bangladesh' would be to spread the ICT education throughout the country.
Presided over by Professor Dr. A.T.M Ziauddin, Advisor, PGD-in-ICT, BAU and M & E Specialist IRRI Bangladesh office, the function was attended by Professor Dr. M. Burhan Uddin, Dean. Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology as special guest.
Speakers at the function said that a digital society ensures an ICT driven knowledge-based society where information would be readily available online and where all possible tasks of the government, semi-government and also private spheres would be processed using the state of the art technology.
Later, the chief guest Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mandal formally awarded certificates to the participants drawn for the Public Universities, Agricultural organizations and Bangladesh Army.
Deans of Faculties, Teachers, students, officers and high officials of the University administration were present at the function, said a press release
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