This week's editorial is a bit different than usual. It is a story—a challenge. The head clerk asked me to write a story in a second-person narrative based on the photograph you see. Writing a second-person narrative is not only the hardest; that too must i write from a random picture. Oh well, it is what it is. I never complain about the cards that I am dealt with. You play the cards you are dealt. A cherry on top of all this is I know nothing about that photograph. I see what you see. Basically, he said, I write crap and preachy editorials, and this must change. (Edited: Not true Headclark:3) Who am I to say no?! So, for a change, here it goes…
What are you doing? Reach out and touch faith? Yes, like the famous Depeche Mode song. Just because you think you don't listen to that genre of music doesn't make it wrong. You think you are too smart and know it all, huh? :) Do you even know the meaning of that line? What is faith? What is faith to you, is not faith to me. And no, darling, not everyone is born Muslim. Some creatures are born cat :) While other creatures are born into 'faiths' that are different from you and that swells. You know, you can pay attention to other creatures and imagine that they too have cognitive abilities. The other day your friend Amor, yes, that movie geek, was going head over heels over Walden, which is nothing but a pond, you know! There is nothing much to it. What? You think only humans read Thoreau? Oh, you think this is talking all over the place? Dude! You are the one smoking weed!
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." - Henry David Thoreau
You know that you are following me on this path in the middle of the nursery. It's hot and humid, but the rain only stopped moments ago, so a hint of fragrance of the wet soil still hangs in the air. It feels good, eh! With all the weed that you are smoking? You shouldn't smoke that much and learn to do something productive with your life, as opposed to just following me and taking my pictures this afternoon. You are learning many new skills very quickly and dreaming big. Weed dreams or not, only you are the one who can say. That is all good, nothing wrong with dreams. Its Just you gotta put some meat on the plate, not just skin and bone!
Do you remember Nakata? No, you are wrong. You know there is a tiny possibility of a human soul to be able to transpose into the soul of another creature? Impossible? Think again! How do you think you are so easy to read and understand? Who do you think knows you this much? Yeah, yeah, it happens and can happen! You just have to believe it. Just reach out and touch faith, won't you?
Feeling unknown
And you're all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver… Depeche Mode, Personal Jesus
-Editor
You probably have a friend or know someone who likes to read. Now forget the person, close your eyes and think of a person who reads. Lots of messy hair on their head, a shining pair of spectacles, and a few books in their hands and they're hugging them as if their lives depend on them. The nerd persona, imagined by the popular media. The media likes to poke fun at such characters, portray them as uncool, and hard to interact with. The reality is a bit different. People who read do not look like that. Readers tend to look like, well, people. All sorts of people. Even the most brutish, mean-looking fellow could be an admirer of literature, you never know.
Sure there will be some archetypes from where media got the inspiration. You will see them making big deal out of books, no matter how silly or inconsequential it might be. They are the ones who cry out when you cut a book or toss it into the garbage or make dogears (folding the corner of a page to make a bookmark). They think reading is a sacred deed, and they expect other people to treat their reading as a noteworthy call to pursuit. It is merely a delusion of grandeur. Just like all the arts, there are great books and there is rubbish. Sadly, the rubbish outnumbers the good ones by a large margin. Cough— Dan brown cough, cough Sidney Sheldon— cough.
It is an importunate business for us to distinguish great literary works from the mediocre to take them to heart. It is imperative that we do so, as the collective knowledge of humanity passively depends on it. No human alone is great enough to have their own thoughts and voices, whatever the transcendentalists may think about it, humanity grows with knowledge passed down to posterity. You will find the truth about it when you see the great man/woman you admire was influenced by some other great man/woman from the old. This is why we must seek the old texts and learn the thought processes of the race. Only then we can hope for new advancement.
The day I first saw you
was the day heavy rain ended up flooding the whole city
And you were nothing but a blurry face full of rumors.
The rumors were the reason
I was told to ignore you.
But the blurry face was
the reason I obliged.
Still, a fraction of my attention managed to slip
when your hand softly brushed through that young leaf.
At that moment,
you managed to look more human than most of us.
During the limited moments on that rooftop
We both sought silence in solitude.
That's why I never noticed
how soft voice, slow words,
sparkled eyes and warm smiles,
took over the fragile form of yours.
When you talked to those plants considered to be your children
How some days, your voice trembled with emotions
Never shown to any human.
The day your face lost the blurry edges
Was the day grayness covered up the whole sky
And for the first time, you looked upwards,
absorbing the tragic beauty,
while you were drowning in whistles of the wind.
I was left mesmerized,
by the lost innocence shown.
In your wrinkled skin, messy hair, and clenched fists
The sideling of your eyes flinched several times
And I wondered if I would be lucky enough to
Witness ripples on the crafted walls.
When your eyes finally found mine
A single teardrop managed to escape from the coldness.
They warned me not to look at, but the corner of your cracked lips offered a small smile.
As a token of reassurance,
and I could feel myself returning the favor as well.
Because without waste of words,
in the silence of our own solitudes,
for the first time at that moment,
We both felt, and understood.
It's Father's Day, everyone on social media posting various sweet memories with their father. Some are even writing poems, some expressing those untold words, and so many other ways that are being used to describe the love for their father. Looks good, though some people are against this. Why should we show off on a particular day only? We should love our fathers similarly the whole year. Well,, there have always been arguments on such unnecessary points which are always ignored by Farhan. He is a guy who is always miles away from any kind of controversial things. He doesn't like any sort of unnecessary arguments.
So where were we? Oh! On Father's day.
Yeah, Farhan also loves his father. There is a saying that, "There are thousands of bad men on earth, But there is no one bad father!" Farhan doesn't know how accurate this quote is, but he does know that his father loves him unconditionally. He can go to any extent for his family. Anything! This is the thing that strikes Farhan very hard. That "Anything" his father does for his family is the reason that bites Farhan day by day. He can't proudly stand and say, "My father is the best father in the world" because he knows the dark side of his father.
Being a son of a great politician, Farhan was way far away from these corrupted behaviors his father possessed. Everyone doesn't possess the qualities of their birth giver. Some do stand in the opposite of the wind too. His father is so much deep-dived into this corruption that it's tough to come out. Realizing this fact, Farhan can't express his love for his father from the core of his heart. Still, he does wish all the fathers to live long and be the real hero that every child desires to be.
১২৩ সিসিমপুর!
ছোটবেলায় আমরা টিভি দেখতাম ব্যাটারি দিয়ে। আমাদের গ্রামে তখনো বিদ্যুৎ পৌঁছায়নি। তাই ব্যাটারিই ছিল একমাত্র ভরসা। সাথে আবার ক'দিন পরপর রিচার্জ করার ঝক্কি। আর সাধের বিটিভিই ছিল তখন বাচ্চাকাচ্চাদের একমাত্র বিনোদনের জায়গা। কমিক সিরিজের বই আর দাদি-নানীর রুপকথার গল্পের বাইরে তখনকার এক শিশুতোষ টিভি অনুষ্ঠান নিয়েই আজ বলব।
নয়নতারা কমিউনিকেশন এর ব্যানারে করা হত 'সিসিমপুর' নামের এই অনুষ্ঠান। আন্তর্জাতিক কিছু প্রতিষ্ঠানের সহযোগিতায় এখনকার দিন পর্যন্ত নিরলসভাবে শিশুদের শিক্ষামূলক বিনোদন দিয়ে চলেছে সিসিমপুর। চোস্ত এনিমেশন আর ভয়েসওভার ব্যাবহার করে নিখাদ বিনোদনের সাথে সাথে কচিকাঁচাদের শিক্ষা দেওয়ার ব্যাপারকে খুবই গুরুত্ব দিয়ে বিবেচনা করা হয়েছে এ অনুষ্ঠান নির্মানে।
এনিমেটররা দক্ষতা আর সৃজনশীলতার পরিচয় দিয়েছেন কন্টেন্ট নির্বাচন আর এর পরিবেশন স্টাইলে। সিসিমপুরের চরিত্রগুলো আজো জীবন্ত হয়ে আছে আমার মনে। টুকটুকি, হালুম, ইকরি আর শিকুর বিভিন্ন কান্ডকারখানা দেখে অনেক মজা পেতাম সেই সময়। আর তাদের মজাদার ঘটনার ভেতরেই থাকত শিশুদের জন্য উপযোগী শিক্ষা। তবে সবয়সের মানুষরাও কিন্তু সমানভাবে এগুলো উপভোগ করতে পারে। নিছক শিশু বিনোদনের বাইরে গিয়ে সিসিমপুর বিনোদনকে শিক্ষার সাথে একাত্ম করেছে খুব সাবলীলভাবেই।
প্রথম সিজনে মোট ২৬টি পর্ব নির্মিত হয়, এবং দ্বিতীয় মৌসুমে ৩৬টি পর্ব নির্মিত হয়। ইউএসএইড এই অনুষ্ঠানটি নির্মাণে আর্থিক সহায়তা প্রদান করে। ১২ টি মৌসুমে ৭০০ এরও অধিক পর্ব প্রচারিত হয়েছে এ পর্যন্ত।
২০০৭ সালে পরিচালিত একটি গবেষণায় দেখা যায়, সিসিমপুর অনুষ্ঠানটি নিয়মিত দেখা শিশুদের ভাষা, বর্ণ, গণিত ও সামাজিক-সাংস্কৃতিক বিষয়ে দক্ষতা অন্য শিশুদের থেকে বেশি। তাই বলছি নিজে একবার অনুষ্ঠানটি দেখুন, তারপর মিলিয়ে নিন।
এবার একটু চরিত্রগুলো সম্পর্কে বলা যাক;টুকটুকি হল খুবই মিশুক প্রকৃতির একটি মেয়ে পুতুল। তাকে আমার বেশ বিচক্ষণ মনে হয়। হালুম বাঘটা মাছ খেতে খুবি পছন্দ করে। এমনকি মাছের সাথে রিলেটেড যেকোনকিছুই তার কাছে মাছ মনে হয়। প্রচুর মাছ খাওয়ার ঘটনা পাওয়া যাবে হালুমের কান্ডকারখানায়।
শিকু একটা মহাজ্ঞানী টাইপ বিজ্ঞানী শেয়াল। ওর চশমাটা আমার কাছে বেশ লাগত। বিভিন্ন ঘটনায় শিকুর মন্তব্যে আপনি অজান্তেই হেসে উঠতে পারেন।
এছাড়াও বিস্কুট পাগলা মানিক রতন এর কান্ডকারখানা ছিল আরেক মজা সিসিমপুরের জন্য। মানুষ চরিত্রের মধ্যে ছিল গুনি ময়রা, স্কুল শিক্ষক সুমনা, ডাকপিয়ন লালমিয়া, মুকুল আর ফেরিওয়ালা বাহাদুর। কার কথা ছেড়ে কার কথা বলব।
মুকুল আর সুমনার শিশুদের প্রতি ভালোবাসা আর অকৃত্রিম স্নেহ প্রদর্শন আমাকে মুগ্ধ করেছে। শিশুদের প্রতি আমাদের আচরন কেমন হওয়া দরকার তা এই দুই চরিত্রের সাহায্যে খুব ভালোভাবেই ফুটিয়ে তুলেছে সিসিমপুর।
তবে মোদ্দাকথা হল, আজকের শিশুই নিশ্চিতভাবে আমাদের আগামী। তাই আসুন শিশুদের প্রতি মনযোগী হই। প্রত্যেকটি শিশুই ব্যাক্তিত্বের অধিকারী। আসুন এই কোমল ব্যাক্তিত্বকে বিকশিত করার সুযোগ দানে সচেষ্ট হই।
আর শিশুদের জন্য বলি; হ্যাঁ।
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