For A Golden Future

For A Golden Future

Ashim Kumar Paul

  

The African proverb that says ‘it takes a whole village to raise a child’, no doubt, emphasises the crying need for caring the children with much weight and responsibility.  Therefore, the issue of child care has turned out to be a crucial constituent of life in the world. If the quality of child care is ensured, a considerable distinction in children's development can be made.

 

But it is sad to say that though today’s child is deemed the architect of the golden future, the pages of the newspapers are often overwhelmed with the news of those children who are badly deprived of basic rights and are exposed to risky and appalling jobs. Thus, for the sustainable development of the entire country, it is, in truth, essential for taking proper functions to secure a congenial environment for the children to be brought up.

 

Given the allowance of fund in the national budget allocated for the child welfare in Bangladesh, on April 27, 2013, a press conference was arranged by the department of Development Studies of Dhaka University in cooperation with The Child Rights Parliamentary Caucus, CSID, CRGA and Save the Children at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of Dhaka University. “Like women and poverty budget, a discrete budget analytical paper about the allocation in national budget for the children is needed to appraise how much the children are reaping the benefits of the budget allowance,” told the speakers at the press conference.

 

President of The Child Rights Parliamentary Caucus, Asma Zerin Jhumu, MP chaired the session while honourable Pro Vice-Chancellor (Administration) Professor Dr. Shahid Akthar Hossain was present as the chief guest and Advocate Mir Showkat Ali Badsha, honourable Member of Parliament as the special guest. Dr. Abu Eusuf, Associate Professor of department of Development Studies, Dhaka University, delivered the welcome speech at the conference. Dr. Kazi Maruful Islam presented an analytical framework on the budget for the children. Birgit Lundbak, country director in Bangladesh of Save the Children, and Joaherul Islam Mamun, Chairman, Swid Bangladesh also delivered their speech.

 

Dr. Maruf said, “We want no new budget. What we want is an analysis framework on the present budget structure so that the amount of the allowance for the children in national budget can be perceptible”.  He presented an analytical framework.

 

Asma Zerin Jhumu, MP, said, “Present government is women and children-friendly government. Certain goals and purposes for ensuring child-right and development in Bangladesh have been taken in ‘National Child policy 2011’ and ‘the sixth five-year plan’. The government has legislated ‘Children Act 2012’. But it is necessary to scrutinise and evaluate the endeavour that how much allocation is needed and how much the estimation is playing an important role for implementing the endorsed policy, law, act and strategy. Therefore, determining discretely the amount of allocation the government is dealing out is imperative”.

 

Dr. Shahid Akthar Hossain put importance on child psychology. He said, “Their (children) views should be taken into cognisance for their appropriate growth. Mr. Birgit Lundbak said, “Almost half of the population of Bangladesh is children. The allowance is insufficient notwithstanding having beneficial policies. Advocate Mir Showkat Ali Badsha, MP said, “The budget allocation for the children in proportion of the population is highly needed”. Khondokar Johurul Alom, Executive Director of CSID, read out the speech of thanks in the session.

 

Some proposals were placed at the press conference for the allocation of funds for the children in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2013-2014. The proposals are:

 

1.      Like women and poverty budget, a discrete budget analytical paper ‘Children’s Budget’ appraising the amount of benefit that the children are getting from the budget allocation should be legislated.

2.      Given the Child Right Charter, the Constitution of Bangladesh and National Child policy 2011, identifying the right, safety, protection, development and balanced growth of all children in the country as the indicators national budget should be legislated so that the allocation of fund for the children can be detected separately. In this regard, endorsement of this matter should be done and formation of detailed research and analytical framework can be initiated in the upcoming budget.

3.      Roadmap for the protection and development of the children living in Dhaka including orphans, working urban children, handicapped children, and tribal children is necessary to be legislated. Special allowance of fund can be allocated in the budget for the improvement of the skill of these children and human resource development.

4.      For ensuring safe water supply, sanitation, education and health for the children living in the slums, special allowance of fund for their safety and growth should be allocated in the budget.

5.      For governing the Child Welfare Board in national, district and upazilla levels properly, sufficient fund should be allocated in the budget.

6.      In proportion to the capability of the poor and the slum-dwellers, special programmes for low price accommodation should be set in the budget.

7.      For instituting children-friendly urban governance under the Ministry of Local Government and in light of the approaches declared by UNICEF and UN-Habitat (1996), specific programmes can be initiated for children-friendly works in urban, cities and municipalities.

 

 

The Journey of ‘HELLO’

The Journey of ‘Hello’

Ashim Kumar Paul

Let the very topic begin with a short of question that will lead you to seek the answer why the topic is chosen.

What do you say when you pick up the phone?

---Obviously, you say ‘hello’.

What do you say when someone introduces a friend, a relative, anybody at all?

---More often than not, you say ‘hello’.

In fact, it is a common scenario that a man may not know how to read a piece of article or a novel written in sophisticated English language or may not know how to write even in his own native language but is aware of how to utter a single word to greet. Yes, it is the word ‘hello’ that is commonly used while one picks up the telephone, or the cell phone, or greets people with the salutation ‘hello’. It is not surprising that a call to stop and pay attention should become associated with the first telephones. But with all the possible ways of saying it, why should telephones call for a different pronunciation, that of the present-day hello? It is simply because, it is rude to shout and ‘hello’ discourages shouting. The short ‘e’ keeps the mouth more closed than ‘o’ or ‘a’, and ‘–lo’ makes a quieter ending than. ‘-loo’. Telephones badly needed this civilizing because the first ones required people to shout and the first telephone exchanges were manned by boys who enthusiastically shouted right back. Nevertheless how many of us do really know the history: where did the word come from?

The word, ‘hello’ is still considered as an acceptable form of greeting between people of all levels and strata of society, whether it be your closest friend or the superior of your work-place or any ordinary person, It would still be an acceptable form of greeting either while talking face-to-face or after picking up a phone. Once this aspect of the word “Hello” was realized, people started to pick up on it and now it is just a custom and to a great extent an unconscious habit. It was first used in the mid-1800s. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German “halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of ‘halôn’, ‘holôn’ to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman.” It also connects the development of ‘hello’ to the influence of an earlier form, ‘holla’, whose origin is in the French ‘holà’ (roughly, ‘whoa there!’, from French là ‘there’). As in addition to hello, hallo and hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels. These words were used to attract immediate attention and demand that the listener come to a stop or cease what he or she was doing. However, ‘hallo’ was used to incite hunting dogs.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first published use of ‘hello’ goes back only to 1827. And it wasn't mainly a greeting back then. People in the 1830's said ‘hello’ to attract attention (“Hello, what do you think you're doing?”), or to express surprise (“Hello, what have we here?”). Hello gained widespread usage through the increased use of the telephone. The dictionary says it was Thomas Edison who put ‘hello’ into common usage. He urged the people who used his phone to say ‘hello’ when answering. His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, thought the better word was ‘ahoy’. Others argued for more formal greetings like “What is wanted?” or “Are you there?”

Alexander Graham Bell, an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator, is credited with inventing the first practical telephone, used one piece to speak into and to listen as well. Alexander Graham Bell originally suggested ‘ahoy’ be adopted as the standard greeting when answering a telephone. Ahoy is a signal word used to signal a ship or boat, stemming from the Middle English cry, ‘Hoy!’

However, Thomas Edison did not like ‘ahoy’, he did not like Bell, what's more Bell did not like him either. Edison, as soon as he heard of the Bell invention, started working on making an improved telephone. Edison would often joke about “Bell’s apparatus”, saying to the effect that you had to go tell the person you spoke to on Bell’s phone what you had said!

Edison came up with his greeting for the phone “hell-o”. It is fun! It had its origins with Mark Twain who did use it in a printed work and it may have influenced Edison. Also it has been said that other languages may have influenced it too.  Who knows?  In a way, Edison was playing with Victorians who were putting skirts on piano legs and got them all to say ‘Hell....o’.  To him really goes the credit for pushing the word, as he did.

However, Bell declined to utter the word ‘hello’ during his entire life and continued to use the salutation ‘ahoy ahoy’ till he died in 1922!!!

Just For You

Just For You

Ashim Kumar Paul

No despair, only Ray of Hope
Shine your Soul
Win your Heart with my Love
My sole Goal.

No anxiety, only Shield of Love

Guard us best

All day long we’ll sportingly play

In our Heavenly Nest.

No fury, only Gleam of Smile 
Flicker on your lip 
My longing for your Smile 
Indomitable and deep.

No pain, only Love's Rain
 Soak your Heart 
My prayer: God bless us
Never make us apart.

 

 

Shakespeare’s Heroines

Shakespeare’s Heroines

Ashim Kumar Paul

“Shakespeare has no heroes but only heroines” is one of the proclamations that is often asserted by the critics. Arguably, Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of all ages, is said to not have heroes notably in the comedies because of the significant role led by female characters in the plays.  Critical view claims that in his comedies, one thing Shakespeare aimed for was to honour the qualities of Queen Elizabeth since other Elizabethan Renaissance writers similarly honoured the Queen Elizabeth in their writings, most notably Edmund Spenser in “The Faerie Queene”. Since Shakespeare aims to honour Elizabeth, he endows his heroines with qualities and attributes widely known to belong to the Queen. 

The heroine of “As You Like It”, Rosalind, favoured with youth, beauty, intelligence, wit, and depth of feeling, is one of Shakespeare's most appealing creations. She is frequently regarded as the ideal romantic heroine — very warm and very humane. So fully realized is she in the complexity of her emotions, the subtlety of her thought, and the fullness of her character that no one else in the play matches up to her. Rosalind is much admired of her verve and ability to subvert the limitations that society imposes on her as a woman. Rosalind outdoes everyone else, male and female, in the play. With confidence and imagination, she disguises herself as a young man for the majority of the play in order to parry the untoward experiences as a woman as well as woo the man she loves and instruct him in how to be a more accomplished, attentive lover—a tutorship that would not be welcome from a woman. Thus, there is endless comic appeal in Rosalind’s lampooning of the conventions of both male and female behaviour. Besides, Rosalind is a discerning judge of character. Jaques, for all of his ‘Continental’ pretensions, does not impress her at all. Rather, she lauds the wisdom, as well as the occasional witty foolishness of Touchstone. “Thou speak'st wiser than thou art ware of’ she tells in response to Touchstone's speech about his courting with a ‘peascod’. However, Rosalind is not beyond the humanely affection that gets exposed due to her rashly impatience to identify the forester who has been decking the trees with verses in praise of Rosalind. When she is told that it is Orlando, she questions her cousin Celia breathlessly and becomes concerned about her appearance — forgetting momentarily that she is in disguise as a man and shouldn't worry about such things. This sudden weakness is humorous. Despite that, it is very human and girlish, and it receives understanding sympathy from the audience.

Quick-witted, wealthy, and beautiful, Portia in “The Merchant of Venice” is the embodiment of the virtues that are typical of Shakespeare’s heroines. She stands out as the antidote to Shylock’s malice. At very outset of the play, Portia’s potential for initiative and resourcefulness is not found as she is a near prisoner, feeling herself absolutely bound to comply with her father’s dying wishes. This opening appearance, however, exhibits a revealing introduction to Portia, who emerges as that rarest of combinations—a free spirit who abides rigidly by rules. Rather than ignoring the stipulations of her father’s will, she watches a stream of suitors pass her by, happy to see these particular suitors go, but sadly, she has no choice in the matter. When Bassanio arrives, Portia proves herself to be highly resourceful, begging the man she loves to stay a while before picking a chest, and finding loopholes in the will’s provision that can hardly be thought. In addition, in her defeat of Shylock, Portia triumphs by applying a more rigid standard than Shylock himself, agreeing that his contract entitles him to his pound of flesh, but adding that it does not allow for any loss of blood. Anybody can break the rules, but Portia’s effectiveness comes from her ability to make the law work for her. Portia's second characteristic that is most readily obvious is her graciousness — that is, her tact and sympathy. Despite her real feelings about the Prince of Morocco, Portia answers him politely and reassuringly. Since the irony of her words is not apparent to him, his feelings are spared. She tells him that he is ‘as fair / As any comer I have look'd on yet / For my affection.’ She shows Morocco the honor his rank deserves. But once he is gone, she reveals that she did not like him. ‘A gentle riddance,’ she says; ‘Draw the curtains.’

Viola in “Twelfth Night”, for most critics, is one of Shakespeare’s most delightful and beloved feminine creations of his comedies. Viola, surrounded by characters who express the extremes of emotionalism and melancholy, is caught between Duke Orsino’s extreme melancholy and Lady Olivia’s aggressive emotionalism. She represents the norm of behaviour in this strange world of Illyria. She is, first of all, a very practical and resourceful person. As a shipwrecked orphan, who has no one to protect her, she must resort to some means whereby her safety is assured. She knows that a single woman unattended in a foreign land would be in an extremely dangerous position. Consequently, she evaluates the sea captain's character, finds it suitable, and wisely places her trust in him; then she disguises herself as a boy so that she will be safe and have a man's freedom to move about without protection. Accordingly, Viola is immediately seen to be quick-witted enough to evaluate her situation, of sound enough judgment to recognize the captain's integrity, resourceful enough to conceive of the disguise, and practical enough to carry out this design. Viola also has a native intelligence, an engaging wit, and an immense amount of charm. These qualities will help her obtain her position with Duke Orsino and they are also the same qualities which cause Lady Olivia to immediately fall in love with her. It was her charming personality, which won her the sea captain’s loyalty, without whose help her disguise would have never succeeded. And within a short three days’ time, her wit, charm, loyalty, and her skill in music and conversation won for her the complete trust of Duke Orsino. Even though she is in love with the duke, she is loyal in her missions when she tries to win Lady Olivia's love for him. However, Viola's charm lies in her simple, straightforward, good-humoured personality. She could have used her disguise for all sorts of conniving, yet she is forthright and honest in all of her dealings with Lady Olivia and with Duke Orsino, even though she does use her disguise to entertain the audience with delightful verbal puns. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Viola is that a young lady in possession of so many attributes falls in love with someone who is as moody and changeable as the duke.

Apart from the comedies, in the tragedies like “Macbeth”, “Othello”, the female characters dominate superbly over the development of the plot. Desdemona from “Othello” stands for the incarnation of, what most would believe to be, the perfect woman. She is loyal and trusting, innocent and pure, and her outer experience matches her inner beauty. Her somewhat naïve personality, however, leaves her exposed to the more worldly individuals who have learned how to take advantage of others through experience. Her downfall and her inexperience with the evils of the world leading to her demise initially attract many to Desdemona. One's innocence attracts all types, yet this attraction may become lethal. Desdemona does not know how to be unloving to one in need. When Cassio cannot amend his friendship with Othello, she willingly lends a helping hand. Her vow to “perform it to the last article” is fulfilled when her death is caused by her loyalty to this friendship. Desdemona is also completely blinded by her love for Othello. “Unkindness may do much, And his unkindness may defeat my life, But never taint my love.” This quote could be said to summarize all of the character of Desdemona. Her own words foreshadow her death, yet her love for her husband keeps her from seeing the truth of this statement. Desdemona does not know how not to love even those who, whether intentionally or unintentionally, mean her harm. The loyalty Desdemona feels towards all she meets keeps her from seeing their true colours. Her trust in the Moor that he was born without jealousy keeps her from noticing the changes in his everyday demeanour. Her loyalty to her husband also displays her innocence of the world. When Desdemona asks Emilia if there are really women who would cheat on their husbands, she puts her lack of worldly experience on display for all to see. Her ignorance of how the world works, and her supposedly trusting husband's belief in false statements, eventually leads her to the ultimate betrayal. The attributes of one such as Desdemona appear to be the perfect qualities that a woman can possess. Yet it is these same seemingly wonderful qualities that turn against their host, blinding them to the realities of society. Her trust in her husband does not allow her to see the beast he has become. Her loyalty to her friends blurs how the relationship may be seen from outside sources. Overall, this ‘perfect’ Desdemona leads herself to her death, yet has no knowledge of doing so while on her life’s journey.

In contrast with Desdemona of “Othello”, Lady Macbeth of “Mactbeth” is one of the most powerful as well as frightening female characters female characters in literature. Unlike her husband, Macbeth, she is short of all humanity, as we see well in her opening scene, where she calls upon the “Spirits that tend on mortal thoughts” to deprive her of her feminine instinct to care. Lady Macbeth Her smouldering ambition to be queen persistently manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding all his objections. Besides, she is able to act as the consummate hostess, enticing her victim, the king, into her castle. Lady Macbeth’s incredible strength of will persists through the murder of the king—it is she who steadies her husband’s nerves immediately after the crime has been perpetrated. Later, however, she begins a slow slide into madness—just as ambition affects her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt plague her more strongly afterward. She becomes mentally deranged, a mere shadow of her former commanding self, gibbering in Act V, Scene 1 as she ‘confesses’ her part in the murder. Her death is the event that causes Macbeth to cogitate for one last time on the nature of time and mortality in the speech “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” (Act V, Scene 5).

Truly speaking, William Shakespeare, the greatest playwright, has enriched the world of dramas with his marvellous creations. It would not be exaggerated to say that dipping into the unknown horizon of human psychology and analysing that enigmatic sphere was his key interests that have again and again been reflected through his splendid plays. However, her female characters appearing as supporting and central characters in the plays have been endowed with a rarely brilliant set of beauty, wit, humour and of course, a blend of human and passionate quality. Without their presence, the dramas may lose their savour. In a word, the heroines portrayed in Shakespeare’s plays have been gifted with undying qualities.