15/09/2020পহেলা আশ্বিন ১৪২৭The Weekly Turni
Editorial
This weekend I spent quite a bit of time at home. The week was exceptionally long, and the coming one will be brutal in terms of workload, I was promised. With that in mind, I was senile, sitting at home, not doing much. As I write this editorial, several things about age and childhood are randomly swimming in my mind. Perhaps it all started after my friend's daughter said she wanted to be a unicorn when she grew up. I said kudos to that! Let the fire burn from within.
I always enjoy Salvador Dali's work quite a bit. Not only his paintings are without any boundaries, but also consuming his work makes you believe that anything is possible.
"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since."… Salvador Dali
I wish we can all say the same thing. I think we all start with the 'fire within' but with time, either it burns out, or someone repeatedly says that it's too farfetched and maybe advise us to focus on more reasonable goals. The trouble is that is if the fire dies down, it is hard to re-kindle. It is typically the older and wiser folks around us who try to extinguish that fire. It is not their fault. It is just that they themselves have been burned before, perhaps, so all they are trying to do is to protect us from not getting burned. It's only natural. However, the downside of that wisdom is twofold. Not only we don't get burned, but also, we forget what's on the other side of that fire. Simply because we fail to cross it or let it burn. I always believed one simple thing; that there are no wise old men.
As I read Hemingway for the first time as a kid; I still remember what he said:
"No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful." Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
At the same time, I am not the person who makes any generalization. I have seen old men in my life who never imposed their wisdom on me. Only provided the direction to that door. I opened it myself and walked through it. As I am beginning to consider myself as an old man now, I am always careful, so that I don't make the same mistake I have seen other old men make. There is a common feeling that when your kids are born, and especially as they begin to grow up, you start to feel old. But there is a saying that when they leave for college, you begin to feel young again. So, I am hopeful, that my younger days are around the corner.
I am right in the middle of my half-life. আমার অর্ধেক জীবন…
This Week's Feature -- Evergreen Tonic
In search of enlightened people (আলোকিত মানুষ চাই)
There is hardly any kid from the 90s or the 80s who hasn't had goosebumps to the words" 'আলোকিত মানুষ চাই,'" meaning, we want enlightened humans. Our childhood was shaped with a bus roaming around the cities, with these words slammed on its windows. @deepu7 takes us on a "ride" in this post in search of enlightenment.
Although the British period railroad tracks have expired its lifetime, our former railway minister is still relatively young at the age of 70. Shattering the dreams of thousands of jobless philander, he got married to a 29-year-old glamorous girl in the presence of more than 700 guests with the colorful lighting on both sides of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. Although many have denounced the subject with humor and sarcasm, I don't think he did anything wrong, even though the bride is a little younger. Because age should not be an impediment to awakening the inner youth of a person. He might have been influenced by the below line from the famous song of Bangla movie!
ষাট বছরে ফের যৌবন এলো
Railway Minister is a man from afar; I have seen my old grandfather staring at Hindi films' beautiful matrons while watching TV. Nonetheless, immediately after, he has managed himself contemplating the aspect of religious constraints. The only reason for this is that even though his body's various sensitive organs do not respond appropriately at this age, the age of his mind is 18. Here the age of eighteen is used metaphorically. The central aspect is that even though the body age increases, the human mind remains young forever.
I am personally aficionado of Abdullah Abu Sayeed Sir and am influenced by his many words. That is why his words have come up in my numerous writings. He was once asked how he is so energetic and lively in this old age. He replied that he always avoid passing his valuable time with aged people. He wanders with all the youthful people. So he is influenced by young people and gets the enthusiasm from them.
Numerous times the surrounding atmosphere influences people to think themselves abandoned. I am giving an example here. Color is an exciting object that largely controls the human mind. You will find yourself feeling quite refreshed after wearing a colorful outfit. Many people choose light colors when buying clothes for their elderly parents. So you are signaling to your parents that they have become aged. Many older people in our country are reluctant to wear colorful clothes despite wanting to because they wonder what people will say! So in many cases, you are your own obstacle in staying forever young.
Instead of looking at biological age, motivate yourself by looking at people who have done many impossible things in old age.
Two gentlemen named Christine Brown and Yuichiro Miura have climbed the Great Wall of China and Mount Everest, respectively, at 80. Furthermore, Frank Schearer, a 100 years old young man, became the oldest water skier globally.
So I want to say like Sukant Bhattacharya-
তবু আঠারোর শুনেছি জয়ধ্বনি,
এ বয়স বাঁচে দুর্যোগে আর ঝড়ে,
বিপদের মুখে এ বয়স অগ্রণী
এ বয়স তবু নতুন কিছু তো করে।
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?(Sonnet 18)
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow' st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand' rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow' st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Tattletell Teletalk
Steve was having a bad day. He went to Mcdonalds, ordered a big mac, and got a Salad instead. What happened to his big mac? He asked the waiter. In return, the waiter turned red like a newborn Russian and insisted on him munching the salad. Or else... the waiter also threatened to hit him with a pair of pig-balls he was waving like a flag.
Steve ate his salad and went to his workplace. The doorman was browsing Facebook and wouldn't let him in. "Use the fire escape.", he insisted. "Or don't get in."
Outrageous! Steve was the boss, after all! Can't he just fire the guy?
Using the fire escape bruised his suit and threw him in a bottomless pit of depression. He went to a laundry service. Seeing him enter, the manager came rushing with a broomstick. "Get out!" He shouted! "We don't offer services to the homeless!"
Even more depressed, Steve decided to go home. His gardener was mowing the lawn like a sloth trying to crawl highland grass. "Hurry it up," Steve urged. The gardener got furious! If Steve didn't like his mowing, he could do it himself. Steve looked at the gardener and stared at his face for a good two minutes, puzzled. Then he slowly turned and went looking for a five-star hotel.
With beaten pride and swollen ego, he ordered the presidential suite. Cost him a fortune, but, hey, he really felt good with the decision! Sometimes you had to make yourself happy.
Following the bellboy, he entered the suite. What is this? A tiny room with no window. Now Steve was angry.
Seeing his angry face, the bell boy smiled. 'You are no president, are you?'
Then he closed the door behind him.
Steve could hear his footsteps slowly fading away.
Lethal Dilemma
Warning: This is not medical advice.
There's a saying for viral fevers,
If you take meds*, it'll last for only 7 days. If not, it will stay for a whole week.
*refering to antibiotics mainly
While the SARS CoV-2 complicates things a bit, the general consensus is still the same. Antibiotics do not kill viruses, period.
Before I proceed, I'll address the first wave of questions that are likely to be popping into your heads right now to put you all at a bit of ease. "Then why are Covid patients being prescribed antibiotics? Do we not need antibiotics? Are we getting wrong treatment?"
No, you're not getting the wrong treatment. At ease, my friend, at ease. You'll find out all in the end.
So seasonal fevers, huh! Everyone has been coming down with it, and legend has it, @linco is patient zero of the BDCommunity. I can understand the panic surrounding fever, given the current pandemic. But we need to understand the Sars CoV-2 did not come and kill the rest of the Rhinoviruses (common cold) and influenza viruses. They still exist and are even more likely to be causing the seasonal fever.
So the moment you're down with a fever, you don't have to panic. But exercise caution. There's no harm in isolating yourself for a few days to keep the people around you safe until we can be sure it's nothing sinister. We have all experienced the bitter aftertaste that lingers around, and it's ubiquitous to lose appetite. I'm gonna sound like an "old man" now and say, but you still gotta eat something, son. Maintaining hydration and replenishing electrolytes is quite essential. You may have noticed the profuse sweating every day when the fever subsides. Guess what you're losing in the sweat..? Fluid and electrolytes.
I think it is a good time to remind everyone, Dengue season is approaching in the subcontinent. Understandably everyone is preoccupied with the Covid-19. But we all remember how deadly the last dengue season was. So chop chop! You know the drill! No stagnant water puddles around the neighborhood, no dirty water-filled plant tubs in the balcony. Let those mosquitoes make love, but not gonna let them conceive! (okay, this is scientifically inaccurate, but it sounded funny!)
Above all, be like @zayedsakib and take antibiotics only when your doctor prescribes you. So why do we prescribe antibiotics to COVID patients? Antibiotics, by definition, works against bacteria. The SARS CoV-2 gives us a hard time as it is. The body is already having quite a difficult time fending it off, unlike the common cold. Now imagine, on top of the Sars CoV-2 infection, you get a secondary bacterial infection of the respiratory tract! The medical term is secondary pneumonia. When that happens, things get out of hand pretty quickly. So the antibiotics are prescribed to not really treat anything at all; it is to prevent a secondary pneumonia. No, I'm not making this up! We call this Prophylactic use of antibiotics. But.....but but but but! Taking antibiotics suggested by your next-door neighbor, who heard it from some guy at the corner tea shop, who, in turn, was taking medical advice from his uncle's dog, is NOT the way to take prophylactic antibiotics! What you have to understand is, every country has a different microbiota. Meaning the strains commonly causing secondary pneumonia in Bangladesh are not necessarily the same as in Panama, for example! Hell, even in the same city, different patient profiles are susceptible to different organisms. The uncle's dog might be brilliant, but trust me, it doesn't know which antibiotic to prescribe under what circumstances! In English, the title is pronounced something like "Pitha Pulir Desh Bangladesh" it's a traditional saying which remarks on our country's tradition. In English, meaning it is "the country of cakes," but it's not the usual cakes you may see in the city's beautiful shops. It's the traditional food in our rural area. Which is best made by the hands of village women. Day by day, it is losing its basic features. Our ma-Khala (mother and aunties) best know how to prepare these. Winter is coming within a few months. Everything will be covered by the foggy weather. Dewdrops fall in the leaves. We are trembling in the cold. That is the perfect time for these foods. The shimmering cold weather in the morning and the hot Pitha Puli is very much enjoyable. There are various kinds of Pithas(cakes). Different in shape, color, ingredients, and taste. Their names are also too fascinating. Let me write some of them in Bengali names: Bhapa Pitha, Chitoi Pitha, Nokshi Pitha, Pakan Pitha, Patishapta Pitha, and so on. There are too many of them. They are too much fascinated by the look and also very much delicious. In the winter season, in the villages, there remains a festive look in the houses in the morning. Because these tasted best if they served hot, and everyone enjoys them early in the winter morning. There remains great fun. Imagine a morning in a village along with your grandparents. You are enjoying these foods served hot. Ah! What an enjoyable moment. Nowadays, many people live on selling these Pitha Puli in random public places in the cities. Actually, in a way, it is keeping these traditional foods alive and familiar with the city people who may don't know how to make or forget these traditions. We also organize a fair of these Pithas to make this valuable tradition familiar with the children. It's our first and foremost duty to preserve our traditions and pass through the next generation.
This here is our piece de resistance. So, to promote engagement and a little self-branding, we have come up with an initiative that we simply called Featured. And we are very excited about this portion of the magazine. Every week, one talented author will have the opportunity to contribute a piece for the magazine, while showcasing one of their best posts. The willing writers will have a chance to add to the magazine a few words about any topic that they choose and be a 25% beneficiary of the magazine. The first step is, you have to decide whether you want to get featured or not. Once you've made up your mind, you have to apply by submitting one of your articles from last week. We have a wiggle room for quality content if they are older than seven days. Choose the piece you deem to be your best work for the week, as this will play a significant role in you getting featured or not. There will be a two-day period to submit your application. It must be submitted by dropping a link to your post in the #Featured-Magazine channel on the BDCommunity Discord Server. Once the application window has closed, @linco, @simplifylife, and @zayedsakib will choose three authors from all the submissions. The featured author for the week will be announced during the weekly voice meeting. They will then have two days to complete their piece for the magazine and submit to the officials. The author who gets featured in the weekly magazine will be set as a 25% beneficiary, meaning 25% of the magazine's liquid payout will go to the featured author. Put down a phone picture of your para/city in the comments below. Along with a few sentences that, in your opinion, describes what we humans like to call Home. The best one wins:) Leave a meaningful no less than 100 words comment below about the topic, and the most meaningful one will win 5 hive:). You can enter as many times as you like. Leave the tag #BDC in your comment for it to be counted as an entry. Only one person will be chosen as the winner. Last Weeks Winner-@notacinephile
Instructions to Get Featured
How to Get Featured
Application Window
Flash Contest
it was wonderful to read this week's magazine. How fast time flies. Anyways I enjoyed reading every line.
Just like the editor says, it is time to feel young again and as long as we keep the mind young, we will be alright. Hope everyone refrains from self-medication and visits the doctor for an expert opinion.
This is near the shipyard in Kochi and the park where I visited often as a child. It is still maintained although now it is closed because of the COVID scare. Thanks for reminding me of this picture. It reminds me of my childhood days when life was more fun and relaxed and less hectic.
Damn, the water looks so clean! Beautiful place! Could just sit there and chill on a lazy afternoon.
Flash Contest
My Sweet HomeThe word "Home" doesn’t go only with the definition of where we live, it goes with the emotion of our surrounding people connected to us. In a locality there are a lot families or homes which make together a para(society) or a big home. Society is developing economically and our homes are turning into the big structures of rod and cements but the roots of our hearts are connected from the small huts. Structures changes but the emotions don’t. The name of our para is "Datiara" in the midst of Brahmanbaria sadar. In the beginning there was nothing but ara's (an area full of bushes). Gradually people started to built their dreams here making relations with their surrounding and came to the todays such big and small buildings of bricks.
In a pic i wont be able to show too much of my area but in this one i can show you a night beauty of a very small portion of my area how it developed so high. The empty place you are seeing in the middle is a stadium, which gets on a rush of the kids while playing. In the field there is no discrimination of upper or lower class among us everyone gets on the play with full of joy. These morals are taught in the society thats why we are together without any discrimination as family member of a big home.
I love my para a lot. The people living here is like a big family connected via hearts to one another without any discrimination.
#BDC
This looks like a very peaceful neighborhood!
In the cities these days, we sometimes don't even know who our next door neighbor is. There used to be a time when we knew who lived in every single house in the neighborhood. Good times :))
Alhamdulillah in our locality its still seen. Because there are less number of tenant and those who are still very familiar to everyone.
Moreover our para is a little bit small not so big so we all know one another very well.
Yeah, its a peaceful one.
What a wonderful poetry, I must admit that some of the words I didn't understand because it's too deep for me. Even so can feel it, the people who's wanting to stay young and feel like it will always be a summer.
By the way about the age things. I don't understand why people judged the older ones why they acted like that when they're already old or they should base on their ages. For me it sounds absurd, what's wrong to enjoy life even though getting older. Also why does it matter to everyone when an old one married a young one? That's not their concerns after all and in fact everyone can be happy. Ages, social status and etc., the society devoured the people 's way of thinking that's why many of us are so judgemental.
It's awesome again. I really wait to have a new one every week and now it's on my hand. Yes, it feels as I felt at my early ages to smell the new edition of my beloved megazines every month.
And a matter I wanna mention, the date of Bengal calendar, we usually forget about it. But after the Turni started to be published, I noticed every time about the Date of Bengali Calendar as today it's showing '1st Ashwin'. It reminds me about our own calendar that we should not forget about.
I don't want to mention the names, I got satisfaction while reading this edition of Turni, as I can't ignore any name from the list. All are extraordinary.
It's looking very nice that Partha, the artist, relating his paintings with classical literatures- from Jibanananda to Shakespeare. I always like the way he do. And this is another nice artwork where he hide the face of that girl as if you may imagine any shape on it, even your dreamgirl also! And this way the last two lines were formulated:
The first thing I observed is that the author had time to think and reflect on things during the extra time he or she had and this led me to say that when we are less busy as human we tend to be all up in our feelings and we always wanna go back to younger years and think of our dreams and aspirations. Sometimes it makes us see things clearly while other time it makes us question ourselves.
It is okay to listen to our elders yeah, but sometimes they tend to pass there fear unto us like you said, if we dont cross the fire we wont know what is on the other side truly, we choose either to get burnt or survive the heat and smoke. Life doesnt stand still, as it moves we need to move with it. Do not give room for regret.
Congratulations to the authors that got featured, curators that took there time to select this gems and to us readers.Good work to my favorite community.
Another work of masterpiece. Really proud to be with this community which have such a talented moderators and writers. They are not only talented but also hard working to publish this digital publication every week.
I always must go through the editorial which attract me very much. The way of writing editorial in what should i say breaking words makes me feel good to read through. i know about the art work of Salvador Dali but the nice quote was great about out changing of thoughts with time. Let the fire burn from inside. We all have some fire inside just need a strive to wings that fire.
Changes with time.
Partho(@artistparthoroy) come up with another beautiful drawing and sonnet share from Shakespeare . And @notacinephile with mock story. @deepu7 is superbs in his writing and Sukanta Vottacharjee's poem part
I really got some flashback of my childhood when I started reading this week's turni. In childhood. I was more into playing pc and console games I badly wanted to be a gamer. But time changed and so does my wishes.
I also feel sad for Linco and yes I support the fact that we should be more cautious about this virus until the final vaccine gets released.
What I liked the best is the 'Pithas and Pulis'! Especially in the winters, we in here also love to eat various kinds of homemade pitas and pulis. Among all of them, I like the pithas that are made of Patali Gur (Date Palm Jaggery). To be honest, after seeing the picture, I am suddenly getting crave to eat pithas LOl XD
And hats for this flash contest! I really liked the idea and let me share a little bit about my para.
For those who don't know, I live in West Bengal, India. I am a resident of Paschim Medinipur district and we speak the Bengali language in here, just like in Bangladesh. Our para is not very old and my family is among the oldest ones that came here and built their own world from scratch. Right now there 2 new home is being built as you can see from the picture and new residents are coming. Speaking about unity, I think it comes when several individuals think and works together like one and my para does great in this aspect. Every year, the young generation of our para takes the initiative of several Pujas and functions and elders also help us a lot. Especially in Saraswati Puja (ceremony of Goddess of Knowledge), every one of our para stands together and make a large scale ceremony and even a lot of outsiders also come to enjoy the shows and indoor competitions like musical chair, spoon race, fast eating and other hilarious contests. I really love my family and para and I think that's what makes me homesick. XD
Last but not least, Lots of love for BDCommunity members. You all work very hard and also helping many bloggers to build their career. Keep it going!
#bdc
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STOPOkay the 7th edition of our weekly turni has came. With a great excitement i started reading and i am pleased as always with our eye-catching writings.
Its true, in our locality there is a freedom fighter uncle whose age is approximately 70 but still he is so young by physically and mentally. He passes his times with us also, when we all boys are talking in a place he joins us with a smile.Moreover his talkings are not like the other aged people of the experiences of life which we find boring,he talks in every funny topic we love like our friend.
I regret as i could not put a haha react on the screenshot of mustafa jabbar's comment.
Its true. Its a common and very dangerous scenario around us.We take everything as napa extra. Any pain take a napa no need to go to doctor that will cause extra cost. But we don’t think there maybe another reason behind the pain. We all try to cure our-self with the gathered experience or so on. In this post our doc described a really important one to our ongoing situation. There is no denying the fact that we must obey this one for our own good. Be cautious.
Last of all i wanna say it was overall another amazing one of our turni.
Green country is our Bangladesh. Whenever I feel alone I go to enjoy the natural beauty very close to nature.
A home where you are comfortable and that place feel you as your own soul leaving. A place where you feel full of positive energy and feel free to do any thing.
It doesn't matter that your home situated outside in nature, city or in apartment or in hill area, just need that it lives on your heart.
A home is a place where you and your beloved family are leaving together peacefully and kids were shouting each time or old edge person leaving peacefully. This type of environment made house/apartment/banglow a home.
Some person denotes it as permanent residence but in my opinion a home which leaves on your heart and where you feel full of positive energy.
#BDC
Wonderful ☺️
Flash Contest
#BDC
The rural environment of remote areas of Bangladesh is known to almost everyone. Due to the coronavirus situation this time, the educational institutions of the country were closed and I got the opportunity to live in the village after a long time. It is not common to go to a village house because of a job. The home environment in my village is very much like a haor (হাওর) where there is a lot of water in the fields during the rainy season. There is water in the field for about six months and during this time people do not have much work related to agriculture. So, during the rainy season, the people of the village are seen playing various games and hanging out.
And during this time the natural environment is very beautiful because there is water all around. Boat Travelling is possible in this time. It is good for those who go for a visit for a while but it is costly for people who are working for hand to mouth. The problem is that some small roads are flooded and people have to use boats to get from one house to another. Otherwise the natural environment as a whole is extremely captivating and there is a lot of sincerity among the rural people which is great because everyone enjoys the time together.
Many hangouts in the markets and in the fields (those that are not quite submerged) have a variety of games and football games. And Carom and other sports are the matter of joy. Recently I have noticed the change of trend of playing which is Ludu in mobiles. And young people are addicted to social media and games.
Overall, the village environment is very captivating and I am very happy to spend some time in this environment. Because of the clean and beautiful environment of the village and the air is not available in the urban areas. All in all, the picture shows the environment during the rainy season in my village.