Mood and Coolth!

So what on god's earth is coolth you may be thinking? Ever wondered about the nuances of the English language? Well, how about the fact that there is a noun for the

adjective 'warm' (i.e. warmth) but none for the word 'cool'? Hence 'coolth' pretty much suffices.

Such revelations can only come about from loony RS writers. This particular one was stroking his unkempt facial shrubbery. Messy hairy situations are often a prelude to looniness. Look at crazy Einstein who came up with all these theories to make lives of science students that much more difficult.

Back to our hairy faced thinker who captured the word as it was buzzing around the air for a while. Coolth happened to be a great discovery that required meaning. It is like having a great title with no story to go with. Thus started the journey to find the meaning of coolth. We figured it would be something like a first step towards finding other things such as the meaning of life and stuff.

Coolth is as much an urban legend as can be. Like an urban legend it is believed, even feared, to exist but no one can clearly pinpoint a definitive incarnation. Some claim to have it while others shake their heads vehemently to dislodge the icicles. Think of all the people who are so cool that they are literally oozing with coolness. You must have seen them somewhere sometime.

Some display their coolth quietly while others have the world hear it. They have a nose in the air walk that defies you to say anything at all. It's a walk not far from that of WWE wrestlers and you can almost hear the background theme music as they approach. In fact, in some cases of severe coolth affliction you actually do hear the theme music. Think of the Dhanmondi Lake area during the afternoon where people with coolth are heard approaching kilometers away. You are supposed to stare in awe as loud cars with loud stereos come whizzing by. You stare in awe wondering if you can spot the all too rare signs of coolth and are thoroughly disappointed. All you can see is a car going past without any sign of its cool occupants because they have inclined their seats as far down as they can. They are driving while pretty much lying down and that pretty much displays coolth. Of course they cannot see but when has imminent danger ever stopped anyone from being cool? Vin Diesel wouldn't be cool in Triple X without risking death with every stunt. So what's the story behind the lowered seats? It supposedly offers a lot of comfort but the main point is that it's an in thing. Cool people ride low.

After countless tries to copy the lying down driving position we figured that it is best to just go lie down on the bed at home. Lowering the seat so far back does help only if you have about 100kgs extra weight around your mid section. But most guys following this style are the typical stick figures. Ask any one of them and the invariable reply is that it makes the drive more enjoyable but that's an explanation brought about by lack of anything else. It is like the explanations to look for weapons of mass destruction.

Then think of the cool driver in his cool car stalled behind a slow but carefully upright driver. No one is better than the first driver and that is shown by loud honking and a glare while passing by. Add to that some censored lines that would make Satan proud.

While we are on the topic of loudness associated with coolth how about the guys who are too busy cat walking in their short tight clothes and meeting up with other guys? That's the quiet part like the calm before the storm. Enter a member of the opposite sex and the volumes increase. The heavens open up and everyone laughs a little louder and talks a little richer, literally. Things like Lexus, Nokia's latest and trips to America find precedence. Hand gestures become more elaborate and the men literally fall over their own feet trying to impress the fair (or not) maiden. It probably works because the girl may just look. Of course it could be the amused look reserved for baboons at the zoo and that is an actual quote from a girl.

When they are not loud cool people have a squinty eyed stance that is cooler than a cucumber in a supermarket freezer. They walk with deliberate steps and if any mortal asks a question then a grave mistake has been made. Life is short and cool guys are too busy creating long polite sentences. Short retorts are the order of the day. Watch a cool-guy argument such as that with an offending rickshaw puller. Slaps and threats are conversation methods. A better example would be the new police sergeants with their funky but useless big handled bikes. They pretend to be the Bangladeshi counterpart of Hells Angels. Just watch them shouting. In fact, that is al they really do while hiding behind their imitation Ray Bans.

So coolth is all about bravado and mood. It is eventually just so much noise. This mood is afflicting a majority of the male population. They are too busy being loud and arrogant giving actual moody people who just want to be left a lone a bad name. That's what coolth stands for as opposed to real "cool" which Nicolas Cage has in Con Air or Samuel Jackson in Shaft. Cool has become badly misinterpreted and thus it is an urban legend after all. Shame that boys will be boys and never grow up.

By Gokhra and the Mood Dude

Objectives Of Education And Our Education

Education is a process that opens our minds, discovers our inner spiritual qualities; gives us the ability to take a right view of things, teach us the reality of life. Education prepares us to fight the battle of life and to live as men.
Education is of small value if it can't help us in the most important of all tasks- it is to educate the individual for the society in which he must live and to give him the power to change that society.

Education must have two objectives, one- material progress and the other- intellectual and moral progress. Men must learn how to earn their living. To speak in general terms we get education in two ways - social education that we learn from the family and society and the other is informational education that we get or learn from books, TV, e-media, in school, college or varsity or from other sources.

The social education trains the mind, expands the vision and regulates the course of life. Children will learn what their parent will teach them and tell them to do. Parent's action and speech affect them much and reflects in their future behaviors and manners. But our social education is becoming weaker and weaker day by day. If you go to Dhanmondi lake or national park or any parks or restaurants, you will see many couples. If they are just setting together or gossiping there's nothing wrong with that. But what they do and how they act are very irritating and a bad example for the young children. I had visited "Boldha garden" few months ago with my friends. At first we couldn't see much people there. So I felt little pity for the fact that our people don't have interest in nature. But after sometime we suddenly discovered that there were many people there but under the trees, behind the bushes. What a perfect use of nature! You will find the same picture in Dhanmondi Lake. What happened to our generations? What is the problem with them? I don't know whether it's the fault of our education system or our character and culture.

Our education system still couldn't teach our parents and people that girls and boys are equal. Girls are not the "bua" of the house or burden to them or governess of the children or a machine. Our men still love to believe that they are much superior than the women and the house hold work is only meant for women. Our education couldn't open their mind. Mere slogan and seminar doesn't mean that we are successfully establishing the equal right. Most of the educated people still don't believe this equality. May be they believe this theoretically but practically they just they do the opposite things. Our education is unable to teach us that our status and economic condition don't reflect in our dresses. Character is the main treasure that reflects the value of a person. Our education system is unable to teach our people honesty and dignity. Educated and uneducated both kinds of people are involved in this game. They don't even have guilty feelings for that.

Our education failed to teach us patriotism. It couldn't create the unique love for our motherland in us. Most of us don't feel any duty or obligations for our country. We don't prove our love for the motherland by action. We just do it by speech- in mouthful of talks. We couldn't place country's interest above self-interest. Our love for our country is only bounded with in agitating slogans and propagandas. There is a saying-"1st world thinks about the environment, 2nd world thinks about how to grow more food and the 3rd world thinks about the politics". And it's a trend in our country that to become a politician education is not necessary and the educated people are not interested in this field. So our education is of small value for the people who are leading us or will lead us in future.

Now a day, we study in one subject and then do jobs in other field. A doctor or engineer becomes a police officer or magistrate, a scientist, biologist or chemist does jobs in banks. No one thinks about the large amount of money that was invested for a doctor, scientist or engineer. What a waste of national wealth and intelligence. We can't even blame them. What will they do if they don't get job in their specific fields? Most of the highly educated women become only housewives instead of involving in national prosperity. Thus informational education is becoming inappropriate for them and therefore losing it's importance. So, we have failed to meet every purposes of education. So it's time to think seriously about this.

By Desert Rose

The Evil that men do lives on

I am sure that most of you read Hamdu Mia's article titled "the evil that men do" which was published not so long ago. It was an article on the weird and bad habits that people have and display. Well, reading that article triggered some of my own ideas and experiences concerning the evil that men do. So today, I will write about some more bad habits I have had the misfortune to witness, often first hand.

Hamdu Mia had already mentioned the habit of nose picking. This is such a common bad habit that I believe that everyone has seen someone do it in public at some or the other. It seems that these people are really frank and candid people who are ready to show all about them to the others, even when that means digging up treasures from the depths of "nostriloville".

Another habit that I came across pretty recently is that of speaking loudly on the phone. Such people can be seen everywhere, but they are most noticeable in those small shops which you can make phone calls. The congested areas of such shops make sure you have to face the full brunt of these people, who speak…no, scream out loudly on the phone. Not only do these people scream out loud, they repeat each sentence at least three times, and that too loud enough to be heard by the other party in the conversation, even if they hang up the phone. Not so long ago me and a friend of mine were in one such shop, photocopying some important notes on the eve of the final exams, while this guy standing next to us was putting his vocal cord to the limit. At one point, we had to stand out of the store for we could no longer bear the volume in which he was speaking on the phone.

Another bad habit that the people of Bangladesh have more than anybody else is that of arriving late everywhere. This habit has been written a lot about, but this is one habit that I find very hard to forgive and thus I will venture to write some more about it. Obviously being late for an appointment is bad for your own work. However, at the same time, being late for an appointment with someone can often cause disruptions in the work schedule of the other person. This is not something that the people in Bangladesh seem to worry about much. Here, arriving half an hour after time is not even considered arriving late. Worse still, being late for appointments is considered to be a sign of importance.
Then comes a very common sight in most markets and concerts and virtually any place where they is a gathering of people. I am talking about the sight of people pushing and shouldering in a queue, all for the sake of getting ahead, often by only a few inches. Even if you guarantee that even the last person in the queue will not miss out, some people just won't give up pushing and fighting while standing in the queue. If only the people of this country displayed the same amount of ruthless aggression when it came to getting ahead in all other departments, such as sports. Which brings to mind another bad habit commenting about everything whether one has an idea about the topic or not. How often have you seen people who don't know anything about a game constantly criticize the players out there in the field like they have all been there and done that? I am sure all of the readers have encountered such people and in my opinion, they are not pleasant acquaintances. But such people are seen everywhere, giving their opinions about everything, regardless of whether they have even an inkling of idea of what they are talking about.

I guess that will be all for today. At the moment these are all the bad habits that come to mind, although many of you might be able to come up with a lot more if you think about the matter for a while. I, on the other hand, will stop here, before I make myself guilty of another bad habit that of continuing to speak even when you have
nothing more to say.

By Mohammad Hammad Ali