Exam preps: The paperchase begins

Finally giving your O'level Exams? Quite demanding eh? After several months or even a year of sheer hard work and painful efforts it all rounds up to this moment. The day has finally arrived when you step into an unfamiliar room in an unknown place filled with people whom you have barely or never seen. These people are equally anxious as you are to see the first lot of papers which are going to be handed over to you. Who knows, the patience you had to bear might vaporize in thin air at the glance of the paper. Therefore you ha~e to be prepared no matter what you do the whole past year for this is the most important of all the exams you have given in your life, and as well the most unexpected. Unfortunately there is no way you will be able to know what are in those white sheets }ntil you are to receive them at the concerned moment. After all, these questionnaires are not provided by some of the local ' Deshi' schools where paying a couple-o-hundred bucks will get you the actual test papers beforehand, thus it will leave you the only knowledge of what answer.

Anyways, that's another story. You simply know how tough and challenging this test is, and there is no way of overlooking it.

I myself am still waiting to give my O's, but trust me, with all the tutors I have along with my school by my side, it seems that O's are knocking right at my door. I mean still with nine whole months to go I am already crammed with tutors in every subject! Absolute mayhem!!! Well, eight months seem to be a very long time, but ( at least to me) it looks like eight month is nothing, even eighty months isn't good enough!

So with the already limited time, now it is pretty much impossible to go out and play a game of basketball at afternoons with friends, for my 'playing time' has turned in my 'study time' and my 'study time' remains my study time. So all I do is study, study and study which is definitely against my will. It's not that is it boring to go out and study along with friends, but the thing is that it needs more mental application than physical effort. And my problem is that physical effort exceeds my mental abilities by; let's see…a hundred percent!!!

Basically, the desire of doing well in anything really depends on you, on how confident you feel on yourself. You must have the will to flourish, only then can you be really successful. Never lose faith, don't get frustrated, or else as The Mighty Yoda said "Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, suffering leads to….." well I don't really know after that, but it all means the same. Try to keep a cool head and work with that.

And now come our parents. Every mother and father has a dream of giving their children the best education. They want us to attain an even higher level than that of what they themselves have achieved. And to make all this happen, I can tell you that they can go at any length. For example, instead of sending their children to a sort coaching center which is less time consming and where |hey'll be learning each and every subject, thmy'll send you to five- six different tutors without hesitation. At some point I keep on thinking what an expense this is. But they don't really care because they know that learning from individual teachers who are specialized in those particular subjects will help their children more than learning two- three subjects from one person. They really will go at any cost, whereas buying a playstation which is nothing compared to all the tuition fees we pay will raise a whole new issue. They want us to do well so that we can finish our undergrads somewhere around Harvard, Brown or Stanford for they know that if your education is completed in the best institutions around the world, your life is then set forever, and probably you will be able to enjoy even better things in life than your parents. And if you want to live off on your father's money then that's different, because then you will not be successful in life. It is amazing to see how some people have managed to become world renowned businessmen, engineers and what not from utter poverty. It i{ their initial struggle in their life that has brought them to where they are standing right now. One thing I will agree with my father, that "you are not successful if you do not have an initial struggle in life". Having him by my side as my best frienl, I have learnt a lot of valuable lessons.

So, as you can see with all the things I have said (which might be all philosophical and u{eless at this point) I would round it off by saying that it's j}st as few months. A few months of suffering can be pretty rewarding afterwards. You got lots to enjoy after this exam, but now I think it's better to get serious at studies rather than having f}n (like I try to tell that to myself).

Or otherwise you can do one thing, if you're a "good" basketball playez, then why don't you present an interview to the American Basketball guys for the next season NBA drafts. Hell-lotta money and then your life's set!!!

By Salman Rashid

Dhallywood

We are all so familiar with the movies that fascinate our domestic help and members of the lower classes every afternoon. Though the obe{e actresses in "tinky, tinky" clothes in various fluorescent shades, the dhishum dhishum of pot-bellied actors beating the hell out of the bad guys and "chechky" dance sequels in the rain are meant to make us go "wow", when actually they do anything but that. Yet it remains a part of our lives and "pochafying" Bangla movies is a very interesting pas|ime for many of us. Even though we have read many articles about our very own "Dhallywood", after spending a couple of afternoons watching such 'fine' examples of irt and culture (!) I decided to do a more in dexth article on our film industry.

The main story of every philm is quite similar, regardless of what its name is. It may be "Rani keno Dakat", or "Raja keno khay gaja", or even "Robi keno bandor", you can rest assured that the main story line will be the same. There is a star crossed pair who will fall in love at first sight, (oh how romantic!) and there is suddenly a dance sequel in which the oh-so-pretty actress in the oh-so-wonderful sari (georgette of course, how else will the clothes get transparent in the rain?) starts shaking, moving and twirling in a way one would think a lizard had some how gotten into the back of her blouse. Then the hero makes a grand entrance with his clothes just rightly tailored, you know the front four or five buttons open to reveal a forest of, ahem, chest hair and the essential gold chains, the suit tightly fitted so the layers of fat are visible. They do not express their lubh for each other instantly, however. Usually the song is happening in the hero's mind. The heroine will ignore and insult the hero until some bad guy, usually the parar mastaan, suddenly goes up her and says "Heh, heh shundori, amar kachhe asho, ami tumake shukh debo!" Or in other words, "Ha, ha, pret|y girl come to me, and I will make you happy!"

The heroine will slap the guy and the villain will grab her and try to make out with her or something until the hero comes in. Then the dhishum dhishum begins! The heroine will then fall instantly in love with her 'mi amour' and run to him. Then another series of boogieing in the rain starts all over again.

We all are familiar with the absurd clothes and storylines, so let's talk about the not-so-funny side of Dhallywood.

What about the stereotyped lines like "Shamir payer niche strir behest"? Or in other words 'heaven for a woman is under ~he husband's feet'. What kind of message are they giving to the villagers of the nation? What e~er happened to omen's lib? Lines like these do have a major effect on the poor people of the nation who know no better. Ever wonder why polygamy and beating of women is so common in the villages? It's because of this helpless image of women portrayed in these movies. An image which shows that the only place for a woman is in the kitchen, and it is okay if the husband comes home a| nights drunk, and it is the du|y of the wife to take off his shoes and cry at his feet. How sick is that? It may be insignificant for us but these movies do have an effect on the not so fortunate 80% of this country's population and this effect is anything but good. High crime rates, increased number of rapes and acid attacks can not be wholly blamed against the police. What about the fact that every movie has at least one attempted rape scene? How about the fact that i| is possible for the poor hero to woo the rich heroine by harassing her in one way or another in movies? Isn't it possible that the eve-teasers of |oday are influenced by these mo~ies? That maybe they think that it is possible for them to do the same.

Moreover, the clothes are not just khat anymore, the dance sequences are not just funny anymore, they are down right vulgar! Lines like "Nognotai oshlilota noy!" or "Nudity is not Vulgarity" are outrageous! Whatever happmned to our religious and cultural beliefs, our morality and our basic decency?

New movies have come out recently which are quite praiseworthy, like "Matir Moina", "Bachelor" and "Lalon'. But there are countless new commercial movies, which do resemble pornography, if not any thing else. It seems like there is no sanity or originality in this film industry. I guess I should stop now before people start switching to the other page if not they have started reading something else already. I leave you all with the lyrics of my phabhorit Bangla film song.

" Amar moner moddhekhane, moddhekhane rhidoy jekhane..." I don't know the rest. Anyways adios.

By Naomi Mirza