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The glory of the 21st

EVEN the beginning has a beginning, that's why the phrase 'very beginning' is used. One of the most glorified events that happened for Bangladesh has been the Language movement back in the 1950s. The faction reached its peak on the 21st of February 1952. Needless to say, it wasn't close to the 'very beginning' of the great struggle for the right of language. The language movement is not all about the 21st February, as we observe/celebrate/commemorate every year, as International Mother Language Day since 1999 or The Martyrs Day, before that. Here we will be trying to convey the history of the movement, based on believable sources:

Few things to take note of: Muslim League was the political party working for the Muslims during the later stage of the British colonial rule. They took an active role in the formation of the Muslim majority nation Pakistan in 1947. They were also the most influential political party after Pakistan's formation. The most famous leader of the Party was Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Here's the main part:

18 May, 1947: the Muslim League leaders announced in a Majlis in Hydrabad that Urdu would become the state language for the still to be formed Pakistan.

September, 1947: A cultural organization known as “Tamaddun Majlis” was formed. This association strongly argued in favoured Bangla as one of the principal mediums of instruction and a language for the court.

October, 1947: at the initiative of the aforementioned society the first “Rastro Bhasha Sangram Parishad” (State Language Movement Committee) was formed.

December, 1947: An educational conference at the central level was held in Karachi. A unanimous decision was taken to make Urdu the state language of Pakistan. In a protest against this decision, on December 6 a meeting was held at the Dhaka University campus and a resolution was adopted to make Bangla one of the state languages.

February 23, 1948: The first session of the Assembly was held. In this session a demand was raised to use Bangla along with other languages in all state matters. This proposal was made by Dhirendra nath Datta of Comilla, a representative of East Pakistan. Leaders of the Muslim League, Liakat Ali Khan, Nazimuddin and others opposed this proposal. As a protest classes were boycotted by the students on the 26th.

March 2, 1948: in order to conduct the Language Movement in a systematic way an all party organization named “Rastro Bhasha Sangram Parishad” was formed.

March 11, 1948: a general strike (hartal) was called in East Pakistan in protest against the omission of Bangla from the list of state languages. It was observed everywhere in East Pakistan and many were arrested by the police.

March 13-15, 1948: protesting against the police oppression and demanding Bangla as the state language, strike was observed everywhere. After much controversy an agreement was reached between the “Parishad” and Nazimuddin. It basically promised to fulfil nearly all of the “parishad's” demands.

March 21-24, 1948: On the 21st in the Ramna Race Course (Suhrawardy Udyan) and on the 24th in Carzon Hall campus, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the governor General unequivocally declared, “Urdu and Urdu alone will be the state language of Pakistan.” On that very moment the student community vigorously protested against this utterance and collectively cried out in a loud voice “no, No”.

27 December, 1949: Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq (then the central education Minister) proposed in the central Pakistan Teachers' Council that Arabic letters could be used to write Bangla (ironic). This proposal was discarded after many protests.

1950: Liakat Ali Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan declared, “Only Urdu will be the national language of Pakistan”.

January 26, 1952: Khwaja Nazimuddin, in a general meeting declared, “Only Urdu will be state language of Pakistan,” making the students and intellectuals of erstwhile East Pakistan frustrated.

February 4: The all party state language movement committee in a meeting decided to declare February 21 as the day for strikes throughout the province terming the day as “The Language Day.” Realizing the gravity of the situation, the District Magistrate of Dhaka declared section 144 for 30 days from February 20 and prohibited all processions and meetings. Most members of the committee decided to violate the 144 section.

Then came the 21st February. The street in front of the DMC bathed in the hot blood of the martyrs. Salam, Jabbar, Rafique, Barkat, Shafiur were only the ones who could be identified. Many others gave away their lives and the government did a job of hiding their dead bodies. Thus came 21st February, thus we established our demand for Bangla. Thus the path for liberation 19 years later was beginning to construct. 21st February, 1952 was really the 'very beginning' of our liberation.

Reference:
Bhasha Andolon- Badruddin Umar, Bhasha Andoloner Itihash- Bashir al Helal, Omor Ekushey o Shahid Minar- Dr Rafikul Islam, Omor Ekushey- Poriprekkhit- Mother Language Lovers of the world Bangladesh Chapter.

By Jawad


Why 'shrooms are cool

REMEMBER the days when games came in simple graphics and cartoon images, when the focus was more on how far Sonic could jump or how many “life-ups” Mario could rack up? Remember how we used to squeal in delight? Remember how we puked on Crysis? We do.

We also remember how hyped up Crysis was, and we also remember how so many people stood up on their tippy little toes and swallowed everything Crytek threw at us. And we also remember puking a second time as we realized that.

We will, however, be the first to admit that Crysis had some of the best graphics in gaming history. Heck, we hadn't seen sunsets like that in our entire lives. So, thanks to Crysis we got to see a few stuff that people pay thousands and thousands to see. But, does that really make Crysis worth it? We think not. Conclusion: the only thing Crytek managed to do was screw up the tourism industry. Personally, we think Sonic the Hedgehog managed more drool-worthy gaming madness than Crysis did. For one thing, Sonic was FAST. How cool is that?

We also remember Saddam, but that's politics. The point we're trying to make, and the enlightenment we're trying to endow to the masses, is that, good graphics don't make good games. We endorse good graphics. We like our eye-candy, and 16x anisotropic filtering, and we like smooth curves on high resolution. It's almost as good as the real thing. Not that we really care. Just putting the thought out there. But, it does not mean you can keep us satisfied without providing good gameplay or an engaging storyline.

We're of the expert opinion that Mario was so much cooler than most new avatars the gaming industry throws at us, for one Mario screwed around with 'shrooms… Umm... Kauwa… don't mess around with 'shrooms in real life. Um…

Roger there, Murgi. I may be black but I'm still pure.

We're also of the expert opinion that a game's greatness is directly and slightly exponentially proportional to the number of pop culture references that can be made with it's content, multiplied by a constant which varies according to the number of settings (sci-fi, fantasy, historical fiction, dear diary, animated toon, musical comedy or equivalent) the reference can be put in.

Crysis can be talked about in a metaphor of describing good-looking cows on Eid. Not very cool, is it?

Now, because we are impartial people, and because the 'shroom fog has finally blown over, we will now veer away from Crysis bashing. Lets talk about that utter blashphemy that was NFS: Carbon.

Now, we loved Most Wanted, we loved the cars, we loved the cops (only as long as they stayed behind us), and we loved the cars, and once again for emphasis, we loved the cars. But with Carbon, while we appreciated the sweet lines that BMW drew in before it crashed and burned, the story following was... for want of a better metaphor, Crysis-worthy (which means, it was as enticing as a Eid goru, uncooked).

Ubisoft blew a few knobs of their doors when they hyped and overhyped and further hyped their potentially awesome Assassin's Creed. The videos looked cool, and it was only later we realized that it was suspicious how nobody made any mention of a story line. This was after playing the game. It barely had one. Great graphics with decent gameplay made for nothing thanks to the really below average storyline and repetitive quests and missions. We play games because we like the fun it gives us. If we want to be bored, we'll stare at the rotating fans of our processors.

Ninja Murgi: Some processors can be very engaging individuals.

Captain Kauwa: Dude! Koy ektae joss batti jole!

NM: Touché brother.

And it's not just that. Ubisoft ruined an awesome series that couldn't be brought down, Prince of Persia. We were awed, scarred, and relieved at how awesome Sands of Time turned out to be, and with the screenshots of Warrior Within, all of us were ready to spend our 100 bucks at Rifles Square for very own poxy pirated copy.

And when we played the game, there was that hot woman right after we got of that ship. And then we couldn't beat her. And then we started hating the game. Even though Dahaka and the Sand Wraith looked all cool and all and they even had Monica Belluci voice-acting for Kaileena, but see, we like hot women, but not when in the context of crappy good looking games.

For the kids: the moral of the story

Great gameplay + hot graphics - engaging storyline = not cool (+ Kaileena and every other hot game avatar of a female form = cool, but not cool.)

For the funnies:
[A random event in the lives of the Murgi and the Kauwa.]

NM: [Bumps into the elevator door while entering] Sorry!

CK: … Dude, you said sorry to an elevator.

NM: …

Our very own Motto:

Because we care. Also, 'shrooms = cool.

By Ninja Murgi and Captain Kauwa


 

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