Taaga Shoot

Photo © SALMAN SAEED

MKT 340 is an Advertising course in IUB. For the course requirement me with my group members had to make an Ad for the Aarong brand Taaga. We did a photo shoot with Salman’s help and edited the pictures to make it an complete ad.

Photo © SALMAN SAEED

Taaga is the new trend of fashion alongside fusion of western culture adaptive with our own Bangladeshi culture. Taaga was originally launched by Aarong which is a development fashion of Brac organization in 2003.

Photo © SALMAN SAEED

In Bengali “Taaga” means a certain style of Nakshi stitch. At Aarong, Taaga refers to an exciting line of tops, kurtis, skirts, pants and accessories designed exclusively for the urban young women. The fine distinction of Taaga products is that it blends western style with Bangladeshi motifs, patterns and textures. Since its inception in 2003, Taaga has received much popularity and has become the “must-have” brand amongst the fashionable women in Bangladesh.

Photo © SALMAN SAEED

 All the pictures used here are COPYRIGHT of the photographer. Using them without permission is prohibited. This is not an actual ad of Taaga, it was made for the course requirement.

UV SUPER CUP 09

UltraViolet ©

 UV SUPER CUP 09, a soccer tournament organized by UltraViolet, an exhibition organizing and event management company took place on Friday & Saturday the 10^th & 11^th of April 2009 for the second successive time. Former renowned national football player Mr. Kaiser Hamid was the chief guest at the prize giving ceremony of this 7 a side tournament at Banani WAPDA Field. Trophies and Prize money were given to the teams as prizes. The tournament was sponsored by Finger Licking Restaurant, Lal Shobuj Clothing, Chowdhury Group, NZ Corporation and Aamra Telecom, and had Radio Foorti as Radio partner. The underground football has become very popular nowadays and UV always fuels them with boost. Last year the tournament took place at Banani Chairman Bari field as “UV Independence Cup 2008”. UV is always concerned with bringing out the hidden talents of our society along with proper management.

 

 

 

 

UltraViolet ©

 

 

 

Two founding partners; Morshed Ali Chowdhury and Adib Sajed Adel formed UltraViolet, popularly known as UV in early 2008. The company has already organized two notable soccer tournaments and private cultural programs. They have also been assigned and blueprinted gradual plans for a Concert, a Runway Show of haute couture and a Corporate Cultural Program for next few months to come. “I always wanted to form an event management team which would provide competitive services with international standards and worked very hard to ring it into existence. Which ultimately resulted in forming UV”, said Adib, a University student. Morshed also came forward and joined his friend to form UV by taking out some time from his University. “Giving your arrangements a touch of class and uninterrupted flow of your desire is our main motto” says Morshed as UV is highly appreciated by its clients and social surroundings. UV has a total number of seven members who are working with their utmost dedication for taking the organization to the apex of the event management market pyramid thus creating a landmark in the field. So the next time you want a hassle free event/program of your desire, just make a call to UV and the members will be there to sought out a perfect plan and arrangements for everyone to be appreciative after the occasions.

A Mutiny in Disguise

10:30am Wednesday 25th March 2009, I was in my university doing my statistics class. The class ended fifteen minutes before the scheduled time, because we all went to see the news in the television. My faculty ran from the 5th floor of the campus to the ground floor hearing the news that War has started between the Bangladesh Army and the Bangladesh Rifles. We started switching all the channels and the news about a mutiny of BDR(Bangladesh Rifles) was all over the television. At first we heard that the Director General(DG) of BDR has been taken hostage with many other top rank Army officers in the BDR Darbar Hall(Banquet Hall). BDR week was going on when this happened. News was that manytop ranked Army officers were already dead and some passers by were also killed in the shootout.

All the classes of the day were cancelled, so I went home as soon as possible to hear the news properly. In all the news channels the news was all the same, that the angry BDR jawans were deprived of their rights. Common people were all in support of them and no one was regretting the death of the Army officers. Governement declared amnesty to all the BDR rebels to take the situation under control. After the PM’s speech to the whole nation, BDR agreed to surrender their arms and ammuntions to the Home Minister. 

Courtesy Salman Saeed ©

Later at night the Home Minister Sahara Khatun went inside the BDR Headquarter in Pilkhana with some leaders of the government and the Inspector General of Police(IGP) Noor Mohammad. His son in law was also inside Pilkhana, Captain Mazharul Haider, the ADC of the DG Major General Shakil Ahmed. Some of the very few jawans surrendered their arms to the Home Minister, and before all of them surrendered Sahara Khatun came out from there. She rescued some of the family members of the Army officers who were stuck inside the headquarter. The next morning on the 26th, gunshots were heard from early morning. Few bodies of Army officers were found in the sewerage line nearby Pilkhana. At firsy two bodies were found of a Colonel and Lt. Colonel, later on bodies kept on coming out from the drains. People were shocked after seeing the dead bodies. They were not only killed, their bodies and faces were tortured by sharped objects also.  After the dead bodies were found the PM took some steps. In a speech to the BDR rebels the PM stated that if they did not surrender, serious actiuons will be taken against them. The Army was furious and wanted to attack, they were all set with their soldoers, tanks, and Armoured Personal Carriers(APC). The government gave strict orders not to do anything and wanted to solve the situation in a political way. I don’t know to what extent they were successful. 46th brigade, one of the most powerful and strong batallion of the Bangladesh Army took position infront of the main gate of the headquarter. In the evening police and government representatives were allowed to enter the premises and the rebels started surrendering. 

Courtesy Salman Saeed ©

After the authorities went inside the whole world was schocked by the brutality. All the officers were killed, only a few were able to save their lives. Women were raped, innocent people were killed, the DG’s wife was also killed brutally. After the search operation no bodies were found and only a handful of BDR jawans were inside the HQ. All fled by the other gates abandoning their uniforms, boots and weapons. Many mass graves were found in which the Army officers were put after the rebels killed them. The whole nation was shocked. It took more than three days to unearth all the mass graves and identify the bodies. Many children lost their father, many parents lost their son and many women lost their husband. The brutality were such that it cannot be expressed in words, 25th March of 1971 was being remembered. The brave officers who promised to serve the nation in every way possible was not meant to die like this. People are waiting for the proper justice. Bangladesh lost its very fine officers, it was a huge loss. We hope that the people of Bangladesh will get justice.

“LONG LIVE BANGLADESH”  

Adib Sajed Adel ©

Adib Sajed Adel ©

Student’s Protest

Photo By Adib Sajed Adel

10th February 2009, at around 4pm in the evening students of North South University (a well known private university) got to know about the increase in their tution fees. Students were paying 4000 taka per credit, but they got to know that from next semester onwards they have to pay 5500 taka per credit, which will make it 16,500 taka per subject.

After this news was published student’s started gathering & protesting infront of the Administrative office. When the university officials were not able to control them, police came to calm down the matter. After much negotiations and slogans from the students, the authorities had to take back their decision. This increase in tutuion fees will be applicable for new students only, not for the current one who are studying at NSU.

This type of protests are very common in the public universities but for the first time people witnessed something like this in private university also. If students are united, nothing untoward can happen.

Fiji Islands

Photo By Adib Sajed Adel

Last summer I went to Fiji Islands. It is truly Heaven on Earth. Fiji consists of 322 small islands in the Pacific Ocean of which there are two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Viti Levu is the main island. Fiji is a country with scenic beauty, the islands are naturally beautiful. Every year tourist from all over the world vistits Fiji Islands. Suva is the capital city but it does not have any International Airport, only a small Domestic Airport. Nadi has an International Airport and from there it’s a two hours drive to Suva or anyone can catch a flight to the capital city.

Photo By Adib Sajed Adel

 Fiji is a country where you see the beauty at daytime, at night there is nothin much to see. The resorts from Nadi to Suva are very famous. There are a lot of beach resorts for families to stay there and enjoy. There are many famous Islands where tourists love to visit, as Turtle Island. Fiji is also famous for its tropical bath and beauty care product Pure Fiji. It is famous for the beauty products made from fruits and flowers.

 

Fiji is also very famous for it’s world renowned FIJI Water. The source of FIJI Water lies in the remote Yaqara Valley of Viti Levu, at the very edge of a primitive rainforest lies a vast artesian aquifer, a huge volcanic chamber confined by the rock walls of an ancient crater.  It is purely artesian water and, of the top ten bottled waters sold in the United States, FIJI Water is the only water originating from an artesian source.

Car caught fire

On 29th Jan 2009 I was going to the Dhaka International Trade Fair with my friends. While passing Agargaon, infront of the IDB bhaban I saw a car caught fire. Fortunately my camera was with me, so I got out of the car and took some pictures. Bystanders were trying to dose of the fire while the firefighters were on their way. After some time the fire was dosed off. The car caught fire due to the malfunction of the gas cylinder of the car.

Ship Breaking Yard

Ship Yard by Adib Sajed Adel

Few days back me along with my friends went to Shitakundo under Chittagong division for a free time from the hectic city life. We visited different tourist attractions but all of us were very excited to visit the Ship Breaking Yard. So, along with my friends we went there but we were not allowed to enter the site. They would not let us get in because we did not have any official permission from the shipping ministry. We requested them very much and after much anticipation we were allowed to enter when they were sure that there were no foreigners with us and we were not from any NGOs.

The manager of the ship breaking yard took us to the site but we were not allowed to take any pictures. We were very surprised to hear that. The people working there were also not allowed to talk with us. After some time I got a chance to take a quick picture. When we came out from there, we met some kids who work there in the ship yard. We talked with them and after inquiring we got to know that these kids get only 100taka for working continuous 8 hours, which is less than $1.5

The whole environment is very polluted and the work has high risk in it. These workers should get more money for their work.

Dhaka Night Life

Dhaka is a busy city. There are a lot of traffic jams during the day. People are always in a hurry to reach their destination but never make it. At night the city calms down and the noise and traffic is much less. It looks beautiful at that time.

International Coastal Cleanup 2008

All the Volunteers before the cleanup

International Coastal Cleanup is organized every year by the Ocean Conservancy International on the first week of September. This year was the third ever cleanup organized in Bangladesh by an organization called Kewkradong Bangladesh.

It was a different experience for us students who went to Cox’s Bazar in the month of Ramadan and cleaned the beach in this scorching heat. We could really learn a lot from this experience. Bangladesh has the longest unbroken beach in the world and we should learn how to preserve it. I would like to thank Kewkradong Bangladesh who has organzied such an event along with Banglalink and all the other partners.

 

 

Video Courtesy: Mesbah Uddin Ahmed and UltraViolet™ Events

Empathy for Eid

Sabrina F Ahmad

So much has been said about Eid and the ’spirit of giving’ that it’s almost become a cliche, and like most cliches, it tends to lose meaning. ‘Charity’ has become like a dirty word, because people tend to associate it with profiteering these days.

Help Our People Empathize (HOPE), a community-service group based in the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), aimed to change that attitude with the first of its Fall projects; one that involved making the festival season a little brighter for young children who don’t normally have access to fun.

On hearing about the cause, many charitable people donated money to HOPE to fulfill the project. On September 27, HOPE hosted an iftar at Rolls Express in Banani to raise money for the cause. At Tk 500 per head, attendees got to enjoy a scrumptious set menu, knowing that 60% of the booking price was being used for a good cause. Despite the fact that the event had only been advertised briefly via Facebook, the turnout was pretty decent, and by the end of the evening, the group had managed to scrounge up Tk 25,000, which included donations made by people who were intrigued by the cause, but unable to attend.

A delegation from HOPE, headed by Munsia N. Ahmed, Founder and Chairperson of HOPE and organized by Jessica Tartila, set off for the Dhaka Shishu Hospital on September 29. They were formally received by Prof Dr AR Khan, Director of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, who briefed them on the history and functions of the hospital, which is the largest hospital for children in Bangladesh, and supported, but not owned by the government. After the briefing, Dr. Reaz Mobarak, Assistant Professor of the hospital helped the volunteers to go to several wards of the hospital.

Moving from bed to bed, talking to the patients and their caregivers, the HOPE volunteers distributed clothes and toys to over 100 children in the non-paying wards. There were several priceless moments when the children opened their presents and their faces lit up, while the babies repaid the volunteers’ efforts by looking cute. There were also serious cases, like the cancer patients, the fatalities, and others, after encountering which, there were no dry eyes left amongst the volunteers.

All in all, it was a trip that brought many lessons and new experiences for the volunteers as well as a little Eid spirit into the lives of those on the receiving end.

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2008