Term End

Is it nice to write letters sometimes rather than email…..

Click click click I am officially done my first term at BCIT. It is now 8.04pm July 3rd 2008.I have been waiting for this moment for long. I started the first term in April. last three months were quite a journey. It is great to see how time flies. I learned so many things.

Now I have a week off. I planed so many things, it seems like that I will be busier than my regular life. I think when you have a regular routine then everything goes systematically. If all on a sudden if you have some time without daily routine then it is hard to organize everything.

My back to school life is really challenging. Sometimes I wish I don’t have to work. I work 2 days now, before I never realize that in office how much unnecessary email comes to your daily mailbox from different department and how long it takes to sort out the important email from that. These days when I go to work after 2 regular business days first thing I have to do is clean up my mailbox. Every time I have to delete minimum of 70 to 80 emails to find the important email. Now I don’t have much time so when I am at work I just tried to catch up with everything before I start my work. It makes me wonder how much time we actually spent on reading email at work on the regular 8 hours shift. If we calculate that time may be each company can save lots of money by reducing that time, well on the other hand since when I worked full time I never felt this way may be in office environment we need that time as a break. So I am not judging anything. I am just thinking about my situation. The reason I just brought up this matter because I will work full day tomorrow after 4days. So when I will go to work tomorrow I will have minimum 200+ emails waiting for me. Isn’t fun !!!!. Which reminds me when I came to Canada 6 years ago how eagerly I used to wait for emails from back home. A single email would make my day brighter and same with letters. These days I don’t get email from back home that much, not that I don’t want to. It is just everyone is busy and I guess everyone is now used to that I am living abroad and pretty much settled down so I don’t need that much interaction anymore. That way they don’t write me that often. But I still feel good when I have email from them. Email is the electronic version of letter but I always love to have letters than email. I find letter is more close to heart and more appealing. Logically I couldn’t explain why is that but I just prefer letters over email. I often wonder may be in future generation they will never know how nice it is when someone writes a letter with love and care. May be this nice feelings will no longer be part of our culture anymore. These days we all send email no one care about writing letter. As a person I do write a letter for special occasion. Every year I write a letter to my parents on the mothers and father’s day. They loved it so much. My mom always says that every time she reads my letter she tears up with joy. She made me promise to write her every year, no matter how busy I am. I hope I will keep this promise. I think sometimes it is nice to follow the old tradition, which is a nice way to touch someone.

Trip to Florida

One day in paradise……….

It was a wonderful experience to spend few days in Florida. I went to Florida in February this year. The weather was just perfect; it wasn’t too cold or too hot. If anyone wants to plan for Florida, I would say February would be a right time.

In Florida I visited Orlando and Miami. In Orlando they have 2 amusement theme parks for Universal Studio and 4 parks for Disney. We didn’t have enough time to cover all the parks, since each park needs one full day. So we had to pick and choose which park we will go. We didn’t have any kids with us so we decided to go to 2 Universal Studio parks and one Disney park. At the beginning I though that park tickets were little pricy but after going to the parks I find that price was very reasonable.

It was an amazing experience. All the parks were so nicely decorated on their individual themes that I felt that I was driven in that theme for that moment. It is hard to explain in words.

Before I went there I heard that normally the parks remain so much crowded that for each ride everyone needs to wait for hours and it is almost impossible to see the whole park in one day. I was lucky; in February it wasn’t that busy so I managed to cover most of the park in a single day. For Universal Studio, no one mentioned that there would be some water ride where you need some extra cloth. So I wasn’t prepared and ended up completely soaked in water. But it was so much fun. Thanks to sunny weather, my wet cloths dried up soon. In general all the rides were exciting but the spider man ride in Universal Studia was awesome. No one should miss that.

After two long days at Universal Studio, on the third day I was little tried and was kind of unwilling to go to the Disney park. But I am so glad that I went to the Disney park. I went to the park called Magic Kingdom. Although I though that it was for kid but I just loved it. As soon as I entered the park I felt like I was young again. It just felt like magic. It was such a wonderful experience. I had traveled so many places but never got any feelings like Disneyland before. Disneyland made me feel that I was in some kind of fairy world. I think everyone should go to Disneyland at least once in his or her lifetime to get this magical experience. This is just priceless. We didn’t have time to go to another Disney parks but in future I will definitely try to go to all the Disney parks. One interesting thing about Disneyland was it wasn’t full with kids, majority of the people were adults. Well now I know why. My experience in Disneyland was just like one day in paradise. Whenever I feel very low I always think about my day in Magic Kingdom. It just refreshes me. I am so glad that I went there.

Bangladeshi Festival (Cont.)

Eid ul-Azha

We also called this festival day as “Quarbani Eid”. In Bangladesh we celebrate this festival for three days. This day everyone wear nice traditional cloth. The day starts by saying prayer at the mosque. After the prayer all men gather together to sacrifice a domestic animal (usually cow, goat, sheep) in the name of Allah. After that each family divided the animals meat into three equal parts and distributes one part to the poor, one part to their friends and family and keeps one part for themselves. One of the significant parts of this celebration day is that all poor people can have good meal and have a wonderful time with their family.

Bangladeshi Festival

In Bangladesh we celebrate two major festivals. They are known as Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Azha.

Eid ul-Fitr

This is the most important religious festival for Muslim religion. We also called this day as “EID”. The most significant part of this festival day is, we celebrate this day after fasting one whole month. This is considered as the holiest month of the year. From dawn to dusk mostly adults don’t eat or drink anything for a month. We called this month is as Ramadan. Eid ul-Fitr starts the day after Ramadan end.
The celebration of Eid ul-Fitr has become a part of the culture of Bangladesh. The Government of Bangladesh declares holiday for three days. Everyone wants to spend this day with their family.

Adult Muslim males in Bangladesh assemble at the Eid Ghah for prayer in the morning of the Eid day. After the prayer everyone visit their family and friends and have good food together. Everyone wear new traditional dress. Girls paint henna on their hand. All local TV channels air special program for several days for this occasion.

In the rural areas Eid festival is observed with great fanfare. In some areas local people arrange Eid fair, Different types of games e.g. boat race, kabbadi, other traditional Bangladeshi games.
Eid day is a day of forgiveness. To celebrate this festival rich people donate money to help poor. This is the day everyone believe that all human are equal and everyone should respect each other equally.

Bangladeshi Wedding (cont.)

Day 2– is called the Gaya Holud for the groom. This is the same thing for groom’s side. This day bride’s immediate family visits the groom’s house with grooms wedding outfit and other gifts. They enjoy food and music together.

Day 3- is the final wedding day. The wedding ceremony is arranged by the bride’s family. The bride and groom are seated separately, and a Kazi(authorized person by the govt. to perform the wedding), accompanied by the parents and a witness from each side formally asks the bride for her consent to the union, and then the groom for his.

Normally this formality is done in the morning and the wedding ceremony and feast is at night. Everyone wear very colorful clothes. Bride wear red outfit with heavy gold ornaments. Once the ceremony is completed then the groom takes the bride to his home.

Day- 4 is the last day we called it Bouvat. This is kind of a reception party arranged by the groom’s family. The bride and groom together greet guests and dine together. After the party, the bride and groom go to the bride’s family house for two nights. On the second day, the groom’s family is invited to the bride’s house for a meal, and they leave with the bride and groom. This meal is called “Firani”.

Bangladeshi wedding is all about food, colour and people.

Bangladeshi Wedding

Wedding is always the most important part in all culture. In Bangladesh wedding is also a huge arrangement. It is all about colour, food and family gatherings. Not many years ago people used to invite the whole town to celebrate the wedding for seven days. Now-a-days it has changed. Now wedding is a four days ceremony without including the engagement. Normally engagement is the first step before Bangladeshi start preparing for wedding ceremony. Once the engagement part is over then by discussing with both bride and groom side the four days wedding ceremony is arranged.

First day of the ceremony is called the bride’s Gaye Holud. The groom’s family except the groom himself come to bride’s home. They bring the bride’s wedding outfit, wedding decoration, turmeric paste, henna, sweets and gifts with them. The bride seats on a dais wearing yellow outfit with flower ornaments. All the family members from both sides come to the bride and apply turmeric paste on her skin and also feed her with sweets.

In our culture we believe that turmeric paste makes the skin soft and make bride more beautiful for the wedding day. This is the main reason this day is called Gaye Holud which means “apply body turmeric paste to the skin.” This day everyone wears yellow cloths. At night the henna is used to decorate the bride’s hands and feet with abstract designs.

Starting from this day the bride is not allowed to see the groom until the wedding night.

Student loan dilemma

Are rules always justified in every situation
or sometimes it is important to change them……………

After working full-time for last two years I have decided that I will go for further study. I have applied for student loan as I can’t work full-time while taking a full-time intense course. I was hopeful that student loan would support me a little so I can complete this course without financial stress. After applying for the student loan, my loan got declined because when you apply for a student loan if you have any vehicle that is worth more than 5k then that is considered as an asset.  In order get the loan, student need to sell that vehicle.

I am not sure how that is justified. For a regular family one vehicle is necessary. The question is the value, can you really rely on a car worth less than 5k for your regular life. I have checked the market for purchasing a car. I couldn’t find any reliable vehicle that is worth less than 5k. I am not sure what is the measurement for granting the student loan. My understanding about student loan is very simple. Loan is just like any other loan that means we have to pay that back and students should get that support when they need. When I was looking for a vehicle I looked up all options. To buy a car privately I have to pay the full cash amount, which I didn’t have. The only option I had was to go for financing then at least I don’t have to come up with a large cash amount. With minimum installments through financing I can have a vehicle. That’s why I ended up signed a contract for my vehicle which is basically a five years loan.

Now to get the student loan I need to sell the vehicle. That doesn’t make any sense as it was purchased through five years contract. If I want to break the contract I will lose more money and car.  Well I tried to explain this to the BC financial aid.  So far no help. I have requested for appeal 3^rd time. Right now my 3^rd appeal is under process. I have give up my hope for the loan; I will survive with bank loan.

I am just upset about the whole process. To be honest every time I receive a letter from the BC Student loan I have to write an essay to explain my situation over and over again. Now it seems like a formality nothing else. I wanted to drop this appeal process. Unfortunately my school’s financial aid office advised me that if I don’t continue my appeal request then student loan would assume that I have enough money to continue my study.  In that case I would not be even qualified to apply for any other bursary assistance. So here I am stuck with this whole process. I was stressed at the beginning now it seems to me just an obligation.

I am just wondering how this all process is justified, how this rule works. Don’t we deserve little better.

 

Bangladeshi Cooking

It’s all about the smells……

At the airport, it’s the smell of the burning rubber on the baggage conveyor belts. Once you step out side, it’s the smell of fresh air mixed with hundred’s of people. When you walk outside it’s the smell of fresh flower with the busy urbanization life. It is all charming in it’s own way.

Whenever it comes to talk about Bangladeshi food, the first thing comes to our mind is the beautiful authentic smell. It is usually the odor of the garlic-ginger base most Bangladeshi cooking has. That goes with onions, turmeric, and cumin. Early on, it’s the fishy smell of fish, the meaty smell of meat. After a while, when the ingredients are coming together, it becomes the lovely curry that goes so well with the lentil soup. Normally curry and the soup goes with steaming rice. Some vegetables are also cooked as a vegetable curry. The sliced seasonal vegetable with mustard oil, mixture of little ginger and garlic makes wonderful curry. The vegetable could go with either potatoes, eggplant, cauliflower or even add of shrimps makes wonderful vegetarian curry.

During the meal, it’s all about the little things. The green chilies, freshly picked from the plant in the backyard, that add an extra flavor on the curry. Normally that goes with all curry after the cooking is almost done. The meal is normally served with simple tomato and onion salad with virgin mustard oil dressing. A slice of lemon also goes very well with the lentil soup. Before tasting the food usually people can tell what has been cooked by the smell of the food in Bangladesh. It is really all about the smells.

Bangladesh

I would like to talk about my country named Bangladesh. A lot of people have never even heard of this name. Whenever people ask me about my origin and I mention the name Bangladesh, they look at me for a second and I would have to explain to them that it is a small neighboring country beside India. Then people seem to get an idea otherwise they just assume that I am also from India. Between Bangladeshis and Indians there are a lot of similarities but also significant differences as well. Anyway thanks to the big country India otherwise it would be very difficult for us to give people an idea about my little country.

In the world map if you want to find out where Bangladesh is it will look like a dot, but let me tell you it is a very beautiful country. With the total land area of 144,000 square kilometers, Bangladesh has one of the largest populations of 159 million. It is the 7th most populous nation. Wow at least in some prospect we are very advance!!!!
If anyone wants is interested in knowing about the structure of my country here is the website

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bg.html

The few people who know about my country are generally ones that follow the news. Bangladesh is often mentioned in news because of the huge floods every year. Well it is fact that we do have natural calamity now and then but every coin has two sides to it. Unfortunately only the bad stuff about my country seems to come out in the news. I guess that happens in most of the cases so no hurt feelings. Last year we had a huge flood. It was truly heart breaking what happened there. At my office a few people whom I don’t know very well even asked me whether everyone is okay back home. It was kind of nice at least one way they found out where I was from.
Anyways I would love to talk about some positive aspects of my country. As a person I love to travel. I have traveled Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Maryland, Washington DC, Seattle, Florida, Malaysia, India and so on. Presently I am living in Vancouver. I can say that I have seen lots of wonderful place in the world. However on that prospect whenever I think about my country I envision it as the most beautiful one. By the grace of God we do have lots of natural resources. If proper investment and advertisement are made then our country could be one of the nicest tourism spots in the world. Due to political instability and lack of investment a lot of nice spots never even come to the attention of those living in the first world country. Here is a video link about Bangladesh that will give a primary idea about my home land.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ksVguDf6Emo&feature=related

Welcome

Hi this is my first web log. I am new in blogging but it sound very interesting. I am feeling little strange to write here for first time. Well there is lot I can talk about. First I like to tell about my self. After working 3 years full time I am now back to school full time again. School is good. That reminds me back in days at university.

I am taking New Media Design and Web Development program at BCIT. This is a very intense program in design and web development. I am loving it though sometimes I feel I am little slow. Attending classes at BCIT kinda give me a feeling that I am working for a company. When I went to university teachers never care about if all students were attending all class or not. It was pretty much student’s own responsibility. However in BCIT it is very different. The way each course is designed that you have to attend class if not then you need let the instructor know in advance, just like any work place. Well I think this is good, as all students will have an idea about the real work life. Well I have talked a lot about BCIT I guess. The main reason I am doing this program is I always wanted to work in some creative field.

My last few years work experience taught me a lesson that is, we spent a large quantity of our time at work from our regular life. It doesn’t matter in long run that how much money we are making. This is important that we spend this time to do something that we enjoy. Sometimes in this life to face the reality we have to go through lots of things but if it is possible then I guess we all should follow our heart. To join school right now wasn’t a easy decision for me but I think sometimes it is necessary that we follow our heart or at least it is worth while to give a try.

So here I am at BCIT with great hope that I will be able to work in some creative field after finishing this course, what I always dreamed for. To be honest it is hard to manage school, work and regular life but important thing is I am loving it.