The currency of Bangladesh is Bangladeshi Dollar. Eikkk, just kidding, they called Taka. Like many other countries, they are issued as notes and coins. Notes are of one taka, two taka, five taka, ten taka, twenty taka, fifty taka, one hundred taka, five hundred taka, and one thousand taka. Coins are of one paisa, five paisa, ten paisa, twenty five paisa, fifty paisa, one taka and five taka. Notes from five taka to one thousand taka are issued by Bangladesh Bank, while one taka and two taka notes and all the coins are issued by Bangladesh Government. Here’s what they look like:

One (1) Taka:

Two (2) Taka:

Five (5) Taka:

Ten (10) Taka:

Twenty (20) Taka:

Fifty (50) Taka:

One Hundred (100) Taka:

Five Hundred (500) Taka:

One Thousand (1000) Taka:

Coins from left to right: one (1) paisa, five (5) paisa, ten (10) paisa, twenty-five (25) paisa, fifty paisa, one (1) taka and five (5) taka:

Don’t try to make counterfeit notes out of these scans, if you do so do it in your own risk!

Bangladeshis experienced 23-hour long day yesterday. At 11 o’clock at night country’s clocks were turned to 12, introducing daylight saving time (DST) for the first time. I congratulate the government for taking this initiative, something they should have done long ago just the way they should move the weekend to Sunday from Friday, but that’s another issue.

Microsoft has released a DST patch that I heard works, but if you’re a Linux users then use your package manager or update manager to update your tzdata version so that your computer is DST “compliant” too. Bloggers and social networking site fanatics should change their timezone to GMT/UTC +7 from the respective settings page/control panel, so that the correct time is displayed.

I’m really happy that I’ll now get an extra hour to shoot pictures outside. Earlier I had to packup by 5:30, but not anymore! Yay.

In case if you wanted to know more about Bangladesh…

• Bangla (also known as Bengali), the national language of Bangladesh, is the fifth most frequently-spoken language in the world. Bangladesh became a country in 1971 when it declared its independence from Pakistan. Bangladesh used to be East Pakistan, or East Bengal. West Bengal is a state in India.
• The word Bangladesh was coined around 1971 when the country was formed: it means land (desh) of the Bangla (Bengali people).
• Bangladesh is bordered by two countries: India and Burma (Myanmar).
• Bangladesh has its own 12-month calendar with six seasons.
• Bangladesh is known for its production of the jute plant, whose fiber is made into carpets, rope and other products. Jute is known as the golden fibre in Bangladesh.
• Every region of Bangladesh has its own dessert (mishti): if you are eating chum-chum, you’re in Tangail, if it’s Roshmallai you’re in Comilla.
• In Dhaka, all of the autorickshaws and most of the taxis run on clean-burning natural gas rather than diesel or petrol.
• The Bengali people of Bangladeshi fought for the right to speak their own language in 1952, this event is now commemorated worldwide as International Mother Language Day.
• The monsoon season in Bangladesh is generally from June to August. If you visit then, bring an umbrella.
• Bangladesh lies on the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees northern latitude). Other countries on this line include Mexico, the Bahamas, Eygpt, Saudi Arabia, India and China.Bangladesh’s parliament building, an architectural landmark, was designed by an American architect, Louis Khan.

• Barisal, one of the six divisions of Bangladesh, is known as the Venice of Asia because of its waterways.
• During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, believers do not eat or drink for the entire day. After sunset, families have feasts known as Iftar.
• Every year, about one third of Bangladesh floods during the monsoon season.
• In Bangladesh, high school spans grades five to ten, while grades 11 and 12 are considered to be college.
• In Bangladesh, there is one house in parliament (the Jatiya Sangsad). Members are elected every five years.
• Just as movies from the US come from Hollywood, and those from India are from Bollywood, movies made in Bangladesh (Dhaka) are said to be from Dhalliwood.
• Rickshaws are often elaborately decorated. The designs may depict nature, scenes from Indian mythology, or scenes from Bollywood and Dhalliwood movies.
• Kids in Bangladesh attend secondary school (high school) from the age of 12 to 16, and then college when they are 17 and 18.
• On the first day of summer, the Sun is exactly over Bangladesh at noon.
• One fruit or another is always in season in Bangladesh: mango, papaya, banana, guava, jackfruit, pineapple, and many more.
• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the man who lead Bangladesh to Independence in 1971 is often referred to as the Bangabandhu, or friend to the Bengali people.

• The Bangla language has its own numbers, written differently than arabic numbers. When people give their phone numbers, however, they usually do it in English.
• The Bangla language is a descendant of ancient Sanskrit, and more literature is available in Bangla than any other language of the Subcontinent.
• The Bengal region was first united in the seventh century by Shashanka, a Hindu ruler.
• The longest (120 km) natural beach in the world is found in Bangladesh at Cox’s Bazaar.
• The national animal of Bangladesh is the Royal Bengal Tiger.
• The national bird of Bangladesh is the Magpie.
• The national fish of Bangladesh is the Hilsa fish
• The national fruit of Bangladesh is the Jackfruit, a large spiky Mellon.
• The national plant of Bangladesh is the Water Lily (the Shapla)
• There are no polar bears in Bangladesh.
• The same person wrote the national anthems for both India and Bangladesh: famous Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

• The suffix “wallah” is often tacked onto words to indicate someone who does a task. The person that pulls a rickshaw is a “rickshaw-wallah”, the person who delivers milk (dudh) is a “dudh-wallah”.
• The two most popular sports in Bangladesh are cricket and football (the kind with a round ball).
• Known as the “banker to the poor”, Muhammad Yunus is the first Nobel laureate from Bangladesh, awarded in 2006.
• Almost everything that Bangladesh imports or exports goes through its sea port city, Chittagong.
• At dusk, it is not uncommon to see big (one meter wingspan) fruit bats flying around throughout Bangladesh.
• At the beginning of each summer, strong wind storms are sometimes accompanied by hail. The hail balls may be up to 10 cm in diameter.
• There are three rice crops each year, each of which has different seed stock and growing conditions; the crops are called aman, anus and boro
• Three major rivers come together in Bangladesh: the Padma (a branch of the Ganges), Jamuna and Meghna.
• Tigers, elephants and crocodiles can be found in the Sundarbans, the forest in Southern Bangladesh
• To accommodate large numbers of students, many Bangladeshi schools use a shift system, where one set of students attends a school in the morning, and another set of students in the afternoon.

• Weddings in Bangladesh often run about five evenings, with celebrations each night.
• Traditionally, men in Bangladesh wear a lungi, a wrap of fabric, instead of pants. In cities, however, pants are now common.
• Women in Bangladesh often wear a sari or a salwar kamez. The sari is more formal, and is essentially a long piece of fabric which is intricately wrapped. The salwar kamez consists of a pants and a top, and is usually worn with a scarf known as an orna.

…to be continued.

I was lying on my bed talking to a friend on the phone, and I suddenly felt that the bed was shaking. Within 3 seconds, it stopped. My first impression was that a cat got under my bed and it was shaking it, but then I realised that it’s impossible as the bed is way too heavy. (Plus there was no cat, I checked!)

I quickly asked my friends on IRC, and they said they felt it too.

So it was an earthquake for real! Quake in Dhaka at 12:51 AM!

I tweeted instantly. Within minutes, tweets poured in from my friends, confirming that it indeed was a quake.

At 2:15 AM, BDnews24 reported that the Meteorology office recorded the quake to be of 5.6 magnitude on the Richter scale. An hour later, AFP reported that US Geological Survey pinpointed the epicenter 115 kilometers (70 miles) north of Dhaka in Mymensingh, at a depth of 5.2 kilometers.

No news of significant damages till now, except that a Dhaka University student broke his leg jumping off a floor of his dormitory panicked by the quake. What a dumb prick!

Update: This post was mentioned on Global Voices on July 29th.

Former chief of Bangladesh Army Lieutenant General Mahbubur Rahman (retired) got a good bashing from a fellow BNP activist!

Who will believe that this guy once lead the army and used to get salutes wherever he went? Doesn’t he have martial arts or hand-to-hand combat training? It’s really amazing to see this sort of scenes… but thanks to the anonymous photographer, this has given me a straight 20 minutes laughter!

Photo credit: E-Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is tagged as a “moderate” Muslim country, but how long can it hold this image? Even today the country witnessed rampages by Muslim fundamentalists in Dhaka. Anyone with a minimal IQ and sense of humour will laugh at the cartoon published on 17th September issue of Prothom Alo’s supplement magazine Alpin, but the twisted minded fundamentalists has turned it upside down.

The cartoon depicts a conversation between a little boy with a cat on his lap and an elderly cleric:

Elderly cleric:  Hey kid, what’s your name?
Little boy:  My name is Babu
Elderly cleric:  You’re supposed to say Mohammad before a name. What’s your father’s name?
Little boy:  Mohammad Abu
Elderly cleric:  So what’s that on your lap?
Little boy:  Mohammad cat

The cleric teaches the boy to use “Mohammad” before a name and like any kid he follows it and says “Mohammad” before saying “cat”. Anyone will laugh at the mistake the boy makes, but the Saudi sponsored evil fundamentalists relate it to “insulting” Prophet Mohammad and compares it with the infamous Danish cartoon series.

Here’s a scanned copy of that cartoon, judge it yourself how this had “insulted” Islam and Prophet Muhammad:

The interim government has already lost popularity, and the way they handled the situation by arresting the cartoonist has made it worse. The only good side of the arrest is that the cartoonist is in a safe place now. The fundamentalists would have tear him apart if they could find him somewhere. So called followers of a religion which means “peace”!

August is gone, but this month will be remembered by Bangladeshi people for a long, long time.

Here’s a picture that I want to share with you all:

It’s said pictures speak a thousand words, and this one is a perfect example of it. It was published on The Daily Star last month, and to be honest I couldn’t stop laughing when I first saw it! The goddamn army got a good teaching! :p

I couldn’t have been happier than to see Bangladesh beating India on the World Cup cricket! Go Tigers, Go!

Jitse ke? Bangladesh! Harse ke? India!