Timeline: February 10 – February 18

Attended the 34th ICANN meeting and Open Source India Week at New Delhi… details later!

I’ve been hearing about Ahsan Manzil since childhood, but never got the chance to visit it since it’s located in a different part of Dhaka. I went to that area for the first two months ago, and decided to go there again to visit the Ahsan Manzil. So my friend Shan and I kept making plans and finally went there today… and it was worth it. It’s a beautiful architectural monument that reminded me of our gloried past.

Located on the banks of Buriganaga river and very near to Sadarghat Launch Terminal, it was the residential palace of the Nawabs of Dhaka. Now turned into a museum, it has 31 rooms and 23 galleries displaying portraits, furnitures and household articles and utensils used by the Nawabs.

Closed on Thursday, the museum is open from 10:30 to 17:30 on weekdays, and 15:00 to 19:30 on Friday during summer time (April – September). During …

Timeline: October 9 – October 11
Setting up the Khulna center was my last assignment from Relief International. I’ve been working for this international aid agency since May 2005, and I finally realised that it’s time to quit. I resigned last month, and September 31st was officially my last day at work. For last two weeks, I’ve been helping them out as a volunteer, and mentoring my assistant Alamgir whom I’ve nominated for my position.

My work at Khulna took only few hours, so I got a good chance to roam around the city. I visited the zero point, Khulna University campus, Khulna court, the “Jail Khana Ghaat” on the banks of Rupsa river, the New Market, Meena Bazar, and Daily Purbanchal office.
The Khulna Meena Bazar is almost the same size of the Dhaka one, but has one third of the products that our one has. I went there to buy Playboy …

It took eight long hours to reach Khulna, the so called industrial capital of Bangladesh. The 335 kilometers journey wouldn’t have been so boring and tiresome if the Volvo service of Green Line was better. Their AC acted weird, the TV blew up, the seats were uncomfortable, the mineral water had a bad odour, and the guide never apologised despite of so many problems. If I wasn’t carrying my iPod, then I would have surely died of boredom. A good lesson learnt, I’ll never ride on Green Line bus again.

I checked in at Hotel Royal, the best hotel in the region. Their services were of international standards, but surprisingly the room rent wasn’t too high. The room was well groomed with international standard fixtures, the bed was comfy, the room service was quick, and the room attendants appeared well trained. They have a bar too.
I roamed around the town, visited …

Timeline: July 11 – July 13
It was my first trip to Joypurhat, a North Bengal district 380 km from Dhaka. It was infact my first trip to North Bengal as well, the vast region on the other side of Jamuna river.
Since there isn’t any AC bus service available on this route, I had to travel by Hanif Paribahan. I listened to my crazy collection of trance music through out the journey, so I didn’t get too bored. More over, crossing the 4.8 km Jamuna bridge (which is 110 kilometers northwest of Dhaka) was exciting. To date, it’s the longest brigde in South Asia, and 11th longest in the world.
It took 8 long hours to reach Joypurhat. My destination was further 15 kilometers from the town, a village in Pachbibi upa-zila. Pachbibi is completely an under developed rural area, with rikshaw vans as the only means of transport. It was quite …

Timeline: March 9 – March 13
Location: Central Gono Bidyalaya, Sonargoan

We organized a 5-day long Teacher Professional Development (TPD) training at Central Gono Bidyalaya at Sonargoan. The training provided 18 school teachers with intermediate-level IT skills while simultaneously teaching active educational methodologies. Over the course of the training, participants learned to use Fedora Core 5, OOo Writer, OOo Impress, OOo Calc, Nvu, KolourPaint, The GIMP, along with digital camera operation and the Internet. Food, accommodation and the training itself was provided free of cost.