A Skeptic, A helpless and Newton’s laws of motion

Today while I was coming back from BUET by bus, a boy got into the bus from science library. By his outfit he looked poor. So when the bus started running again, the boy stood in the aisle of the bus and start addressing towards the passengers. This is quite regular if you are a regular bus goer. Most of them asked for money stating that they themselves or their father/mother/brother/sister are sick. But I ignored them almost all the time unless the help seeker is very old. But today’s story was different from all others.

The boy told us that he is a student of class 9 studying science and his sister is in class 7. His mother is a garment’s worker. He needs money as he can’t fill their exam fees for their upcoming final exam. So I called the boy. He came towards me and we had the following conversations :

Me: Which class are you in?

He: Class 9 sir. I am going to be in class 10 next year if you kindly help me.

Me: You are studying science?

He: Yes sir.

Me: Can you tell me Newton's laws of motion?

He: Yes sir. Which one do you want to hear?

I was impressed with his confidence but still not very sure about his story so I asked again.
Me: How many laws are there?

Without a hesitation he answered,
He: 3 sir.
Me: Tell me one.

He: Which one sir?
Me: The one you like most.

He: Okay sir. First law : Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. (In his language : bol na dile prottek gotimoy bostu gotimoy thakbe ar sthir bostu sthir thakbe)

I was so impressed! Also at the same time I was happy that this boy proved me wrong. So I helped him with whatever I had in my wallet. He thanked me and got down from the bus. But after he left I was feeling sad for him. The way I helped him, wasn't a permanent solution. May be next year he'll be seen again begging for money to fill his exam fees. I am so stupid! I should write his name and contact address and could easily arrange something to secure his further educational needs.

I am sorry little boy, please forgive me.

Where were I? : Now let's come to another important topic, where were I and why there wasn't any update in my blog lately. The reason behind these is I was extremely busy with a proffessional project. In addition to that there were first one of my aunti's wedding, then our departmental picnic and now I am heavily involved with the preperation of CSE festival or CSE day whatever you may say. More over class has started. So the result, my virtual life almost became obsolete. But I'll still try to be more regular. Keep visiting..

Filed Under : Personal.

Reply from Dr. Mahbub Majumdar

I've already posted about a letter about Dr. Mahbub Majumdar a few days ago. And many of us were frustated and enraged about the content of the letter. Almost all the bangladesh related groups and newsletters were flooded debating about the topic of the letter. So it came to the attention of Dr. Mahbub Majumdar himself. Here is the reply I received from him about the matter :

Dear Friends,

I was very surprised and deeply embarrassed to find that a partial transcription of a confidential University of Dhaka job interview of mine was published on the internet.

While there are some elements of truth in the emailed story, there are also some egregious inaccuracies. For example, Professor Aminur Rashid, Chairman of the Physics Department supported me at every step and was extremely kind to me.

I ask those of you are outraged by this event to channel your frustration in a productive manner. If Bangladesh is to survive as a nation, then it requires those of you who have gone abroad and become experts in various fields to at some point return to Bangladesh to do whatever you can with regard to teaching, research, business etc.
You may sometimes face humiliating rejection like me, but there are enough good people in this country who will appreciate you, support you and try to help turn your dreams into reality.

For instance, we hope to soon establish an independent Mathematical Sciences Institute which will cater to the very brightest students and researchers in Bangladesh. This is my dream. Many have offered their help, and I hope all of you will also be my partners to make this a reality.

Best wishes,

Mahbub Majumdar
____________________________________________________
National Coach of the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad Team


I wish everyone of us would be so dedicated and patriotic. I wish him every success in his life.

Filed Under : Bangladesh, Education.

The zoo

After BUET was given sine die last june, we planned a 3 day dhaka tour for the vacation. The basic plan was to visit memorable places and monuments of dhaka. Day 1 consisted of visiting architecturial monuments of old dhaka like Ahsan monjil, Lalbagher kella, Choto katra , Boro katra. But I missed the first day of our tour as I went to jessore. Day 2 was for Dhaka zoo and botanical garden. So after this eid we thought lets visit these two. We weren't too optimistic about dhaka zoo mainly because we heard and read numerous stories of corruption of zoo officials in newspapers. But in reality we were quite pleased with the zoo environment. It was comperatively clean and some of the animals were really lively. Perhaps it was due to Eid. Or we became too pessimist before visiting the zoo.

Without further ado I present you a few pictures of that day I took...

These deers (Chitrol horin) were curious at us.

We visited him just after his lunch , when he went out for a walk.

This white peacock was very beautiful.

I forgot his name. can any one help?

We tried to scare the peacock so that we could see it's tail (the beautiful plumage). But it didn't give a shit :(

The maya horin was very friendly

The sambar was taking a rest..

Kakatua (Macaw?)

This python had just had it's lunch.. Look at it's mid section..

These pelicans were too far away for my point and shoot camera. I was missing an SLR :( . You'll have to look at the higher resolution image to see the pelicans. Click the image to see them.

Now as you've completed reading it, it's no harm to check this one now from mezba bhai.

Filed Under : Personal, Travel, Dhaka zoo, Bangladesh.