An evening at Pitha Utshob 2012

Pitha Utshob, in the Washington DC metro area, has become one of the largest festivals for Bangladeshi community members for more than seven years.  Since it was first organized by the Bangladesh Center for Community Development, Inc. (BCCDI), it has become an annual extravaganza for hundreds of Bangladeshi descendants living in the greater Washington DC area who pleasantly rediscover themselves in a pure Bangladeshi traditional home-made cake (called pitha in Bengali) festivity right here, so far away from home.

From Bangla to Bangladesh

Monument of the Martyrs (শহীদ মিনার)

If language matters to the human kind, then one South-Asian country called “Bangladesh” is a living example of our time that shows the world how a country could proudly become independent through the path of language movement. Though Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan in 1971, the liberation war actually began 60 years ago when the then West Pakistan (now Pakistan) tried to impose “Urdu” as the only state language on the Bangla (Bengali) speaking community who had an overwhelming majority at that time. 

Bangla becoming Universal Network Language

Bangla, the fourth most spoken language in the world, is becoming the integral part of the Universal Network Language (UNL). UNL is an automated program that translates world language virtually into any target language. More than 150 languages including English, French, Arabic, Hindi have already become part of the UNL. Transforming Bangla into an international language through UNL will revolutionize our access to the world of global languages as it will let machine translate any target language(s). The Asiatic Society of Bangladesh is running this project as they are coding morphological grammar and dictionary for the UNL which will be finished within one year. Read the rest in Bangla:

Remembering Kobi Guru Rabindranath Tagore

In order to express our tribute to Robindronath Thakur's (May 7, 1861–August 7, 1941), on his death anniversary, I've put this documentary made by Satyajit Ray. Tagore will always stay alive in our heart as a Bengali poet, novelist, musician, painter and playwright who reshaped Bengali literature and music.