Tareq Nurul Hasan

 

 

  Sanya found writing ‘therapeutic’ after her schizophrenia diagnosis. She hopes to spark change With her novel Hospital, Sanya Rushdi presents a fictionalised account of her mental health struggles after several episodes of psychosis. The Melbourne-based author hopes her writing can challenge some misconceptions around schizophrenia. Click here to read the complete article on SBS

 This ticket to childhood cost me only $20. :) 

  How Mother Language Day was born from this country's fight for its mother tongue International Mother Language Day, which falls on 21 February, has been recognised by the UN since 1999. However, this celebration of cultural and linguistic diversity has its roots in a 1950s movement that fought for the right to speak Bangla in Bangladesh, then called East Pakistan. Click here to read the complete article on SBS

  ‘Free, non-judgemental, accessible’: How your local library is a sanctuary of health and wellness Far from just a spot for bookworms, the humble local library is at the frontline of the fight against a 'loneliness epidemic' - with a recent survey showing many people think it plays an important role in their mental health and wellbeing.  Click here to read the complete article on SBS. 

-Isaac Asimov-   Actually, science fiction is committed neither to marvels nor to disasters. It deals with possible situations. It tries to draw a rational and self-consistent society, different from ours, which may be better, even much better, than our society; or worse, even much worse; or better in some respects and worse in others. The point of the story, then, is how people live and react in such societies.  Naturally, trouble makes for greater drama than does happiness, and it asks more in the way of human response. Therefore, science fiction (like all forms of literature) is more likely to deal with discomfort than with comfort. Furthermore, it must be granted that given the direction in which our society is now moving, we seem much more likely to end in the soup than to be swimming in the cream. ( From the introduction for Octavia E. Butler's story Speech Sounds )

  INTERVIEWER Do you get letters from people who've read your work? CARVER Letters, tapes, sometimes photographs. Somebody just sent me a cassette—songs that had been made out of some of the stories. I wonder, if Raymond Carver was referring  to the album by the Australian singer Paul Kelly . 

  William Trevor   I still remember the very first time I put on glasses.   Until then, for some time, I used to press my eyes, to see the speed signs properly on the road.   While I was reading a book, sometimes I used to bring it too close to my eyes without even knowing.   So when I went to the doctor, he gave me these glasses. And after that I found out, the world around me was not as blurry as it seemed to be!   William Trevor, is just like my new pair of glasses, with power.   Reading Trevor means I could see more. Those small letters, printed on the pages are able to paint lives with thousand of colours.   Using the same old humans of this same old earth, he tells us brand new stories.   Happy birthday, dear maestro.  

(Public domain image) So, before I had to dive in into the mysterious moors of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, I was thinking to watch a movie adaptation of it, just to get a heads-up about the story-line.  Usually I don't do this. I am a proud member of the club called "the book was better".  But because this book was meant to be read as a textbook, not entirely for pleasure, I chose to attack the story by all means I get my hands on.  I searched for it in Prime Video, found three movies, one was made in 1939, the other two were in some later years.  I'm not sure why, I chose to watch the 1939 version. Probably because, in the back of my mind, I was expecting it to be closer to the original novel.  So I watched it, and then read the book. And found out that the movie cut off the entire volume 2 of the book!  I was really disappointed. But at the same time, it felt good to know that the book shall be better, always. :) 

 Last week I took part in a competition in one my subject in this semester called "Moving Text".  The task was either to create a 3-panel adaptation of any classic novel, Lisa Brown's "Long Story Short" style, or to write a David Bader style haiku about that.  I decided to do the 3-panel version, and fortunately won a Jane Austen book! :) 

Between them the distance is more than a thousand miles, but somehow they managed to look similar to me. My very dear Curzon Hall in Dhaka University, and this small path of La Trobe Uni in Melbourne. Well, of course, minus those lovely Krishnachuras!  Yesterday was the very first day of Uni this year.  Last year, it was all about sitting in front of the laptop, and keeping a fish-eye on the screen, with Zoom opened. So, I and many others surely are welcoming the change of fresh air and the company of actual humans.  I was relieved, to be honest, re-living this Uni day.  Though, I had to carry a water bottle with me, because of my ever-demanding medication. Gulping down a few sips, with unavoidable noise every now and then while the teacher was talking. Even so, it went well, I’d reckon.  Though it was my very first day here, somehow, at the end of the day, I felt a strange connection with this campus.  After finishing the classes, while walking back to the...

Nowadays my phone screen i s always with the greyscale filter. And I use the warmer tone at night.   Trying to put less pressure on my eyes. Which really is helping.  In addition, scrolling through YouTube or Instagram has become less attractive now with no colour, which reduced my screen time too! :)  . . . . . #greyscale #screentime #reducingscreentime #phonescreen #socialmedia 

It’s been two years since I am trying to get myself into some habits, just to reduce my screen-time. Some didn’t work at all, some really did.

  “Her window was open all day long now, very fine thin curtains hung in front of it and these were never parted. Sometimes they moved but it was only in the breeze.” From The Persimmon Tree by Marjorie Barnard. 

  “With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life.” Excerpt From: Ernest Hemingway. “A Moveable Feast.” 

  How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman My rating: 4 of 5 stars I liked the original short story a lot. Specially when Triolet explains those ideas about poem/ poetry and patterns. When I grabbed this graphic novel, was wondering about those parts, how they’re gonna put those in pictures? But Moon and Ba proved themselves awesome, again. The story, in short, felt a bit rushed in, but it still has the original essence, with those strange colours and line art. And again, who ain’t gonna love Neil Gaiman? Anyone? Nobody. View all my reviews

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.5/5. It’s funny. But I also found that it was teasing my reader-ego by throwing some book trivia all the way. Very casually though, which made it more interesting. Also, it was one of my quickest read in recent days, credit goes to the genre I suppose. Which made me realise, one will continue to turn the pages with no pause, only if there is a promise for a new and interesting story forward. Very basic, I know, but how many of us remember this while writing a book? View all my reviews

  To all the creatives out there, no matter you are doodling on your phone or typing words after words in your computer, pushing away the guitar with frustrations, cleaning your paintbrushes for the n-th time or throwing away your fifth draft into the basket, just don’t stop. Keep doing, it takes time.

Available from: Saatchi Art.