I am hoping for our den

I was in a restaurant(Mamma Rosa) in Helsinki downtown, having dinner with my colleagues, when I saw the mail. It was a mail from Shaikat vi coming with a shocking news. He had a surgery in his belly 2 weeks back to get rid of the blockage in his bowel but just yesterday the hospital informed him that he is diagnosed with a blood cancer. The type of blood cancer is probably: lymphoma, though the details are not revealed yet. I couldn't believed the text while reading it; am I reading it right? I read couple of times more, still couldn't believe it. Then I got a text from Wali asking me to go to his home. Sharmin was already there. They didn't tell me about it because they didn't want me to disappoint at that point. They thought I haven't seen the news yet. But my smart phone really did its job and provided me this unexpected shocking news :(

I went to Wali's home after dinner. All of them were sad. From the eyes I knew that Sharmin and Muna already cried for some time. Wali was a bit silent than usual. What could they do? Their dearest Shaikat vi has got this disease ;-(

I usually don't show my emotion in front of other people. And at that moment I didn't want to make the situation worse, so I talked to them in a light mood. Even talked about other things also. May be after an hour we left and returned home. On the way back home I was feeling so bad. Couldn't talk to Sharmin. When I came home I just changed my cloths and went to bed. Sharmin put off the light and came to me. She sensed it quite well that I was fighting to hide my emotion. She did hold me tightly and right at that moment I couldn't hold it anymore. I cried out and my body was trembling. I don't know how long I cried. When I was stable again I found Sharmin is already sleeping.

I couldn't sleep. There were so many snapshots of memories coming to my mind. So many things about dear Shaikat vi. I remember the very first days when I came to Finland in August 2008. I met him on the very first day. I still remember his smiling face and friendliness on that day. I remember finalizing our(me and Rajit vi) study plan sitting in his room. He was suggesting us what course should we take. He told us to include some fozul(very easy) courses along with the good ones to make the path easier but efficient. I remember crossing frozen lake with him by walking in winter. Also exchanging smile seeing a half-naked girl in the street in summer. I remember playing with him - table tennis, football, cricket, badminton, volleyball and so on. Lots of memories with him personally being so close. Once I showed him how wrong he ties his shoe-lace and that's why it gets loose easily. Badal vi was also supporting me and showing Shaikat vi's fault. Shaikat vi didn't like it. He got a bit angry and said that it's his choice how he ties it. The next day he came to my room in the university and admitted that he checked again when he got back home and figured it out that he had been doing it wrong for years. That is Shaikat vi - doesn't have pride and has not problem to admit own mistake.

I remember the 9 months, I was working in my department in the university. Most of the days I used to take lunch with Shaikat vi and almost everyday used to have coffee with him in the afternoon. I remember countless times visiting his home in weekend morning to have breakfast with him. When he moved to Kirkkonummi near my home I was so happy. During his stay in Kirkkonummi we had really nice time. Even if I moved out from Kirkkonummi in January 2012, we were in constant contact with each other.

I remember, among all my senior brothers in Finland, I told him first my decision about getting married in Finland. He didn't like the idea, he was trying to convince me to go to Bangladesh and share the event with my family. Somehow I didn't have that option at that time and I was rigid about it. Even though he didn't want me to arrange the event in Finland he gave me all kinds of support when time comes, just like an elder brother. From the mosque, he was the one to call Sharmin's father to ask about his permission in this marriage.

In the middle of last year Shaikat vi moved to Tampere for his wife's masters. At that time we knew it was only for a year and he is coming back to Helsinki. Just couple of months back I was talking to him over the phone and he said they are trying to find a home in Espoo, preferably near our home. I became so happy again knowing that it would be great to have him near us. He said, with laughter, that he would like to make his home as our den, meaning we would have most of our occasions, gatherings, events in his place. It's like a headquarter. I laughed as well. All of these memories started coming to my mind yesterday.

Today I heard they found Shaikat vi's disease in a very early stage. The success rate of cure from this stage is very high in Finland. It's obviously a very good news for all of us. But regardless of this information I am eagerly looking forward to have our headquarter in Shaikat vi's home, somewhere in Espoo, from the middle of this year, just the way he was telling me. We will gather there for different cultural and traditional occasions - to celebrate, to enjoy. We will go there when we are bored during dark cold winter and have a chit-chat. We will go there just to have a cup of coffee in the middle of the night. Even if there is no reason we will still go there and spend hours by gossiping. That is our den and I am desperately hoping for it.



Programming Solution

Horrible flu after a long time

I have been suffering from flu for last 3 days. I don't know what kinda flu this is but for sure it's not a good one. I had excessive pain in my body muscles and when the fever comes it's very high. The first two days were really horrible for me. Several times the temperature went over 39.5 degree celsius. I don't remember when was the last time I had such a high temperature fever. From today I am feeling better though my muscles are still aching.

The good thing about this flu is I have got extremely good care from my wife, Sharmin :) She has been with me always. From Sunday morning she was trying to comfort me all possible ways she can. She was preparing hot soup, giving me sponge bath from time to time, pouring water on my head several times at night when the temperature went so high. She didn't even go to school yesterday. In fact, she didn't leave me alone for a moment while I am sick :) May be I am spoiled enough and now I demand things like tea with ginger or hot soup or coffee whenever I want :P

Also my other friends from here and my parents and brother from Bangladesh were calling me from time to time to know about my status. Feeling good to have so much attention :D May be it's not so bad to be attacked by this kinda virus once a year at least to get other people's care, specially from close ones :)



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Peter's last day at work

Today is Peter's last day at work. We had a farewell party for him. Around 25 people came to the small arrangement. Peter came with 20 balloons of different colors filled up with Helium. He gave one balloon to each of the first twenty persons who came to the party. There was champagne, a big cake and coffee. We had funny gossip, well it's always funny when Peter is around. We spend almost an hour there. All the people passing the terrace was looking at us because we were holding colorful balloons in our hands. Everybody put his/her balloon in own team space. In our team we put it with our high table. I didn't miss the chance to take picture with peter standing behind that table. I will still see him either in his home or my home or outside but for sure I am gonna miss him during office hours :(



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Oulu tour update

I was supposed to come on 6 April from Oulu but I had to come back one day earlier. Even though I came back earlier I have been quite busy the whole week and I could not give any update about my trip. I stayed there five days and it was a quite nice vacation.

We went to play volleyball twice. We had short drive inside the city and long drive in highway, trip to frozen sea. We watched movie in big screen, also played nintendo games. Ohh another thing we did; lots of cooking as always :D I have another update and that is coming in my next post. For the time being let's have a look at some pictures during my stay in Oulu.




Some place near down town. On a bridge.





In the same place, Gagan & Shanila.





With Gagan's car





Having tea after dinner. Gagan is setting up nintendo at that time.





Still that much snow in Oulu even if the temperature was positive.





In front of the frozen sea





Home made grilled chicken





I don't know what it is called, but of course a delicious food :D





Nice creme caramel, mouth watering :P





Shorisha elish


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Got poker chips as a gift

Last month Gagan and Shanila came to Tampere to visit me. Actually they went to Helsinki to apply for UK visa and on the way back to Oulu they stopped over my place and stayed for 2 nights. We spent the weekend together.

They came with a nice gift for me. That is a poker chip set. Previously I was talking with Gagan that I am thinking to buy a set of poker chips. He kept that in his mind, and when they came here they did not forget to bring one for me as a gift. Its a nice gift. I liked it very much. Thanks to both Gagan and Shanila :)





This is the chip set in the box. 4 different types.






Arranged on the table as if I am playing with Phil Ivey :D


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Badal vi got his Ph.D degree

Yesterday was a great experience for me. It was Badal vi's dissertation for his doctoral degree - the highest academic degree. He has achieved his PhD(Doctor of Philosophy) degree yesterday. His thesis topic is "Governance in practice - decentralization and people's participation in the local development of Bangladesh".


The dissertation(some call it defense) started exactly at 1215 afternoon. 3 guys entered into the auditorium - Badal vi, his supervisor and his opponent. At first Badal vi gave a speech for around 15 minutes which is the summery of his thesis. It was clear and organized. I liked his diction as well. Then his opponent(this is how they call him. You can also address him as the examiner) stood and in brief described what this thesis is all about. He took around 5 minutes. Then all of them sat and the opponent told Badal vi having a smile on his face that they can start now. So the most difficult part started. Its the discussion part. The opponent is an expert in this field. He came from UK just to conduct this dissertation. He is a professor of Manchester University. Its more of questionnaire by the opponent and answer by the defender, for instance Badal vi in this case.


As the discussion session proceeded we started to feel how well the opponent studied the whole book that Badal vi wrote as his PhD thesis. Its a book of 207 pages. To me the most amazing thing is my name is mentioned in the preface of this book along with few Bangladeshis living in Tampere; feeling so proud :D


I enjoyed the discussion very much as I came from Bangladesh so as the context is well known to me. Badal vi was answering the questions very nicely. We came to know that he invented a new methodology to collect information from grass root people by sampling. He claimed that while he was doing his field work during his PhD he used this methodology and its totally new. The opponent also agreed on it. We had many gossiping with Badal vi before. We talked with him about many things, about his thesis as well. He never told us that he invented such a nice thing. He named this methodology as "Local cultural appraisal". I myself also think it will work nicely in special situation.


The discussion lasted for 2 hours. The professor asked many questions, commented on many points, mentioned critics as well. Badal vi has to defend all of those. Can you imagine an extreme level expert professor is asking you what you have done for this 4 years, not an overall asking rather he is asking from every point of view and bit by bit. I don't know how you people feel about it but I may collapse in that situation when I know this opponent can make my 4 years' work invalid if he thinks its not good enough. I don't know how Badal vi was feeling but I was feeling thirsty during that dissertation when the opponent was asking him a critical question.


It was difficult, it was charming, it was exciting but the final thing is Badal vi saved his PhD. Thanks to Allah that he did very well. I really was feeling happy while hearing the professors addressing Badal vi as Dr. Asad. Well Badal vi's full name is Mohammad Asaduzzaman.


We had cake and coffee after the dissertation. Badal vi invited us to attend the dinner party in the evening. We went there exactly at 7 pm. As I was seeing almost everybody in suit and tie I felt that I should bring one suit while coming to Finland for this kinda party. Badal vi's opponent was also present, his supervisor as well. Some senior professors as well from his department, also some of his colleagues and of course we, the Bangladeshis who are always with him. Badal vi welcomed everybody. Then one of the senior professor started the party by opening a champagne bottle. it was served to everybody. I never tasted champagne. I was thinking if I will take it or not. Finally I didn't. May be I will take if of the Bangladeshis in our table would take.


Everybody was gossiping and then the food was served. As a Bangladeshi I like spicy foods but here the foods are not spicy. So I kinda didn't enjoy the food very much except the soup and beef. But there were lots of foods - soup, rice, vegetable, prawn(big size), salmon, chicken, beef, unlimited wine, juice and finally ice cream and coffee. Before taking coffee Badal vi thanked everybody to come to the dinner and asked his opponent to say something. We didn't know that this guy is that much humorous. He was making fun with Badal vi and somehow told that he didn't come here to kill Badal vi. After the opponent the supervisor and another senior professor gave very short speech each. Then Badal vi ended the party by saying goodnight to everybody.


This was a nice opportunity to me to attend the whole activities. This is my first time in this kinda event. I really enjoyed the whole day. Thanks to Badal vi for inviting me and over all CONGRATULATION BADAL VI(as a matter of fact I forgot to congratulate him yesterday :P )






From left the opponent from UK, Badal vi's supervisor and Badal vi





Badal vi is presenting the summary of his work





After the dissertation another professor is congratulating him





In the evening, the dinner party





Some of Badal vi's colleagues





The opponent was also there





Opening of champagne bottle to start the party





Before the food was served, we were waiting :P




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Last roof top party in Jashim's home

May be it was the last party on Jashim's roof top. We had many events in this place and before leaving the country I wanted to add one more. So I decided to gave them a dinner treat about my going abroad in this place.


We had much difficulties last night. The weather was very bad, raining almost the whole day. It became worse when the power went off at 0730 PM and it came around 0930. We couldn't grill the chicken over coal as we needed electric fan for it and there was no electricity at that time. Finally we fried the chicken in oil. It was not bad either.


The menu was fixed kacchi birani and chicken grill with salad, sauce and soft drink. As a desert we had sweet curd. We wanted to do everything under the open sky but since evening it started to rain heavily and we were forced to go inside the stairway and fixed our burner in a small place over there. There would be a music system if it didn't rain. After dinner may be some of us would sing as well but the rain and power failure ruined everything. Still I hope everybody enjoyed it. At least the food was not so bad :D


Lets have a look on the party





Marinating the beef and chicken





It was left for 2 hours in that way





Khalid is chasing Jashim with the metal net. Having some fun





This time Jashim with a big dead branch of a tree. Khalid is not around :D





Tasnim and Shishire(he is the only one outside my area) had a great hand in beef for kacchi birani





I am trying to blow the coal. Due to rain it was very difficult. Razib gave the greatest effort but it didn't push through finally





Taking the food on the stairway as it was raining so heavily at that time





Everybody is looking at the camera




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Its great to have good friends

Friendship is one of the sacred relationships in this world I think. A good friend is a precious gem for your life. There are many ways how one can be a friend to other. I don't wanna talk about those things. What I wanna tell here is I am feeling great to have few very good friends.


Throughout my life I have very small number of friends. Well, I have many friends in fact but the number becomes small when it comes to good friends. But I am not unhappy for that as I found those few persons really good to me.


For more than a month I have been preparing myself and my stuffs to leave my country for higher education. I was having very hard times to do this and that. There are so many stuffs to fix. I had a small business here that needed to be closed and it caused many things to do. My friends helped me out to do those things as I had a job until end of July. I also got my friends around me while preparing things for my going abroad.


If you don't have a millionaire father you will find every penny important while your are preparing yourself to go abroad. So many scattered stuffs cause you a good amount of money. I was also feeling that while do shopping and other things. At that time my friends came forward to help me.


It started with Shujon. One day he was asking me if I need Tshirt while in Finland. I said of course I do and many in number. Just after that he told me to buy Tshirts of my choice and he will pay for those. I was a bit amazed to hear that. Few days later Jashim asked me if I had bought jeans. I told him that I have bought one and I need one more. He told me to buy it and he will pay for it. I was amazed again. Later Tasnim asked me how is my shopping going on. I said its going well. Yet to buy few things. He was asking what else. I told him different things and among those he told me he will buy me a sports sandals. Again I was amazed.


I know about them very well. Right now none of them is in good financial condition. Yet they wanted to help me and the most important thing is they told me before I bought those things which really helped me to save some of my money. I have got gifts from my relatives. They came to my home on last Friday and gave me different things but I already have finished my shopping and now those gifts are just extra stuffs to me. If the weight barriers doesn't allow me I wont bring those.


I always got support from my close friends. I found them always beside me. This time again I found how supportive they are to me. These days they call me every now and then - where I am, what I am doing, if I can meet them. Their attitude makes me feel how good we are to each other and how they will miss me while I wont be available. I will miss you, my friends ;-(




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Breakfast treat from Jashim on his Birthday

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear Jashim
Happy birthday to you !!!

Today, July 4, is one of my close friends, Jashim's Birthday. Yesterday Razib and Khalid had a plan and they let us know. Finally it was decided that we would go to Jashim's home very early this morning to wake him up from his pleasant sleep. There was another inner plan. You will know it in awhile :D


As our plan we (Razib, Khalid, Shujon, Tasnim and me) went to Jashim's home around 0730 am this morning. He woke up with an irritated look in his face. For sure he wanted to sleep longer today as its Friday. We wish him very happy birthday and then went to a restaurant to have our breakfast. This was our another plan, to get a fresh breakfast treat from him :D


The restaurant is in our area; just few minutes walk from his home. It was not so good yet we enjoyed the breakfast. We were burping after eating a lot but only Jashim was like this :@ and asking "who is the culprit to generate this idea?" :D Anyway Jashim, we had a good time just for few bucks :)




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Another long over due treat

Abrar Saad, one of my room mates in university for 4 years, has given some of us a treat for his very high paying job. Its very late now still we are happy :D


He joined British American Tobacco(BAT) almost 10 months back. He was saying that he would give us a nice treat for his job. Finally last Saturday he managed.


We went to Sea Shell in Uttara, a very nice restaurant to reminisce our old days. While we were in our under graduate school we used to go there in every semester. We were 8 persons in that group. Everyone had to pay according to his GPA in previous semester. The higher GPA holders had to pay much :D That is really a nice thing to reminisce.


This time we went there but didn't pay for the food. Saad was the only donor. Thanks Saad for giving us such a nice treat.

From left Shahan, Shahriar(standing), Saad and Sabbir with a strange gesture.
Sabbir is the only impurity on that day. He was not a member of that 8 persons' group( no offence Sabbir :D )

Starting with the appetizer

Everyone is enjoying the food. I was shooting the picture

The nice light at the ceiling of that room

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My friend has left Dhaka :(

Today, September 9, 2007, Gagan has left Bangladesh for Finland after a month and 6 days' vacation. He had very hectic times throughout the vacation. He came to settle the most important thing of his life. Yes he got married on 9th August and just after one month he went back to finland.


Yesterday I was with him the whole day. I was in his home till 11 pm. This time the farewell seemed more heart aching. Throughout this one month I met him most of the days and as I know he may stay abroad longer this time for he is gonna take his wife to his place within months I became more sad. Why I became more sad this time? Because I felt the absence of a good friend nearby for months now. I wish I had a friend like him always around me.


Anyway... I wish him good luck and good days in abroad and very happy life along with his wife in forthcoming days.




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Got a digital camera... Is it? Really??

Yes... I have got a digital camera. The amazing thing is it's a gift :)


I have fascination for camera from long ago. I liked to shoot pictures by our family camera. That was not a digital one, you need film to take pictures. You know what?? That camera was lost from me. Once the camera was with me and I just got out of the car(the car was from a rent house) leaving the camera behind me in the car. The next day we contacted to the rent house but they told that they didn't find any camera inside the car. So I lost our family camera. From that time I was thinking that I would buy a good camera but I couldn't manage enough money to buy a good one yet. Last thursday I got a digital camera as a gift and it's a quite good one i think :)


My friend Gagan gave me this new camera. He is going to leave Dhaka on September 9. Before leaving Dhaka it was his gift to me while I did nt give him anything as a wedding gift :P I wanted to give something but somehow I did not. I don't disagree that I did many things in his wedding. Did he give me this camera for I had done many things in his wedding :-? As I did nt do anything for a requital I just hope it's not for the hardships I had done rahter it's a token of our very good friendship :)


I am giving a brief description of the camera here :

1. Model : Canon Power Shot S3 IS
2. 12x optical zoom lens with USM and UD lens element
3. Optical Image Stabilizer
4. 6.0-megapixel CCD
5. Larger size 2.0-inch vari-angle LCD
6. 30-frame-per-second (fps) VGA movies with stereo sound and Photo in Movie feature
7. DIGIC II, iSAPS, and Flexizone AF/AE for fast, precise results and 2.3 fps continuous shooting performance
8. 20 shooting modes and My Colors photo effects
9. High ISO Auto and ISO 800 for low light flexibility
10. Widescreen (16:9) recording


There is full manual control in this camera. If you want you can play with the art of photography by this one. You can control the shutter speed and aperture. The macro mode is also very good. Gagan said this one is just the previous thing of DSLR camera that means you will get many of the features of DSLR but adding extra lens. I think 12x optical zoom with image stabilization is more than enough for me :P No need to add extra lens :)


Take a look at it now




The view while the camera is switched on

Front view with the flash raised up

The LCD display is revolvable

The rear view

Top view

Side view while switched on and the flash is raised up




How will I look while hanging that cool one from my neck :> very professional huh :P :D


Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooo much Gagan :)




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I am missing something :'(

Sometimes I used to buy chocobar icecream when I went to one of my friends' house. These days there is no way to do that :( :( :( I miss those chocobars badly :(( :(( :((




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I met an old friend after 13 years :)

13 years… it’s a loooooooooong time. I met one of my school friends from grade 3 & 4 after 13 years on 29 March, 2007. I spent 2 years (grade 3 & 4) in “Precadet Institute and High School”. That was one of my very best times of student life. I got some good friends in that 2 years who are still with me. But I had no connection with the person I am talking about in this post for last 13 years. Her name is Cinthia.

I was going to my office in the morning. While I was going to queue up after taking the ticket I saw a girl at the beginning of the queue that seems very familiar to me. I stopped in front of her and told her “If I did not make any mistake then you are Cinthia”. She was surprised. After few seconds she recognized me. She came at the end of the queue with me. We took our seats together and had a long chat while we were in the bus.

There was nothing stunning… nothing was so strange but the feeling of meeting a friend after soooo long time is really really very different :)




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