In Pursuit of Wisdom

Within a few hours, Bangladesh Election 2008 will start. I think Awami League is a favorite this time considering the huge damage happened to BNP during last 2 years of emergency rules. But I am relieved that whatever it took, we are again going towards and elected Govt. From Blogs I watched Amir Khan's Ghajini last evening and admire it. He accted so well and the move reminded me what as a human being we are capable of. Along with all these, I have been preparing to take the Silva Mind Control/Medication Training in a month or two. I think I need to re-organize my inner disciplines, specially time management and food habit, and this course should help me with that a lot.

I followed most of the first test and almost all of the fifth day's magical chase of Tendulkar winning the test against England in Chennai with a fine 103 not out. It was a dream come true for me like many others to see Sachin in this perfect role . Read the details here - http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/indveng/content/current/story/382035.html There are so many good batting points he wrote besides his yesterday and one of those are his 3rd fourth innings century where he is ahead of Lara, equal to Bradman but behind Pointing yet. Last year, Tendulkar made a fourth innings half-century (56*) to defeat Pakistan as I observed that with intense as well like this time as I knew Tendulkar has a poor fourth innings record compared to Ponting or Gavaskar (and almost same as Lara). Not to the same scale worthy of mentioning that amongst all his fourth innings Tendulkar had 36* not out chasing 184 against Zimbabwe in 2001 and 32 * not out chasing 123 against South Africa in 2004. H...

It's so easy to ignore loss to others but so difficult to ignore loss to yourself. Can you ignore bad events, losses happening to you easily? No? But you can do the same when it comes to others. I believe I have always been able to ignore most of the losses to myself throughout my life. It's not very good I know. But at least the first quote in this entry is not applicable to me.

I had a long thanksgiving holiday this time without any turkey, first in Pismo Beach with friends and second in Las Vegas. We started 27th November morning with Nitol, Ezaz, Wali Bhai and their families to San Luis Obispo where Noel joined us. We had nice fun together with girls and kids in one room and all the guys in the other room. We did a BBQ the very next day. On the way back home, we stopped at Big Sur Saturday. http://picasaweb.google.com/shusmita/Thanksgiving2008PismoBeach http://picasaweb.google.com/nitol.shabbir/ThanksgivingWeekendWithFriends Sunday went on packing for the Las Vegas trip. I spent the some part of the night in Ezaz's house and in Washington Hospital Emergency with Nitol as he kind of broke his leg while jumping. with his room mates for a photo session in Big Sur . December 1st Monday we caught the SouthWest airlines at 6 AM in the morning for and landed Las Vegas in one and half hours. We stayed 3 nights and 4 days that Shusmita, Ahyan and I enjoyed a lot...

Roton came at 11th November Tuesday from New York to visit California for a week. He just called me 2 days prior and hence I was not enough prepared to take day offs from office. But as Shusmita now knows driving, she was able to drive him around the neighborhood when I was in office. The very next day 12th November, I was working from home and we started for Napa Valley in the afternoon. Apparently Napa Valley seemed to be his most favorite place probably due to his long years of experience with restaurant jobs. After driving through Napa, we came back to Golden Gate Bridge at night. It was simply so foggy that we saw Golden Gate bridge hanging in the air like it's up in the heaven! It was simply too good... While coming driving through the San Francisco downtown, I was so sleepy that eventually at around 9:30 PM or a little later, I hit a truck from behind in front of Pier 9 just few blocks away from my office. My favorite Honda Civic's front side got completely damaged, the ...

Chess Olympiad Dresden 2008 has achieved the highest level of registration in history turning it into the biggest Chess Olympiad of all ages. After the final closing of the registration list on September the 19th there were more than 2000 active participants announced. It will be held from November the 12th till November the 25th in Dresden, Germany. A perfect place to play big chess events after a successful world chess championship match in Bonn, Germany last month. With 152 registered nations Dresden surpasses the previous Olympiad 2006 in Turin with 7 more countries. The participants distribute themselves to 275 teams, therefrom 156 in the main tournament including the second team of Germany and the teams of the deaf, correspondence chess players and blind persons. 119 women teams are starting. The very popular Susan Polgar's Popular Chess blog provided an entry today on the Bangladesh Chess Team that left for Germany to participate this big event. I was proud to see Banglades...

From Blogs The World Chess Championship started this October 14th in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. The match consisted of twelve games between the defending Champion Anand (FIDE Rating 2783) of India vs the Challenger Kramnik (FIDE Rating 2772) of Russia. Anand and Kramnik started out peacefully with two interesting draws, after which the Indian player exploded to score three wins - in game 3, game 5, and game 6. Especially difficult for Kramnik were the two loses with black in the same line which basically have decided the outcome of the match in early stage. Although Kramnik managed to pull a win in 10th game and Anand drew 11th game today with white pieces to win the match at a 6.5 - 4.5 margin. The prize fund of 1.5 million Euro (approximately 2.35 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE license fees, and will be split equally between these 2 players. You can get a few more details on the match in the following links - I hav...

Last weekend we had 2 events to catch up with. We arranged Ahyan's 2nd birthday (with some delay) in our apartment's Recreation Center this 18th October Saturday. It was as usual a good gathering with my close buddies in the bay area. Here are few albums that hold some pictures of the events. http://picasaweb.google.com/ashikuzzaman/AhyanS2ndBirthdayAndHabibSConcert http://picasaweb.google.com/nitol.shabbir/HabibSConcertAtBayArea http://picasaweb.google.com/nainaahmad/BayAreaBangladeshAssociationEidLuncheonAndHabibSConcertInPaloAltoCA?authkey=O6q_vKwWG90# http://picasaweb.google.com/rhasinur/HabibConcert2008?authkey=VbAUXTVPKL4# The following day 19th was the BABA Eid Reunion where Habib's Concert show was the center of the attractions. There was not enough space to dance and hence at the last song of the day, Nitol first jumped into the stage momentarily followed by Shahriar. And yah, I joined them immediately after that taking the below video. Other than those, I had...

After a little more than 2 months stay in USA, my parents went back home to Bangladesh today. They had a schedule to go back yesterday but the flight got canceled due to a hurricane in Hong Kong and rescheduled to today. While it's sad to say good bye even if for a short while to your family, it's inevitable if you are living abroad. It was a pleasure to have them with me these days and traveling around USA with them. My father had some land and jakat related works pending back home, so they left before the Eid-Ul-Fitre. I wish they would have stayed until Ahyan's birthday next month but I understand their involvements back home are equally important. During his stay, my father became a popular person in my community and I knew he would be. I feel now coming to USA with job was a right decision for me and I have succeeded to fulfil my long cherished dream of showing them USA. Now it really doesn't matter to me if I further stay here or go back home or whatever. It would...

We started for our grand road trip of LA/San Diego/Las Vegas at 29th August Friday afternoon. We reached Los Angeles downtown before midnight and stayed in Ramada Inn. The next day we covered Universal Studio where we enjoyed Terminator 3D, Water World, Universal Studio Tour and Jurassic Park Tour. The most horrifying one was The Mummy Ride that I and Shusmita went for. It's simply terrible and breathtaking for it's speed, darkness, turns and reverse directions even though only for 5 minutes. We had our dinner Saturday night at Aladin where I got my Magi chicken corn soup packet that I couldn't get anywhere else in USA, not even in New York. The next day we drove to San Diego Sea World (120 miles from LA) and came back by night. This time we enjoyed the Shamu Whale show, Rope way and a ride to the height something similar to the ride we had in London 2 years back. Monday we started for Las Vegas from LA, a pleasant drive through the rocky desert. We reached a little early i...

At last my parents, I, Shusmita and Ahyan went to New York this summer. It was my 4th New York trip, the last time I came was in Winter 2007, not so long. The tough time was to get the proper air ticket at a very short time and getting leave from office. The good thing was we visited Niagara Falls in Buffallo and Washington D.C with Kakku (my Uncle in New York).

The 22nd to 24th August weekend, I took my parents, wife and son to a road trip to Reno/Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. We started at Friday afternoon for Reno. My parents were amazed to see the big Grand Sierra hotel having casino, mall, theater inside. Saturday morning we drove for Lake Tahoe and missed the first cruise trip that we bought for 2 PM. But we could marginally catch the 2:PM Queen Marina cruise instead using that same ticket. This 2 and half hours cruise was relaxing to us. It gave hard time to me to get out of Lake Tahoe and reach Yosemite as we started at 5 and mobile GPS was showing confused directions and eventually died out of battery. I got the 2 iPhones just a day before this trip and so I still didn't have car charger with me. We reached Yosemite after midnight where Ezaz was already there with his parents and family. On the way we lost directions in Tioga Pass at midnight and I enjoyed the uncertainty and the adventure. We roamed around a little in Yosemite the Sun...

I took my parents to further north in California in first weekend of August. Shahriar and his parents joined us from Klamath Falls in Shasta Lake and Dam in 2nd August Saturday. That night we saw Sundial Bridge before going back to Holiday Inn, Redding hotel where I booked 2 rooms for us. The next morning we say Burney Falls and Lassen Volcanic Park. One the way back home I lost roads in Mount Shasta and the car fuel went down with no mobile or GPS coverage for a while. But at last we have returned safely with an approx 700 miles trip. It was a good one! Here are some of the pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/shusmita/ShastaTourWithBabaMa010808

The last weekend of July was usually full of events. Saturday (26th July) morning Nitol, I, Shusmita, Ahyan & my parents went to San Francisco Zoo with Shahriar, Sochi, Safwan & Shahriar's parents. From there, we went to Darbar restaurant in San Francisco for lunch. Then we went to the world's crookedest street (zizag in Lombard street) in San Francisco. It was a quite a risky route while climbing over to the zigzag entry point rather than the zigzag road itself. As Safwan was crying Shahriar had to leave for home at that time without going to the crookedest street. From there we went to Golden Gate Bridge vista point. From here the view of the bridge, San Francisco and Alcatraz Island was quite clear. The very next morning, we (the same group as the last day) went to Santa Cruz to take the one hour Santa Cruz Steam Train journey to see the giant Oak, Sequoia and other trees. From there we drive to Hayward Pakwan for the famous Sunday only buffet lunch where Ezaz, Shaki...

By all means and parameters, July 18th 2008 will remain as one of the most significant dates in my entire life. Because that was the day when my parents landed in San Francisco airport from Cathay Pacific Airlines. I was working from home that Friday and rented a 7 seater Ford Explorer van to receive them in the airport. I needed this big car to handle 4 full size luggages (70 lbs each). They got USA visa at 2nd attempt after a long 7 months of backgrounds check. While they were supposed to come 6 weeks back, at last they reached here to spend the next 3 months with me, Shusmita and their grandson Ahyan whom they never saw earlier. Me and Shusmita planned a lot before they came here. We bought new sofa, new bed to fit in our second bed room, new LCD HDTV and so on. We were worried of the little high temperature here although so far it has been good. Shahriar and his parents, Ezaz, Nitol came to see my parents in the afternoon and we shared the fresh Bangladeshi foods together. The very...

I have read Quran, our holy book in Islam, once in Arabic language. I was a teenager that time and didn't understand the meaning and it's impact. Later I attempted to read the Bengali translation of Quran but stopped after making some progress. Few months back, my friend Nitol was talking to our another friend Emon who started reading and telling everyone to read a very good Bengali translation of Quran with Shan-e-nuzul. This is exactly what I was looking for and it ignited in me the desire to finish Quran with proper understanding. Sometimes early this month I proposed my friends in Bay Area on a systematic and combined study on Islamic history and events from Quran. Some of them seems really got interested with this proposal. Then I started looking for resources considering the following objectives. Resources on Quran, Hadith that are accessible electronically or via internet. I am an IT guy and I have very less time available in a day when I can afford to stay away from com...

When I checked after lunch in San Francisco near my office in Embarcadero, all their iPhone3G were already sold out. I am not surprised because I know the stories when iPhone came out first time last year. As I will buy 2 iPhone3Gs this coming 1st August when my Verizon contract will finish, I took some effort to figure out the rough estimates for 2 years’ plan prices for iPhone3G from AT&T - 1 iPhone3G Individual Plan: $70 (+ tax) * 12 * 2+ $200 (+ tax for phone set) + $36 (activation fee) + $30 * 12 * 2 (+ tax) = $2636 (+ a lot of accumulated tax) So if I apply a flat tax of 8.75% on the total it becomes $2866.65 for next 2 years. 2 iPhone3G Family Talk Plan: { $70 (+ tax) * 12 * 2 + $10 (for 2nd line) * 12 * 2 (+ tax) } + { $200 * 2 (+ tax for 2 phone sets) } + { $36 + $26 (activation fee) } + [ { $30 * 12 * 2 (+ tax) } * 2] = $3822 (+ a lot of accumulated tax) So if I apply a flat tax of 8.75% tax on the total it becomes $4156.425 for next 2 years. This will be...

This independence day long weekend, I along with my wife Shusmita and son Ahyan stayed overnight in San Francisco to watch fireworks and to shop in Union Square. My friend Nitol joined us at 4th July noon when we started in a relax mode. We reached Club Quarters in San Francisco (in Embarcadero) and parked my car in a nearby garage. Then we caught BART for shopping in WestField. In the evening we came back to Ferry Building to watch fireworks, but we couldn't watch well from there. So we started walking towards Pier 39 with Ahyan in Stroller. There we could watch the fires very closely. Ahyan was scared of the sounds and hence started crying loud. We finished our dinner just opposite to my office in market street and then Nitol went back to Fremont while we headed towards our hotel room. http://picasaweb.google.com/nitol.shabbir/4thOfJulyAtSanFrancisco The next morning we went to Naan N Curry in O'Farrell street. Shusmita did a lot of shopping from Union Square and we returne...

Last 2 weekends we attended 2 Bangladeshi events. The first one was Sadi Mohammad 's Robindro Sangeet & Others songs arranged by Porshi in Sabir Vai's house. I, Shusmita, Ahyan & Nitol attended that a little late in the afternoon as we were late to get back from Pakwan Hayward. Shuvojit, Saneyat joined me and Nitol in Sunday lunch Buffet in Pakwan and Saneyat brought the old Notre Dame College's journal where we saw our 16 years' old pictures. The second event was a Bangladesh-Kolkata Natto Mela in Pleasanton where Nitol, Ezaz, Shaki also joined us. Sayeem and Shorno came late in the evening to catch the Bangladeshi performance "American Dream: Bela Shesh Edition". It gave me a clear picture of typical NRBs living here. Sarkar Raj came out last week and Shusmita was ready to let me go alone leaving her with Ahyan at home. Thanks to her, I sent an email for Guys Night Out to watch it in Fremont Naz initially for Wednesday. But people need at least on...

We didn't want to loose the long weekend for memorial day and hence had a quick trip to Fort Bragg, Mendocino which is 200 miles drive from San Francisco Bay Area. Nitol joined us in the trip and we took his car as it turned out to be a good driving experience for him in his first long trip in his new car. The idea to choose a less tourist-crowdy place was because as my parents are coming within next few weeks, we will anyway go to many tourist places in California. So we picked this area where our chances to go more than one is very less. Here are some of the pictures of our trip - http://picasaweb.google.com/shusmita/FortBragg http://picasaweb.google.com/nitol.shabbir/FortBraggMendocinoDriveThroughTree We started at 9 in the morning of 24th May Saturday. The drive through the Highway One was amazing. Ocean and Beaches in the one side, hills and trees in the other side. And every half an hour the road and sceneries change. That evening we went to Glass Beach from our hotel. We had...

Last weekend of April was one of the fast ones when I, Shusmita and Ahyan went to a 3 day trip to San Diego. It was a great trip in all sense. We had a little more than one hour flight in United Airlines from San Francisco at 25th night. By the time I got a Toyota Avalon from Alamo and checked in Holiday Inn Quality Suites in San Diego it was almost 2 AM there. Here are some of the photos of the tour. http://picasaweb.google.com/shusmita/SanDiegoTripApril25To28thPril2006 The first day (26th) we went to Sea World. We watched the Shamu show in the noon and again the late evening. I would not believe a Whale can show such kind of gymnastics with other whales and it's trainers if I would not see with my own eyes. We also saw the dolphin show, Elmo's 3D show and many other booths. The second day we spent in San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park which are about 45 miles apart. As I had the 5 day unlimited entry ticket fro us, we didn't have to worry about the queue or any additional...

Today is one of the rare days when I am sad. I just heard that my younger brother Rasel's new car got damaged in an accident in Dhaka with truck last Friday. Fortunately, no one was injured. Rasel is already running on edge after returning from London to settle down on business and finish his MDS in BRAC University. He just bought the new car with extreme desire by 16.5 lakhs taka only couple of months back. He is now running in garages and insurance companies the whole days and nights leaving his semester final and business in this crucial time. This is definitely a major blow to him. And now while I am reading the article below I am feeling better when I read: Generation Pakistan is near the exit. Generation Middle is still running the show. Generation Bangladesh is here and rising. http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2008/april/genaration.htm

I filed tax return for 2008 last night in H&R Block. Although a little expensive, it didn't take much time and I will get some good (!) refund from both Federal and State this year as well. On top of it I should be getting some George Bush money as well in May like others. This money will be a good source for the staffs we are buying (LCD HDTV, Sofa, Bed etc) as a preparation for my parents visiting us in June. :-)

Lots of things happened pretty quickly in last few days. Emon (Sazzad) and Saiful came from Atlanta to visit us last Thursday night (28th Feb). I & Nitol picked them from San Francisco Airport late at night. Liju and his newly wed wife Deepthy were waiting for us back home with Shusmita & Ahyan when we reached after midnight. Nitol rented a Pontiac G6 the next morning that took us to Silicon Valley. We picked Sayeem from EBay first and then visited Google's office. Shahriar was waiting in Starbucks near his Cadence office. By the time we came back home and started for Yosemite, it was 1:45 PM afternoon. I booked a 2 bed room fully furnished resort in Bass Lake (15 miles from before Yosemite) via my trial time share for this weekend. Yosemite is one of my favorite places in California which is couple of hundred miles from Fremont where I live in. The roads to Yosemite are a little curvy and so Shusmita was anxious while we were driving at night. The first night's stay wa...

The first day (yesterday) of first test Bangladesh tour of South Africa, despite Bangladesh getting all out for 192 runs, Bangladesh managed to rip off top 4 South African batsmen only for 76 runs. Good fightback from us. At this stage, we want fighting cricket whether it ends up in win or loss, we want good cricket for long term improvement of Bangladesh cricket team. Meanwhile in U-19 world cup Bangladesh defeated England in n exciting low scoring match to go into the quarter finals undefeated as the only other team than Pakistan. Incidentally, the Quarter-Final will be held between Bangladesh Under-19 v South Africa Under-19 at Kuala Lumpur - Feb 24, 2008.

Bangladesh is moving ahead in the right target despite many drawbacks. Dr. Younus talks about some of the socio-economic parameters supporting this. And let me tell you a few others. * Bangladesh got Nobel Prize in 2006 * Bangladesh could reduce corruption and terrorism in last year * Bangladesh is one of the top cricket playing nations having several achievements recently. Listen to the video to know some more.

Embedded Video I watched the full innings of Sachin Tendulkar's 154 not out against Asutralia in the 2nd test, 3rd day of India-Australia mathc. I like Sachin like anything and this innings was very special to note because of his ability and willingness to partner with the tail enders to cross Australia's first innings total of 463 and take a 69 runs lead. Here are few links to know about him more. Wikipedia: Sachin Tendulkar Wikipedia: Achievements of Sachin Tendulkar 51 Things About Sachin Tendulkar Australians Get Last Look At Little Master Tendulkar Can Claim To Be Greatest Sachin The King of Records Sachin Still Going Strong Sachin Tendulkar Records Tendulk A Demigod Tendulkar becomes leading Test run-scorer Blogged with Flock

Last half of the last month of the last year (2007) was full of events for me and my family. Liju, Nitol and Shahriar dropped us at JetBlue counter in San Jose airport at 19th night. We had 4 luggages and 4 handbags as well as Ahyan's stroller, car seat. JetBlue exceeded my expectation being a local airlines, lots of leg space, very smooth take off and landing. Our flight started 10:30 PM California time and reached 6:30 AM New York time. Kakku was waiting for us to recieve and we could somehow pick all the luggage in his highlander. It was Eid Ul Azha as well. So once we reached Kakku's home at Elmhurst, Queens and met Aunt, my cousines Abir-Asif, we went for Eid prayer. Before we came back at 25th in JetBlue, we had roamed around many places in New York. Kakku took us to a Manhattan drive at night. We went to Jackson Hights, Statue of Liberty in Liberty Island, Jamaica, Brooklyn. One evening we spent with Shusmita'd bosom friend Nandita and others while I had a nice time ...