Lying there, half-immersed in curry sauce, ignored by those looking for meat, the aloo has been a much-neglected vegetable indeed. Until now that is. The Knight of the Order of the Aloo rode in on horseback, his armour - polished by the spittle of a thousand supporters - shining in the deltaic sun! All to save the aloo from the ignominy of being made bhorta. The aloo is indeed redeemed, for chefs at five-star hotels now covet it. The Knight is vindicated, and we admire his courage for mixing himself up with such a funny vegetable.

If I were you I would refrain from using terms such as “shining India” or “rising China” as something positive. These are just buzz words, and their premises are not as clean as the leaders (including their business leaders) of these two countries are trying to make their people believe. For God’s sake, are we not following the news on China, Tibet, Darfur, Nandigram etc? There can in fact be a whole new debate on this “shining-rising” countries which can be the subject of a separate thread. Perhaps another day . . .

Hossain Mohammad Ershad set a new standard in Bangladesh with his girlfriends, making even the international press with a full-page story about his wealth and his mistresses.If you are wondering why we are dredging up this old muck, it is because a serving major general in the Bangladesh Army made a spectacle of himself a few weeks ago.

Almost a year ago, a middle-aged Bhutanese woman trader in the Indian border town of Phuentsholing sounded an ominous note for Bhutanese democracy. “We have heard about the polls on the Indian side,” she told this correspondent. “Sometimes, unexpected incidents also come out with the elections. We do not want those here in Bhutan. After all, we are a peace-loving nation.”

No wonder another news was muffled in the Bangladeshi media which took the British Bangladeshis by storm. They were disgusted and annoyed to hear that Barrister Rizwan Hussain was detained by the Zia International Airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh on the charges of trespassing while he claims he was merely helping an elderly. And things took to a dramatic turn when he was handed over to plain cloth joint forces staffs and he was beaten mercilessly and forced to sign false statements that he was sorry for trespassing and he was treated well by the captors.

The international media are at it again. A light of a world wide famine beaconing, which is a favorite topic for any media professional. You will see picture galleries full of hungry people fighting for food, skinny children waiting for help makes any journalistic work easy. ABC News terms the recent food riots around the world as an apocalyptic warning predicting hundreds of thousands of starving people in Asia and Africa. The World Bank announces “the world is moving towards a food crisis that may lead to wars and riots”.

Alma earns Taka 2000 to 2500 per day by begging. However, she has to pay 700 taka per month as house rent. Since her husband’s death seven years ago she says she is helpless with her nine years-old physically handicapped boy Almas. These recent days have been very difficult for her since she can neither manage food, house rent nor buy medicine for her ill child. She says she has heard that the government has special allowance for disabled children and she has been trying to enlist her son’s name with the local chairman who has continuously refused her request. Kamrangirchar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.