The first day of February, the beginning of the month in which the primary foundations of Bangladesh were launched in the year of 1952. It was the month and the day 21st of that month when our language was salvaged from the new-fangled regime’s foremost oppressive touches. It was the month and that devastating yet glorious day 21st of February, we can safely say, when the dream of Bangladesh began its journey : A dream at its infancy, a dream greatly fragile, but a great dream nonetheless.

To relate the parable again of sacrifices made by the martyrs on the 21st of February for our mother tongue seems quite redundant because it is embedded deep in our identity and entity. Hence, when in a festive mood, but also all the while keeping in mind the great loss we incurred, the bloggers community of Bangladesh celebrated the first day of February as the ‘Bangla blog day’ 2010, it should not come as a surprise, rather it seems it was meant to be.

Like many ever-persisting nightmares that follow our beloved country (such as the loud arrogant presence of the War Criminals), the selection of this day also could not remain unanimous. The bloggers are aware that another blog declared the day 19th December last year as the Bloggers’ day without exhibiting any sound reasons for doing so as that month is mainly about celebrating our victory, not really our language. Quite rightly, this call failed to gain the support of the rest of the bloggers who write in Bengali. The bloggers of ‘Amar Blog’ one of those that differed and that difference was justified in the sense that February is the month which we remember for our language, the struggle for language and it is undeniably true that Bengali Blogging is mostly about loving that language, to express one’s dreams, thoughts and frustrations in that language. ‘Amar Blog’, with the support from other Bengali online communities, felt 1st of February would fit the day most. With the opening of Boi Mela, Amar Blog bloggers also celebrated the honor of the first blog community with a stall in the national book fair ‘Ekushe Boimela’ which increased their reasons for celebration much more. And, the programme was not limited to Dhaka.

In the first part of the day highly esteemed Dr. Md, Jafar Iqbal declared ‘The Bangla Blog Day’ cutting a cake from Shahjalal University, Sylhet. The programme was rendered live via blog and cheered by bloggers. Later, in the afternoon, many of the bloggers met in the Dhaka University Campus close to ‘Boi Mela’ and celebrated the Bangla Blog Day as well as the opening day of the Book Fair. The celebrations continued till the fair was closed for the day. Live video streaming was arranged to showcase the programme online, and those who couldn’t attend and the bloggers living abroad joined the celebrations with posts and comments. A bloggers’ meet was also arranged in London near Whitechappel Art Gallery where several bloggers living in UK shared the fun. This was, indeed, the right way to start this great month.

Happy Bangla Blog Day to everyone!