If you Fly Biman - You are a patriot. Sometime we make simple relation with things which are not connected amyway. Lets take Biman for example. Having a soft corner and national affinity for the national carrier is very normal, and some people will travel Biman simply because it is national carrier. But Bimans business model cannot depend on its being the national carrier unless it provides the basic of air travel In time departure and arrival Satisfactory service - start to end Decent in flight service Competitive price end of the day people has to find value I stopped flying Biman after I was stuck at Kolkata Airport for 7 hours twice. My airplanes choice is simply based on its performance. I never used Teletalk as my perception of its core and associated service was questionable. My using GP or Banglalink number cannot be interpreted as rejecting local products, or showing less love for the country. By the way I use Teletalk 3G with which I am quite happy. In todays world everything need to fight it out. Local companies, services , or performance has a better chance because ideally they are supposed to capture the pulse of the people better. I will go to listen to Solaiman Shukhon s performance because he is good not because he is from Bangladesh and also his good performance is blended with our local culture which he will be able to connect better. Yes his Bangladesh origin will add a lot provided he is good - then I will give him much higher credit. There was a time when all of us used to eagerly wait for Bangladeshi drama, not simply because there were no other option - because they were good. People switch to typical hindi serial because they for some reason could connect with them ( fantasy, unreasonable story, or for whatever reason) they dont watch it because they love india - because that group are hooked to that story line. I know of some people who love Korean drama and never miss a episode - they dont love Korea - those show for some reason has touched them We used to die to go to concerts once upon a time. May be it was early days we were listening to such music created in our land - but we could feel performers loved their music- they were doing it for the love of music. And the music connected with us - it connected with the youth who were trying to rise, define themselves. Somehow that connection is lost. I do look forward to going to a concert but a Bangladeshi Band concert do not attract me - as I feel it has not evolved - It is not linked to - my love for the country We talk about music piracy and how we are killing the industry - but it is not Bangladesh specific . The music industry need to figure this out - you cant blame it on people. If there are issues in the countrys total eco system - how can suddenly the music industry, or drama or film industry be any different. the core issue is we talk a lot - do less. We have moved out of knowledge, of hard work. We do not focus on learning and put our effort in continuous improvement. There is hardly any book store around. There is only Sayeed Sir who is fighting a lone battle. I have seen my ex boss Sanjiv Mehta to memorize and give multiple dry run of a speech that he was supposed to deliver for a simple MBA club program. How many of us put any effort when we give the similar speeches- very few I always feel the biggest challenge for Bangladesh right now - is there is money floating. And the trait that is needed to get a piece of that cake is not quality work, idea, passion, dedication- in most cases it is cronyism, bribe , and pampering. And people are making money - crazy money in the process With that backdrop who is going to focus on knowledge, real content, skill development, because - none of these are pre requisite for to be so called successful End of the day all of it goes back to Govt. Because it is their job to create the right eco system within which knowledge and passion should flourish. Sadly we have miserably failed there By bashing AR Rahman and Akon we are only demeaning ourselves. They are world class performer. Any music lover should be eager to listen to AR Rahman. He is on a different league. Barring some songs I enjoyed his performance last night a lot. What was highly objectionable was to treat our local performers with disrespect. And not respecting any performance is our long tradition. But my observation to Mr Bachu would be - its your job to entertain the audience- if they are entertained why wouldnt they cheer. May be he need to relook at his music - has he evolved - I feel it is stuck 10 years back. If you have not progressed - people will not go gaga - its a sad truth but thats the reality. Having said that - showing disrespect to a singer when they are performing- not giving them due attention is highly objectionable, and we do that most of the time. I was there last night for sometime, and it had many shortcoming - from the ticket pricing to sitting arrangements - to showcasing Bangladesh - but I would not take anything away from the performers. My Key observation is we have miles to go. and the only way to do that is not by criticizing others but simply by making sure that we become the best that we can be . There is no short cut. Lots and lots and lots of hard work is needed.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 06:14:27 +0000