I Am Asif

Has it ever happened to you that you wait for a day for so long, that when the day finally arrives, you can’t believe that the day has come? Last Thursday was such a day for me, and for my whole family, as my dear elder brother has finally got engaged! The whole family has been trying to get my brother married for a very very long time indeed. But the problem is, my brother, in case of choosing a bride for himself, has a band pass filter which allows a very narrow bandwidth. And so far, we couldn’t tune the perfect frequency. But thanks to Allah, we’ve finally got the perfect combination, and Bhaiya at last found someone who he thinks is worthy of spending his life with. I was there at the engagement program last Thursday, and I really liked my brother’s soon-to-be in-laws. They were all very much friendly and cordial. My mom put the ring on the finger of my future sister-in-law. Instead of the girl, it was my mom who was crying, as she has been waiting for this moment for a very long ...

I remember back in the very first semester, our Basic Mechanical Engineering course was taken by Ashiqur Rahman sir from BUET. He explained an analogy between the 4 years of our course, with the 4 strokes of an engine. The first year is the ‘Intake Stroke’, where the new students are taken in into the varsity for processing. The second year is the ‘Compression Stroke’, as the second year is said to be the most difficult, where the student really feel the pressure of studying engineering. The third year is the ‘Power Stroke’, as this is said to be the year when the students start to feel like engineers, they take over the most active roles in all sorts of campus activities. And the fourth year is the ‘Exhaust Stroke’, when it’s almost done, the soon to be engineers are already planning what to do when they get out. Today at the last day of my third year, I really find this analogy perfect in every sense. The third year, particularly the second semester, was simply unforgettable. It’s b...

The national election that took place yesterday, was the most anticipated event in the history of Bangladesh in many years. I'm not a columnist or a political analyst so I'm not going to write anything about it. If you're a Bangladeshi, you already know too much. But what I'm writing about here is my first voting experience. Several months back the work started to create the country's first national ID cards and the national voter list. From that point on right to the moment I casted my vote yesterday, the whole process seemed so systematic that it was almost unbelievable to many that it was happening in Bangladesh. Particularly yesterday, from going to the vote center and casting my vote, it didn't take me any more than 10 minutes, amazing huh? I went there, the whole center, which was a local school, was divided into several booths and lines so that the process gets faster. I only had to stand in my line for a couple of minutes or so. Then when I was called in...

Usually my Eids are all the same, they don't vary much from year to year. But this Eid-ul Azha was indeed a bit different due to the fact that this time we've spent the Eid without my father and big bro, as they're spending the Eid in London. They went there about ten days ago, just for visiting purposes. My family members (other than me) have many golden memories in the UK, they had spent a considerable period in London for the post graduate studies of my dad and mom. Dad wished to revisit his old connections there so, quite out of the blue, he took my brother and set off. Usually both of them play important roles during the Eid ul Azha, in coordinating the tasks of Qurbani. This time my brother in law, Dr. Helal replaced them. On the day of Eid I was busy the whole day with him. I don't know why, but I always enjoy one part of this Eid every year, getting my hands dirty with the meat! Yup, I just love it. Sorting out all the meat, putting them in plastic bags, stori...

The AUST EEE Society 's Electrical Day '08, held on November 27 on AUST campus, will always be unforgettable. It marked several milestones for AUST, our EEE department and also for me personally. For the last month or so, the students of our department have been working relentlessly to stage this event. For me, this event brought many 'firsts' . As I've written earlier, I've never participated in a project fair. This time, me along with four other pals (naming ourselves "gEEEks", i.e, EEE geeks), have tried really hard to put forward a solid project. But the project we took turned out to be a little too complicated for us, and unfortunately we couldn't take part in the competition. I felt really sorry for Pulak and Fahad in particular, as those two really worked hard for the project. But on the positive side, we have indeed gained a great deal of experience while working for the project. I'll never forget the trip to Patuatuli , (the IC Heaven...

The newly formed AUST EEE Society is arranging the first ever 'Electrical Day' on the last week of November. There's gonna be technical project presentation, cultural event, photography exhibition, magazine publication from the EEE department. I'm really excited about the event, and I've got some plans for it as well. Me and 4 other guys from our section have plans to submit a project about which we have been planning for the last couple of weeks or so. I've never actually participated in the science fairs that were held every year back in Udayan, but I was always a spectator, hehe. But this time I'm hoping to make a debut. I'm also gonna submit some of the photos taken by my to take a chance at the photography exhibition. Well, I know my photos are not probably good enough to be selected for the exhibition, but I'll still give it a try, nothing-to-lose style. Well, if somehow one of my photos get selected, that would be yet another first for me. Bu...

My big bro's suffering from two diseases at the same time. He's got himself Dengue and Hepatytis-E. Last week he had to spend more than 4 days in the hospital. He was indeed very very sick and too weak even to move around. Me and my family members did duties at the hospital in turns. I had to stay over for two nights, which were my first nights at a hospital. Day before yesterday we got my bro back home, now he has to stay in complete bed rest for more than 2 weeks I guess. May Allah bring him back out of this illness with better health and Imaan. Amin.