Textbooks doctored

Doctoring of history books is as old as studying history itself. Heavy handed tyrants like Stalin thought they could just airbrush enemies from history. A more subtle approach would be to sponsor scholarly revisionist research into various facets of either President Zia's or Bangabandhu's policies, personal life etc and deflate their persona through ostensibly disinterested reports and journals.

Look at what left wing British historians have done to the legend of Churchill.

MA

Dhaka

Bashant Utsav in Pakistan

The people of Pakistan celebrated Spring or Basant Festival by arranging parties, musical shows and flying kites. This news was published in The Daily Star on the 19th of February 2002 along with a picture showing young Pakistani women dancing with the beat of the drums.

After reading this news I was waiting eagerly to know what the Khatib of National Baitul Mukarram Mosque Obaidul Huq had to say about it. But surprisingly he remained silent so far.

Maulana Obaidul Huq if you can give fatwa against the Pahela Baishakh or Bangla Nobo Borsho, then why not against the Basant Festival?

Iqbal Ahmed

New Eskaton Rd, Dhaka

Catalytic converter and air pollution

Catalysis is an aid to chemical reaction or conversion. It does not

involve in the reaction/conversion itself but facilitates/expedites the same. A catalyst is not a consumable item in a reaction but yet it has a limited life. During the active life it needs regeneration at times. Catalytic converter in a motor vehicle will convert the harmful components present in the exhaust fumes of the petrol/diesel engines into innocent ones before it is released to atmosphere. The exhaust will pass through a closed chamber containing the catalyst. Over a period of time the activity of the catalyst will be reduced and be stopped altogether eventually. The box (con- tainer) of the converter will only be a showpiece doing no useful conversion.

This information was given by the VC of BUET Prof. Nooruddin in a seminar a few days ago and expressed his doubt about the effectiveness of catalytic converter in reducing air pollution. Two important ministers were present in the seminar and appeared to absorb the information.

The state of air-pollution in our towns, extent of affordability by the vehicle owners and the level of our civic sense indicate that enforcing the use of catalytic converters is a premature measure.

Second hand motorised vehicles should be discouraged. City dwellers should be encouraged to use buses. But that takes us to square one, that is arranging adequate number of public transports.

MAH

Dhaka

"Wrong wording in a Rabindra Sangeet"

I would like to thank Mr. N. Karim for rightly pointing out an error made by one of the most prominent singers of our time. Having seen that a lot of people have already expressed their views on this issue, it will be unwise for me to come up with any further comment. Rather, I would like to raise one more important point that I think will be beneficial for Rabindra Sangeet lovers across the world.

As someone who belongs to the new generation of Rabindra Sangeet performers, I believe that the art of breathing is equally important in Tagore's music. Too often breathing works like punctuation in our songs perfect breathing is crucial in understanding a phrase or certain meanings in a song. Breathing in between a word or a coherently linked phrase often leads to the misinterpretation of the meaning of that song. To some readers, this will become clear with the example I am about to give.

In one of her recent CDs, Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya sang the song 'Bishsho bina robe bishshojono mohiche'. In the second stanza, the words are as follows, '...shaunchare dhire re,Ênoditire...'Êbut she sangÊ' ... shaunchare dhire [breath],Êrenoditire…'. From this it seems as if 'renoditire', is a single word but this is clearly not the case. In the same song, the word

'mohiche', was sung in two halves, 'mohi (breath) che'. These would certainly confuse (and in some occasion surprise) any listener who would try to understand the meaning of the song at the same time as listening to it.

I would like to add here that I have utter respect for Ms Bannya (I once had a rare privilege of learning a song from her). I admire her rich voice and her devotion towards Rabindra Sangeet. All I tried to do here is to highlight an important point that I think all Rabindra Sangeet teachers and students should be aware of. It would certainly help if the readers take this as a piece of constructive criticism as opposed to a 'conspiracy against her', as I recall someone once mentioning in one of the letters.

Shobhon Andaleeb Ahmed London, UK

Arabic compulsory language

This is in reference to Mr. Wadood's argument against making Arabic compulsory in our schools. Mr. Wadood, I live in the U.S. too and have been doing so for the last 15 years. I have seen many American born Bangladeshi children learning to read and write Bangla at local Bangla schools, Arabic at local Islamic Centers, not to mention English at their regular schools along with a second language, either French or Spanish as part of the curriculum. I haven't seen any of these kids performing badly in school because of the added burden they have taken on.

The reason why Bangladeshi students in U.S. have a tough time in English and Math is mainly due to the way English and Math are taught in Bangladesh, not because they had too much to study while they were students in Bangladesh.

Over the years I have met Americans who are proficient in multiple languages, on the other hand, I have met Americans who are ashamed that they don't know anything other than English. The rate of success in professional, as well as, social lives is much higher in the first group. Because language skills always open up doors to new perspectives, new opportunities, allows proper interaction with people-- a very necessary ingredient for success in today's global economy.

Learning a new language never hurts especially when that language presents an opportunity to truly

understand by far the most fascinating book of revelations in our possession.

Anwar Babar

Dallas, Texas

Medical transcription service

There is not much information for the computer buffs in the mass media on the medical transcription service available in Bangladesh (February 26). Also there are too few advertisements-- even in the computer magazines. As for the training, the government regulations may be publicised so that the trainees are not swindled.

Where is the central one-stop information counter? There is no association, and the BCS are rather quiet on this new job line. Whom to contact for further information and brochure? I could not find the telephone numbers of any of the firms in the official BTTB T&T Directory. Let these service providers make some noise.

Izzy

Dhaka