The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas: Novel to Film!

After long days I have seen such a good film! It is simply melting my heart and bringing tears. A fabulous masterwork by the director Mark Herman. In November 2008 this film was released in USA.

The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas is originally a novel by Irish novelist John Boyne which was published in 2006. Here is the plot summery from Wikipedia:

This book is about a simple eight-year-old boy named Bruno who liked nothing more than going to school or playing around with his friends. But because of his father’s job, is forced to move from his home in Berlin to Poland, near a concentration camp. From his bedroom window, Bruno spots a fence behind which he sees men in ’striped pyjamas’. These are Jews, and they are in a Nazi concentration camp. One day his parents come to an agreement that both Bruno and Gretel, his sister, need a tutor for their education, so they hire Herr Liszt. To Bruno, Herr Liszt is the most boring teacher anyone could ever have; he teaches social studies instead of reading and arts, which Bruno prefers. So, in boredom and confusion, Bruno wonders what is going on at "Out-With" and why people are always dressed in striped pyjamas there. One afternoon, he goes exploring, and meets a Jewish boy called Shmuel, a name Bruno has never before heard but that apparently is quite common in the concentration camp. Shmuel soon becomes Bruno’s friend and Bruno visits every afternoon to talk. Bruno is told by Gretel that the people in the striped pajamas on the other side of the fence are Jews and that he and his family are "the opposite".

The story ends with Bruno about to return to the family’s old home in Berlin. As a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pyjamas and digs under the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who went missing in the camp. The boys are unable to find him, and just as it starts to rain and get dark, Bruno decides he would like to go home, yet the Nazis in the area of the camp force the boys to go on a march. Neither boy knows where this march will lead. However, they are soon crowded into a gas chamber, and the author leaves the story with Bruno pondering, yet unafraid, in the dark holding hands with Shmuel. "…Despite the chaos that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel’s hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go".

In an epilogue, Bruno’s family spend several hours at their home trying to find Bruno, before his mother and Gretel return to Berlin, only to discover he is not there as they had expected. A year afterwards, his father returns to the spot that the soldiers found Bruno’s clothes (the same spot Bruno spent the last year of his life) and, after a brief inspection, discovers that the fence is not properly attached at the base and can form a gap big enough for a boy of Bruno’s size to fit through. Using this information, his father eventually pieces together what happened to Bruno. Several months later, the Red Army arrives to liberate the camp and orders Bruno’s father to go with them. He goes without complaint, because "he didn’t really care what they did to him anymore".

Mark Herman simply makes this novel into a fantastic screenplay. But what I like most is the Cinematography and Lighting. I can’t forget the last shot where lots of Stripped Pajama was hanging in front of the gas chamber. That was a masterpiece of photography. Also the heartiest salute goes to James Horner for great music.

I am recommending to all you folks to watch this film.

Panacea

I used to be a Panacea and now I am drowning. May be I am searching something or I just don’t want to do something but my pain is killing me with every single bit of my heart. Can’t stay at home nor leave it.

Should I pray? To whom?

 

I took this photograph about 3years ago in my village. I found this photo after years in my old hard disk. I am really lucky! Yes I am! I am loving this photo. This was taken with a a Nikon D40 with 55mm lens. I have already posted this in my Flickr.

আমি’ই কনফিউসড

আমার টেলিভিশন দেখার সুযোগ খুব কম হয়। তাই অনেক কিছুই জানি না আমি। কয়েকদিন আগে আমি হরলিক্স এর একটা বিজ্ঞাপন দেখলাম যেখানে বলা হয়েছে হরলিক্স খেলে বাচ্চারা হবে টলার, স্ট্রংগার এবং শার্পার। সুন্দর কথা। আমার কোন অভিযোগ নেই। ইন্ডিয়ানদের বানানো জমকালো বিজ্ঞাপন। কিন্তু আপত্তিটা অন্য জায়গায়!

আমি ঠিক বুঝলাম শার্পার এর উদাহরন হিসেবে কেন কনফিউজ করাকে বুঝাবে? যেখানে পুরো মানব জাতির সাধনা কনফিউশন থেকে বের হয়ে আসার আর তারা (!) কিনা শেখাচ্ছে কনফিউজ করা? এটা কী ধরনের রসিকতা। বুঝতে পারলাম ইন্ডিয়ান নামক চাপাবাজ জাতিটার কাছে এটাই স্বাভাবিক কিন্তু আমাদের দেশে কেন এই বিজ্ঞাপনটা অনুমোদন করা হলো? খুবই কষ্টিত হলাম। এই চাপাবাজ জাতিটা কি আমাদে মিডিয়াটা পুরোটাই কিনে নিয়েছে?

কেউ কি জানেন বিজ্ঞাপন বিষয়ক আমাদের কোন নীতিমালা আছে কিনা? আমার মতে কিছু বিষয়কে এখনই প্রতিরোধ করা উচিৎ।

১. যদি কোন বিদেশী পণ্যকে বাজারজাত করতে হয় তবে তার বিজ্ঞাপনটা অনবশ্যই এ’দেশের মতোন করে নির্মান করতে হবে। কোন ধরনের ডাবিং করে নয়।

২. বিজ্ঞাপনটি অবশ্যই মানসম্মত হতে হবে। তার মানে হলো পয়সা দিয়ে হুট করে কোন কিছু দেখাতে পারবে না। (মনে আছে নিশ্চই: ডিজুসের কিছু বাজে বিজ্ঞাপন সরকার বন্ধ করে দিয়েছিল)।

এই কাজটি করলে একটা অনেক বড় লাভ হবে: আমাদে বিজ্ঞাপন শিল্প অনেক বিশী প্রতিষ্ঠিত হবে। যেহেতু আমরা মুক্ত বাণিজ্যে বাস করছি তাই সেটা পণ্যের মধ্যেই সীমিত করে রাখার এখন উপযুক্ত সময় এসেছে। পণ্যের সাথে ফ্রিতে বিজ্ঞাপণ আমদানী বন্ধ করা উচিৎ এখনই। নইলে মনে হচ্ছে একটা চাপাবাজ প্রজন্ম তৈরি করব আমরা!

আমি’ই কনফিউসড

আমার টেলিভিশন দেখার সুযোগ খুব কম হয়। তাই অনেক কিছুই জানি না আমি। কয়েকদিন আগে আমি হরলিক্স এর একটা বিজ্ঞাপন দেখলাম যেখানে বলা হয়েছে হরলিক্স খেলে বাচ্চারা হবে টলার, স্ট্রংগার এবং শার্পার। সুন্দর কথা। আমার কোন অভিযোগ নেই। ইন্ডিয়ানদের বানানো জমকালো বিজ্ঞাপন। কিন্তু আপত্তিটা অন্য জায়গায়!

আমি ঠিক বুঝলাম শার্পার এর উদাহরন হিসেবে কেন কনফিউজ করাকে বুঝাবে? যেখানে পুরো মানব জাতির সাধনা কনফিউশন থেকে বের হয়ে আসার আর তারা (!) কিনা শেখাচ্ছে কনফিউজ করা? এটা কী ধরনের রসিকতা। বুঝতে পারলাম ইন্ডিয়ান নামক চাপাবাজ জাতিটার কাছে এটাই স্বাভাবিক কিন্তু আমাদের দেশে কেন এই বিজ্ঞাপনটা অনুমোদন করা হলো? খুবই কষ্টিত হলাম। এই চাপাবাজ জাতিটা কি আমাদে মিডিয়াটা পুরোটাই কিনে নিয়েছে?

কেউ কি জানেন বিজ্ঞাপন বিষয়ক আমাদের কোন নীতিমালা আছে কিনা? আমার মতে কিছু বিষয়কে এখনই প্রতিরোধ করা উচিৎ।

১. যদি কোন বিদেশী পণ্যকে বাজারজাত করতে হয় তবে তার বিজ্ঞাপনটা অনবশ্যই এ’দেশের মতোন করে নির্মান করতে হবে। কোন ধরনের ডাবিং করে নয়।

২. বিজ্ঞাপনটি অবশ্যই মানসম্মত হতে হবে। তার মানে হলো পয়সা দিয়ে হুট করে কোন কিছু দেখাতে পারবে না। (মনে আছে নিশ্চই: ডিজুসের কিছু বাজে বিজ্ঞাপন সরকার বন্ধ করে দিয়েছিল)।

এই কাজটি করলে একটা অনেক বড় লাভ হবে: আমাদে বিজ্ঞাপন শিল্প অনেক বিশী প্রতিষ্ঠিত হবে। যেহেতু আমরা মুক্ত বাণিজ্যে বাস করছি তাই সেটা পণ্যের মধ্যেই সীমিত করে রাখার এখন উপযুক্ত সময় এসেছে। পণ্যের সাথে ফ্রিতে বিজ্ঞাপণ আমদানী বন্ধ করা উচিৎ এখনই। নইলে মনে হচ্ছে একটা চাপাবাজ প্রজন্ম তৈরি করব আমরা!

Way against Piracy!

Piracy is a word which is a nightmare to publishers (books, audio, video and software). I am involving both in Internet & Software Industry as well as Media Industry. So I am really in pain about piracy. I am worried about the Audio and Video industry in Bangladesh. Before this write up I have talked over 20 audio/video publishers and producers to hear from them. All are really in pain. Piracy simply eating their profits and sometimes it is eating their own foods! Today I am going to share my ideas against piracy! I think this will be a great help to our aud/vid industry.

Facts:

It is true that no way stop piracy completely.

Creativity will not dye so new Audio and Video product will arrive.

As we’ve industry of Audio and Video, so we’re talking about professionals who are involved here. We must save them. But how?

Here is some generic data:

1. Our audio industry releases thousands of Albums (DAT, CD, DVD) in a year. They publish this in traditional ways. For CDs they simply provide a jewel case with CD and a paper case with audio track info and CD. For 95% case this is the common practice.

2. And video industry (DVD/VCD) simply publish them in a jewel case.

My question is why people will buy this thing as they can download them from internet? Or even the pirate store they can have them  with almost 3times cheaper than the original price. What is more they’ll have from the original publications?

-Answer: Nothing. But for  Audio they can see the Lyric written into the Jewel Case.

So for this lyric consumer will buy them? –I don’t think so.

Study 1: Few days ago I went to Firm Gate (the huge hub traffic in Dhaka City and also the it has huge quantity of pirate stores for audio/video) and found one store in Footpath who was selling two MP3 CD for 20 taka (about 30cents). That was a great surprise for me. I didn’t know that it was that cheap! Even in my calculation the production cost is almost 20taka! I saw lots of people was buying it. More than 400songs for 20taka. Really cheap! And they don’t know even it is Piracy!

Study 2: Currently Bangladesh has a huge density of cell phone users. And most importantly this cell phone handset market is captured by some none branded Chinese products! Those phones are really cheap and has huge feature which is really amazing. And the bonus feature is: they have multimedia in all senses. So these sets are used as entertainment device. No one is buying a MM3 player nor a CD player now, they simply buy a phone. When they buy it, the shop simply upload lots of music/videos into the cell phone’s MMC. You can find this services even in root level of Bangladesh! Well, we’re in hi-tech! Really!

But still we’ve a industry and we’ve to save the professionals!

Time to shake hand with Fine Art People and Ad Agencies: Our industry is producing Audio-Videos in a generic way. There is no improvisation in packaging. What if they deliver the CD/DVDs in a way so that buyer think they’re purchasing a souvenir or with a value or even sometimes with very little amount of money! I believe that’ll work.

Innovation in Delivering: Ask the fine art guys to create something new for the CD/DVDs. Tell them to make the folder as sculpture so that the CD/DVDs can be delivered as a show-piece. So that consumer can also put that as a piece of art work!

Add Values: Embed some values with the packaging so that consumer can use that values to get more things. It can be a lottery or quiz contest, or a free ticket to an event. For those extra values grab some sponsor who will pay for their promotions. It is not a big deal!

Have Sponsors: Lots of promotional product or companies you’ll find around! Grab some of them to promote themselves with your CD/DVD product. So that you can have some fund to reduce the price.

If you combine my 3 ideas with your publications definitely you can sell more of your product. So fight against piracy is nothing but selling more. That’ll help to restore the industry and can give piece to the professionals in relevant industry.

Coppersmith Barbet!

I took this shot from Jahangir Nagar University Campus, in TSC area. This tree was a Banyan Tree. This bird with his folks was dancing over the branches of that tree. The number of birds was some hundreds. They were eating the fruits of the tree. And they looked very happy (may be the meal was really delicious) while they’re singing and dancing.

পাখিটার বাংলা নাম ভুলে গেছি। সুন্দর একটা নাম আছে। কেউ্ দয়াকরে আপডেট করে দিন। আমার পাখি বিষয়ক জ্ঞান অনেক কম। এই ছবিটাও আমার ফ্লিকারে আপলোড করেছি।

www.nirjhar.com

টোপা পানা!

ছবিটা টোপা পানার। আমরা যারা গ্রামে বড় হয়েছি তাদের কাছে অনেক পরিচিত এটি। অবশ্য ইদানিং এই জলজ উদ্ভিদ আর চোখে পড়ে না। কার্প জাতীয় কিছু মাছের দৌরাত্বে এগুলো ভালো জন্মায় না।

ছবিটা তুলেছিলাম সাভার এলাকা থেকে। একটা পুকুর থেকে। শ্যাওলাভরা একটা পুকুরের দেখা অনেক দিন পরে পেয়েছিলাম। সেই পুকুরের মধ্যে অনেকটা বিষন্ন হয়ে ছিল এই টোপা পানাটি। দলবল ছেড়ে একাকী!

ছবিটি তুলেছিলাম নাইকন ডি-৮০দিয়ে। লেন্স ব্যবহার করেছিলাম সম্ভবত ৩০০মিমি ম্যাক্র। অ্যাপারচার প্রায়রিটিতে।

আমি সবসময় র’তে ছবি তুলি। র প্রসেস করার জন্য ব্যবহার করেছি অ্যাডমি ক্যামেরা র ৪.৫।

অনেক আগের তোলা ছবি। বরাবরের মতোন এটি আমার ফ্লিকারে আপলোড করেছি। ছবিটা খুব ভালো মানের কিছু হয় নি। কিন্তু আমার স্মৃতি’র স্বার্থে রেখে দিলাম। আপনাদেরও ভালো লাগবে না। তবুও শেয়ার করলাম। সবাবইকে শুভেচ্ছা।

www.nirjahr.com

A simple thought on Blogging Platform: WP vs. WPMU; case Bangla.

This blog, www.nirjhar.com is on WordPress Engine. From this you can imagine I am a great fan of WordPress though I am not a regular blogger but reader indeed! I am a regular reader of TechCrunch (www.techcrunch.com actually my favorite site in this world ) and it is also a blog. The Great blog.

Few days back I started observing my native blog platforms very closely. While watching Somewherein Blog (www.somewhereinblog.net), Amar Blog (www.amarblog.com) and some individual bloggers (which are also in wordpress. Example Shahidul Alam’s blog http://shahidul.wordpress.com) for my test cases and after while Nations’ largest newspaper The Daily Prothom Alo launched their own blogging site (www.prothom-aloblog.com). That was also a positive step for this country, Bangladesh. The largest print media is shacking hand with web based media. For me it is a milestone.

Origin of Blog (From Wikipedia)

Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists^[56] and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard."

The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. Justin Hall, who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student atSwarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers,^[57] as is Jerry Pournelle.^{[citation needed]} Dave Winer’s Scripting News is also credited with being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs.^[58][59] Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person’s personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.

In 1993, Dr. Glen Barry started publishing the first political blog — the "Forest Protection Blog" (originally entitled "Gaia’s Forest Conservation Archives") at http://forests.org/blog/ — both to campaign for forest protection and as his Ph.D. project^[60]. This political blog initially used the gopher protocol, and has been on the web continuously since Jan. 1995, making it the web’s first and longest continuously running political blog. The work has since evolved into the world’s largest environmental portals.

Early blogs were simply manually updated components of common Web sites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services.

Blogging and Bangla:

Apart from the blogging history a new era was brought in Bangladesh on 16th December, 2005 on the day of Nations “Victory Day”. On that day somewherein net launched the first Bangla (Bengali, bn) blogging platform with full support of Unicode (UTF-8) with phonetic Bangla keyboard input. Before that Bangla bloggers were using Blogger to write their Bangla blog with external unicode keyboard like Avro, Ekushey, Bijoy. But blogger wasn’t in Bangla. My favorite Developer Hasin Hayder was the developer of this blog. And again in 2008 hasin created the new Bangla blogging platform Prothom-aloblog. Congratulations Hasin.

And now, blogging in Bangla is really easy for the easy typing method and easy Unicdoe conversion tools. And creating local blogging community is a trend now in Bangladesh. Each day I am getting question from people “How can I start a blog platform?” and My answer is always WordPress. And then they asked what wordpress? Is it WP or WPMU (WordPress Multi User)? Then I have to answer them with care.

Here is some facts.

WordPress	WordPress MU
Supports one blog with multiple bloggers. Bloggers can’t use a avatar picture by uploading in database.	Supports multiple blogs and multiple bloggers. Bloggers can write for multiple blogs. Blogger can use avatar.
Famous for its “5 minute install.” In practical it needs actually some seconds if you use some service like SampleScript or Fantastico .	Setup is more involved. Really tough.
No advanced hosting requirements. Any host with a MySQL Database support will do.	Your host needs to support wildcard DNS to use the sub domains feature. And most of the cases few hoster (very costly) has this feature. You can’t use this in a Shared Hosting service.
Instant installation (through Fantastico, etc.) supported by many webhosts.	FTP time! You can reduce it by uploading in .zip format and decompress with Shell extension or CPanel File Manager. But still this is kind of Geek work.
Each user is assigned a role level (subscriber, contributor, author, editor, administrator).	In addition to the standard WordPress roles, you can also specify “site admins” who can add/edit/delete all blogs and users.
WordPress receives updates first.	MU users must wait for WordPress updates to be applied to WordPress MU.
Administrators can edit themes, plugins, and code files from within WordPress.	The Theme Editor, Plugin Editor, and Manage Files sections are all disabled for security reasons.
Plugins can be enabled/disabled by the blog administrator.	The site admin can opt to have plug-in disabled altogether (the default setting), or allow blog administrators to enable/disable plug-in that have been uploaded. Plug-in can also be uploaded to a special “mu-plug-in” folder, where they will be executed automatically on all blogs. (Some plug-in won’t function property when run this way, however.)
If you have multiple blogs running standard WordPress, you’d need to upload plugin updates to each one.	Plugins for all WordPress MU blogs are stored in one place. Update once, and it takes effect on all the site’s blogs.
If you have multiple blogs running standard WordPress, you’d need to login to each one separately to access the administration.	You can switch between blog admins using a simple drop-down menu.
Allows you to use most HTML in your posts, but strips out PHP.	In addition to removing PHP, WordPress MU is more strict in regards to what post HTML it accepts. For example, it will strip out class/ID attributes, inline styles, <span> tags, etc.
WordPress allows posting via email.	WordPress MU lacks this feature.
WordPress lets you customize its list of update services.	WordPress MU doesn’t let you specify update services.

Facts are collected from WordPress Expert Blog and modified in many part. Thanks WordPress Experts.

I think there are other issues involving this comparison. As I am not an expert so dear folks please update here. I’ll love to put those.

 

Why WordPress?

Here is my points for WordPress:

1. It is really stable and fast.
2. Very easy to setup.
3. Versy easy to manage posts, comments, tags, categories and Spam.
4. Has huge range of Theme (template) to furnish the blog.
5. Plenty of tools (plug-in) is ready to enrich the blog.
6. You can post through Windows LIver Writer, MS Office, ScribeFire and Other supported offline applications.
7. The message compositing composer is really attractive with rich media support.
8. Using the custom fields is really handy.
9. Easy to track back the posts.

If I highlight number 6 (desktop blog posting software) both Somewhereinblog and Prothom-aloblog doesn’t have this feature. Only amar blog (www.amarblog.com) has it as because of WordPress MU.

 

Moderated Media in Bangladesh:

In Bangladesh every media is moderated. If you think of a printed media they’ve huge moderation due to the limitation of space. So few of lucky person can write their (The Editors and Journalists are lucky, they’ve some space their ). When Bangla blogging started with the slogan “Badh Bhangar Awaj” as it implies the sound of breaking off the dam to unlock the free expression of motions, emotions, interactions in Bangla blogs the writers (bloggers) were happy. At least they’ve a place where they can write whatever they like. After while the blog community was polluted due to slang and personal attack. Then the blog company started to moderate the posts. Then again the moderated media is reborn.

For this reason many bloggers started their own personal blog. Because they believe blog is still their their Web Log.

ঢাকায় থাকি!

ছবিটা মিরপুর থেকে তোলা। মিরপুর-ঢাকা। আমি এই শহরে বাস করি। প্রায় এক বছর আগে তুলেছিলাম। কোন বর্ণনার প্রয়োজন আছে কি?

আমার গ্রাম এবং শ্রমিক

ছবির মানুষটার নাম মনে নেই। তবুও একটু পরিচিতি পর্ব ফরমার আকারে দিচ্ছি।

নাম: অজানা

পেশা: ট্রাক শ্রমিক

বয়স: ৫০ (আনু:)

গ্রাম: রাঙ্গালীর বস্

উপজেলা: নাগেশ্বরী

জেলা: কুড়িগ্রাম।

 

এইভাবে দেয়ার অর্থ হলো আমি ওনার পোট্রেট করেছি। যদিও তাকে চিনি গ্রাম্যসূত্রে, তবুও তিনি আমার মডেল।

ছবিটা আনুমানিক ৩বছর আগের তোলা। তারিখ মনে নেই।

এবার ঈদে বাড়ি যাচ্ছি না। ঈদের পরে যাব। এবার গিয়ে পোট্রেট কালেকশন বাড়িয়ে ফেলব। দেখা যাক কী হয়!