Thousands of years ago, Socrates said that an unexamined life was not worth living. The piece of paper we pick up from the ground to read its content is an examination of life. The blood cell, which is analysed under the microscope, is an examination of life. The astronauts, who are sent to the orbits to explore the universe, are an example of the examination of life.
The columns written by Mohammad Badrul Ahsan come in that tradition of examination in the variety of their style and substance. The author has limitless interest in life, the passionate desire to unravel and understand it speck by speck, which prompted him to choose his topics in their widest range. He has written about anything that touched his heart, stirred his imagination and stoked his curiosity.
For any reader, reading this book would be like embarking on a kaleidoscopic journey, where the patterns and scenes shift with each turning from death of a man to the future of the country to the US invasion of Iraq. But there is one compelling connection amongst all his pieces, which is his undying faith in the inherent goodness of man. At the end of each reading, the reader will start to miss that goodness and will be left yearning for it.
Finally, this impressive collection of essays is bound to leave its readers thinking, perhaps at times asking questions to themselves on fundamental issues which they might not have thought before.
Contents
The Leprechaun
Have We Got No Decency Left?
God and Truth
Painting Over the Cracks
Red in the Face
Bush is Beating Around the Bush
Death Like a Camera
The Full Circle of Life
Whose Country is it Anyway?
In the Depth of Air
The Prisoner of Tikrit
Why does Evil Happen?
Freedom and Virtue
The Contempt of a Verdict
Innocence and Guilt
Why were They Heroes?
The Other Side of History
All about Language
Man and Woman
The Martyrdom
Midlife Crisis
The Public Opinion has Responded to Saddam
Another Theory of Relativity
What is in a Name?
The Old Man and I
The Ordinary Life
Laden and Bush
Do You Love Your Country?
Does Practice Make You Perfect?
What has Happened to Poverty?
The Weakness of Power
The Night of the Lost Nose-pins
Inside Out
Taking Your Own Life
The Taslima's Way
Death from the Sky in USA
The Owl of Minerva
Insensitivity was more Tragic than the Bomb
More Soap, More Stains
The Twins
US Democracy is Going Backward
More than a Resignation
A Trip to My Village
The American Imperium
A Good Man in the Woods
When a Great Nation has Lied
