Dog Stories and multi-cultural heritages

Badly written stories and articles in Dhaka's Daily Star are legion. But occasionally these days one is surprised and delighted to find both well-written and interesting articles. One such in The Dog of My Dreams in the Star Weekend Magazine. I never knew that dog-hating Bangladesh actually had a rare breed of hunting hound -- what this writer calls the Sarail. The article actually mentions people who breed dogs (or used to) for sale and the writer himself sounds so knowledgeable on breeds of dogs. Strange thing -- in a country where children are told to kill puppies on sight as if they were snakes. (On the other hand, the whole thing -- the entire article -- may be pure fiction. I doubt if the editors of the Star's magazine would be able to spot the difference between a make-believe article and the real thing!)

In the same issue of the magazine there is this article with a highly unusual theme and the provocative title of Our Inclusive National Past: Islam, West Bengal, and Pakistan in which the writer argues that "by creating a cultural break with West Bengal and Pakistan, [we have] shut ourselves out from claiming the beautiful literary and cultural legacy we have been historically a part of." He even goes so far as to admit having read the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (who in popularity and lyricism is rapidly becoming the Rabindranath of that country) and even quoting him -- though he only repeats two stanzas from that oft-quoted (but beautiful nonetheless) "Du'aa" or "Prayer for Pakistan's Independence Day 1967."