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The Gift of Photography
By Joe McNally Is one that is given, or accepted, freely. As a shooter, you can be the recipient of many gifts over the years: The grace of someone’s time, the whimsy of their expression, the fleeting...
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India’s unfair obsession with lighter skin
The Dark is Beautiful campaign hopes to halt India’s huge appetite for skin whitening products, and has a new champion in film star Nandita Das Nandita Das: ‘Indians are very racist. There is so much...
View ArticleMick Jagger on ‘Gimme Shelter’
Mick Jagger Tells the Story Behind ‘Gimme Shelter’ and Merry Clayton’s Haunting Background Vocals In the fall of 1969 the Rolling Stones were in a Los Angeles recording studio, putting the final...
View ArticleThe Trial of Tony Blair
Channel 4. 2007 A very well made film. Fiction, but too close to the truth to be comfortable. I can’t believe this film hasn’t gone viral. Are people even scared of watching a spoof? C’mon folks. Share...
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Ami Tomay Bhalobashi
Bedford College Magazine (my first short story) The sound of the bolt seemed to grate loud into the night as he locked the door. For a fleeting moment he flustered as he imagined every person in the...
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The Torch
Nuhash Humayun November 13, 2013 I was ten years old, on a bicycle, taking the only path I knew. I was going from my mother’s place to my father’s. People would ask me what it was like, having parents...
View ArticleAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
by Ambrose Bierce (please read till the end) A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the...
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Humanitarian to a nation
Originally published in Saudi Aramco World Pakistani philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi at the Edhi Centre in Clifton, Karachi. In the cool interior of a mental ward in Karachi, a short, powerfully built...
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The Statesman, and the Photographer
The statesman, and the photographer Originally published as an Op-Ed in The New Age August 24, 2015 by Shahidul Alam LOOKING at this photograph, one of the few in our library where the photographer is...
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Golam Kasem Daddy Letters: 1
73, Indira Road Dhaka 8. 9. 97 Dear Dr. Alam, I am in difficulty. I am unwell, but I am alone and there is none to help me. I am having slight attack of fever and am very weak. Many thanks for inviting...
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What Joy Bangla means today
Originally published in New Age By Shahidul Alam Joy Bangla in those days had not been commandeered by any political party. It was a slogan we all used. Some took it more to heart than others. I was on...
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Irfanul Islam: My quiet friend
Irfanul Islam The moon was low over the city lights at 4:30 in the morning in Mexico City. A dull orange thin sliver, it too was in mourning. I was heading to the airport, but had just heard the news....
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The Story of a Starfish Thrower
Via Vanessa Marjoribankson Apr 29, 2016 I have always held a strong sense of right and wrong. I have always wanted to help people. Someone asked me recently why, and I responded that this was as much...
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Didi. The Street Fighter
MAHASWETA DEVI (JANUARY 14, 1926 – JULY 28, 2016), WRITER AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST Mahasweta Devi looking at photo exhibition catalogue “Nature’s Fury” by Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World Protocol wasn’t...
View ArticleReceptacles of Love
It was the early hours of the morning when we heard the knock on the door. It had been just over a month since I’d come out on bail. But this was not a scary knock, and it wasn’t a locked door. In the...
View ArticleA long way to run
It was 18th May 1976. My sister Najma (Apamoni to me) had just given birth to her second child. It was coming up to my final exams at Liverpool University. The hospital in Fazakerley was about ten...
View ArticleThe Humble Bishop
It was an unusual mix. Two priests, a nun, two devout Catholics, and me, a heathen. We cooked and cleaned and shared small tasks, and important for me, I paid a rent of only eight pounds a week. I was...
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