Bangladesh Turns 40

Remembering the millions who scarified their lives for us, for this day, and for this nation. We remain proud and grateful for the freedom you brought us — we will, despite our tough times, continue to love and fight for this country. Here’s 160 million people celebrating this day in all its glory, from every corner of the world. Let’s talk about our pride, our history, and share the joys of victory — because this was the day when we proved there’s absolutely no possibility of bringing down an entire nation united for a cause by any military or force, regardless of how powerful they seem.

Yes, 16th December has many meanings in our calendar: some remember what sacrifices can bring, while some remember the glory of our Liberation War; some talk about the unity of people that shaped the birth of a nation, while some acknowledge the debt we owe to millions of martyrs. But it’s not just history of a country, it’s identity of who we are and what we stand for. It took 3 million lives and hardships of countless others to achieve the glory that we will remain forever proud of — because on this day, the world witnessed the roar of exceptional men and women of a nation, united for sovereignty, winning against unmatched supremacy. While today we turn only 40, we remain respectful of our past, proud of how far we have come, and resolute on continuing to stand together for our nation.

An artist for the chilly weekend – Hamza Jahangir

Alright dear readers, let me introduce you to an amazing and relatively new talent in our Bangladeshi music. Now located in US, Hamza Jahangir is an emerging folk / rock musician writing and singing wonderful songs dedicated to many of the most obvious surroundings we have. His album, Kothai Jabo, is set to release in Spring 2012. This generous dude has already shared a ‘taste’ of his talent on Soundcloud that I’m linking you to. Beautifully crafted tunes, smooth vibe, clean recording, and wonderful stories behind his songs are bound to set a mood for some great times whether you are travelling or staying home this weekend.

My favorite, of course, is the song called ‘Amar Shohor’ where Hamza talks about his is memories in Dhaka city. I don’t think our experiences of Dhaka would differ much, making this song a treat for all who miss our city both in good and bad times. Why don’t you try putting the track on your portable gear and listening to it while sitting at your rooftop?

There are two more great songs in Hamza’s trial play – Kothai Jabo and Amar Haar Kala, both showing amazing potential for his talent and capability to make unique music. While Kothai Jabo is a great treat, it’s to be noted how diligently Hamza worked on remaking Bengali folk singer Abbas Uddin Ahmed‘s song in Amar Haar Kala. I particularly note how our generation continues to respect and reinvent past talent.

Can’t wait for his full album release!

One of the greatest human beings I’ve known has left us forever

Whether the countless times we played together since childhood, the wonderful taste in music you shared with me for years, or the ways you told me about reveries of possibilities – I admired your vision and am blessed to mold my perception of life from you. Always looking up to you as my elder brother, I planned to spend so much more time with you. You were a great philosopher, an amazing brother, and a wonderful human being – thank you for giving us a lifetime of moments that’ll never fade away.

In loving memory of the best cousin / brother I was gifted – Ashik Bhaiya (Ashiqur Rahman). He died in a road accident on 4th December 2011, around 1am at Chittagong. He was only 32, married 1.5 years, and working hard to settle his life. He will continue to be one of the biggest inspirations of my life.

Memories

Memories – scattered recollections of events, feelings, and emotions that make us sad, smile, or cry. We’re left frozen through remembering a few, or warm, picturing others. It sometimes makes us feel empty, question what went wrong, or develop strong introspection.

Memories – help embrace the past. When we close our eyes and look into the simplest of times, when we were careless, free, and innocent. When everything seemed bigger and we feel what it felt to dream big and aspire to reach unreal limits.

Memories – colorless, but not just black and white. Amazing how the ordinary shades of gray talk so much about who we became and how we came where we are today. It’s more vivid than reality, addictive to remember, and unchangeable despite having so many perspectives.

Memories – places we visit when we are alone, broken, or wondering. Places that bend the laws of time and space, yet make more sense than what’s real. Where we see ourselves and others, where we like to walk, and where we find ourselves lost in known places. Where questions aren’t asked and answers are everywhere, where everything means what it’s supposed to mean, and where we find doors to hide ourselves from the dark realities.

Memories – limited yet timeless. Where we stay eternally, where we build what can never be broken, where  forever is possible, and spaces are not rented but earned through emotions. Where silence can speak more than words and thoughts run deeper than seas. Where the silliest of deeds have reasons to be remembered and time, despite all its claimed divinity, has no power to age us.

Udaan (The ‘Human’ Flight)

I know people find me speculative about Indian creative industry, but my lack of discussions on those content has nothing to do with my interests or impression. I’m very open towards any media and like to explore and learn without talking like a stereotype moron. So I do take the time to go over many of the wonderful music and films my neighboring country has made over the last decade and have always found uber thoughtfullness in many of those works. Needless to say, my admiration for works of A.R. Rahman and Javed Akhter is paramount. But I also check out many new works that other artists bring up.

Today I was thinking of a particular song, that might not have appealed to me as the best musical composition, but have delighted me with its sensational meaning. It’s from a very well reputed film ‘Udaan’, and this title song beautifully sums up the underlying message of the film. This message is for all of you – young or old. As a guy addicted towards finding ’Key Take Away’ from anything he is exposed to, this movie has served a big purpose of mine. I have the meaning saved on a scratch paper and would take a peek on it anytime I’m looking forward to recharge myself or boost my confidence. This song, however, comes second compared to the overall vibe created by another track from the film, known as ‘Aazaadiyan’.

The language isn’t as easy to understand for a non-native like me, so I hope today’s post help those who wondered about the complete meaning! I guess this song gives hope to all of the young professionals and entrepreneurs struggling to make a difference. Thanks to Harshit Gupta for sharing the translation. The song is written by Amitabh Bhattacharya and the music is composed by Amit Trivedi.

Nadi mein talab hai, Kahin jo agar
Samandar kahan door hai

If a river has a wish (to flow) somewhere,
Sea is not far away

Damak ki garaz hai, sone mein agar
To jalna bhi manzoor hai

If gold has the wish to shine,
Then even getting burnt is acceptable.

Ik udaan kab talak yoon kaid rahegi
Roko na chhod do isse

Till when will a flight (of a human) be captured
Don’t stop it, let it go.

Ik udaan hi sapno ko zindagi degi
Sapno se jod do isse

A flight only will give life to dreams,
Connect it to (your) dreams..

Purani daleelon, rasmon ko sabhi, abhi se kahen alvida
Badalte dinon ke tareekon se, Seenchein hum naya gulistan

Let’s say goodbye to all old reasons and customs from now itself,
Let’s water the new garden with the styles of changing times.

An Artist for the Rainy Season

Every once in a while, I’ve come across artists who completely redefined a genere for me. 2011 will clearly be the year of Susheela Raman in that category. I had to dig up my collection to recommend this for my readers, this fabulous rainy season is just perfect for some soul searching music after all.

While it would be hard to categorize Susheela Ramans songs into any one category, if you’re into jazz, folk, or blues, expect to be intimidated by her amazingly awesome music. (Do note my use of both the words amazing and awesome to emphasize the fact.) The British-Tamil musician has a very strong capacity to blend the artistic rhythm and rhyme into the  beautifully crafted words – musical, smooth, and neat are just the few adjectives to define. I was listening to her on a quite rainy afternoon in Dhaka, struck by the truly warm musical sensation. Susheela Raman is deep, her voice melts in your ears and whispers like wine to your heart. The wonderful use of instruments and vocals leave you lost in the deep ocean of thoughts and rusty benches of memory lane. You can do little but picture the music in your head, the eccentric fusion of southern tunes and western vibe will have you discover nifty details that has been taken care of with such attention. Whether it’s a classic sang differently, a mixture of two worlds, or a remarkable musical masterpiece -  play her tracks on a rainy day and you’ll see how the sound of raindrops will gently sync with the melody of her voice.

Susheela Raman sings with unmatched strength – her words and deep voice allows you to look inside her soul, connect, imagine, and feel. If you have some good audio gear, her musical work will bring out the best out of your hi-fi system. Her voice, magical words, beautiful tunes, or unbelievable fusion – whatever maybe the source, if she is new to you, this will be the most original musical experience you can come across this year.

The One Thing You Should Never Overlook

In life, we choose how we want to be perceived. Some of us try to showcase our intelligence, some like glamor, while some represent achievements. But the only real thing that deeply and honestly can make a difference in the other person’s perception is how we make them feel.

We usually recognize that it’s challenging to show compassion, courtesy, and gratitude; but I wonder what is it that makes it so difficult for us to smile and warmly greet anyone from our heart or just tell someone that s/he is doing a great job? Why is it so difficult for us to just send a “Thank You X” as a reply email? Isn’t the smallest of the effort worth praising or does thanking someone make us seem weak?

The best people I like being with have never been the folks with the best grades, best jobs, best talents, or best sense of fashion; I believe it’s the people who can get excited about the briefest of our actions, people who never wait a second to make us feel great about ourselves, and people who can appreciate the smallest of our achievements.

Don’t get me wrong – no one should encourage something that isn’t right. But I request you guys to sincerely believe in one thing: the least everyone deserves from us is respect and appreciation. It’s really a moral obligation to tell others how good they are doing and how much the tiniest of their efforts mean. If you practice this, you will not only make others feel good around you, but also have a lot of energy inside yourself.

The greatest of men and women have been those who made others feel good and were able to emotionally encourage them to perform. No other quality can match the strength of that emotional energy within us.

My today’s post is all about this request: go ahead, tell people around you about every good thing you see in them, share a hug, send that extra reply with a small thank you note, or pick up that phone and call up an old friend to let him(her) know how much you adore something about him(her).

“People will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Must Watch: MTV Coke Studio

So I’ve been very picky over the years on what I get on TV. Stupid reality shows, pointless drama, and annoyingly frequent commercial breaks left me tuning between news channels for long. But every once in a while, things change. Thanks once again to MTV for coming up with something original and soulful – The MTV Coke Studio.

I first saw the show at my cousin’s place last week, finding it very promising. The show puts together a brilliant fusion of artistic talents who boldly explore musical depth and rich vibes of emotion.  MTV India rightfully claims the quote “Music is what feelings sound like” with the airing of this well thought hour-long show every week.

My favorite so far has been the collaboration of ‪Murtaza, Qadir, and Rabbani Khan, with Divya Lewis performing the track “Maula Maula”.  The song has been composed by Lesle Lewis (Music Director of MTV Coke Studio) – combining the famous song “Angel”, originally written and performed by Sarah McLachlan, with the magical words of a 17^th century Sufi poem by the legendary poet Amir Khusro. (Just the though of that fusion blows me away!)

The show is aired every Friday night on MTV India, so everyone in Bangladesh can easily follow. This is one great show that deserves lots of appreciation for the effort its team has given to bring the original idea from Coke Studio Pakistan, and producing the Indian version. Absolutely high quality stuff!

Spend all your time waiting
For that second chance
For a break that would make it okay
There’s always some reason
To feel not good enough
And it’s hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
Oh beautiful release
Memory seeps from my veins
Let me be empty
Oh and weightless and maybe
I’ll find some peace tonight

In the arms of an angel
Fly away from here
From this dark cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there

Maula Maula Ali Maula
Maula Maula Ali
Maula Ali

Man kunto Maula
Fa Ali-un Maula
Dara dil-e dara dil-e dar-e daani
Hum tum tanana nana
Nana nana ray
Yalali yalali yala
Yala yala ray

Man kunto Maula
Maula Maula Ali Maula
Maula Maula Ali

In the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort there
Maula Maula

Are You Paying Taxes for Tanks?

I was peeking through the news of hunger, poverty, and education issues while I bumped into the info that our government recently has finalized to purchase 44 tanks from China for BDT 1,201 crore. This is bizarre and, quite frankly, nuisance for a country that tops in poverty and been recently kicked out of ADB’s list of promising underdeveloped economies. Our future growth in GDP has lower potential than that of Nigeria, our kids are begging in the stress for food rather than attending primary school, our ‘so-called’ educated society continues to flee away from real issues and settle abroad, our stock market is going through historical catastrophe, our field of politics has dried up all talent pipelines, and we are under the major threat of facing the most severe climate change effects – yet, here we are, putting our taxes out to purchase tanks.

Don’t get me wrong; this government has been bold in taking good steps. Pushing IT into practical fields, building flyovers, and investing heavily in power generation – all great steps. However, it still doesn’t justify spending so much for tanks, especially when you are talking about 44 tanks that really have little impact on protecting an area of about 57,000 square miles. If this budget must go for defense spending, why not spend on R&D? Why not collaborate our defense budgets with 20 universities in the country and work on advanced research? I can bet we have enough engineers, scientists, and professors, well qualified and eager to spend their life in research. And since we are a lot behind in R&D, working with Army in such fields can actually benefit both academic and defense sectors.

Just for the sake of salary alone, we can spend BDT 1,200 crore in the following manner: 300 high profile researchers - BDT 300,000 per month (avg) salary for a 10 year contract. Just imagine the kind of people we could get together, the kind of possibilities we could have, and the strength we can build. R&D has far more benefit than the immediate research results – it would keep talent, provide strong academic atmosphere for assistants as well, and create collaborative work among engineers, students, experts, and military personnel. The number of additional possibile outcomes result in so many new areas of improvement. The government can further add costs of equipment and facilities and create truly transformative defense spending that would actually make sense. In today’s world, 44 tanks won’t save us on most days – our intellectual strength will.

Now, even if for some ‘mysterious’ reasons we had to spend this money for our Army, could we not at least spend it on something more multi-purpose? What if we used the same amount to purchase either helicopters, trucks, or SUVs? Why? Well, you see, often we use Army to help us in critical situations such as: recovery activity in flood and cyclone hit areas, national emergency, or assistance after other severe environmental disasters. These alternate options could at least be of some use; when we are talking about tanks, their use is limited to an act of war only.

I think the hardest part for anyone is to see past immediate success, stop blindly following what everyone tells you, define long term vision, and be persistent in solving real issues. Just a note, 44 tanks aren’t the only items on purchase plan – I’ve heard the government actually has a BDT 12,000 crore budget for total defense spending in 2011 – 2012.

This is my earnest request to the government: Please, spend in education, research, and creating jobs. I work hard to pay a lot of taxes, and I do care.

The Ultimate Guide for Mid-Range Audiophile Systems on Macs

I’ve been asked by a few of my reader’s about why I talk so little about Macs, when I use a Mac myself. Well honestly, if you have noticed, I’ve been talking increasingly lesser these days about ‘technology’ related topics on my blog. I think, in a way, I have a little bit more focus on life and, as such, been centering more on topics that allows me to explore the art of life. In addition, most things in Mac are so easy and readily available that you barely need to discuss. The questions, however, did make me think about certain things that I could share.

Being a huge music freak and always trying to look out for some good way to experience have made me invest quite a bit of my earnings on audiophile grade equipment. But let’s face it, in this digital era most of us have a lot of collection conveniently stored in hard drives in digital format. It’s just not practical or economic to collect all our favorite records in CD or EP format. So I’ll share a nice way to make the best out of your music collection on a Mac.

Macs are beautifully built for the artistic souls; they take care of the finest details that our hearts care about. But I’ve always questioned the lack of quality and audiophile features in iTunes. iTunes for Mac is perhaps the best audio management application, but in times of playback performance, it really isn’t on par with the high standards of everything else that Apple offers.

First of all, iTunes won’t playback the most common lossless audio format known as FLAC (.flac files). If you are looking for truly lossless CD grade audio, this is the most reliable format. Some may disagree stating that Apple nevertheless supports ALAC files.  I would not recommend building a library of collection on ALAC format. This is because, the format is still only popular among Apple circles and at a later time would make it painful for you to convert all that back to some other format. FLAC is supported throughout multiple operating systems and devices. I’m talking about many popular high-end music players as well as computers running Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.  (Please refer towards the end of this article where I’ve put together a list of online sites for you to collect lossless digital files.)

Secondly, iTunes isn’t popular as the application to really squeeze the juice out of your hardware. I’ve always wondered why Apple didn’t offer much better sound integrating more advanced audio solutions (e.g. stuff from Creative Labs), but there’s still lot you could do with your existing Mac.

Luckily, there are applications to fill up this gap and take advantage of your hardware supporting a larger array of file formats. Among some decent choices, the one I would recommend is Decibel. The application addresses both the issues stated above quite well.

There’s no shortage of file support in Decibel, and your FLAC / ALAC or any other lossless audio library is perfectly safe with this player. Yes, the music management area is not quite as polished looking; you should expect minimum features for organizing your music library – it allows you to add tracks, search for music, and sort by different fields. But it’s not designed to replace iTunes – you still need iTunes for managing your audio. Remember: the focus here is playback performance, not music management!

The real advantage of Decibel comes in playback performance. The first thing to note is the player’s capability to take full advantage of 64-bit floating-point precision. It simply means that audio, regardless of its original resolution (bit rate), is calculated with 64-bit floating-point precision. This applies to all branches of the signal path. For high-end audio, 64-bit computing helps enable a deep sonic palette and more lifelike and interesting compositions — more headroom for processing, more simultaneous plug-ins and virtual instruments. Audiophiles know ‘something funny’ happens when digital signals are summed, and 64-bit floating-point precision greatly addresses the issue. Logic is, the lower the resolution, the greater the odds of round-off errors accumulating. This issue was very audible with 16-bit systems, and some argued that 32-bit floating-point and 48-bit fixed calculations also degraded the sound; however, it’s hard to imagine that argument being made for 64-bit floating-point systems. With such high floating-point precision the system allows huge amounts of resolution, so round-off errors are more on paper than a practical reality – especially considering we will be using mid-range audiophile hardware to listen to the output. To take some added quality, please use the free Start Mode Selector application to ensure an automatic 64-bit kernel boot mode. But before downloading this application, please do read the easy descriptions thoroughly to ensure you fully understand what kind of modifications you are making to a very sensitive area of your Mac OS.

In addition, playing your audio files from hard drives also increases the likelihood of glitches, for fragmentation issues and the lack of smooth flow of data during playback. Thus read/write heads having to dart about between every available nook and cranny in the disk causes issues known as audio glitch. Disk buffers may also cause as many click and pop problems if you’re running other applications, have thousands of audio tracks, or involved in any activity that keeps your disk heads busy. If you have such a setting where your hard drive is using the same bus with other drives (HDD or optical), slow bus speed might be observed that effect playback quality. Depending on how your write-to-disk code works, it may also be that disk access is stalling the callback for too long and dropping samples. The point is, glitches while audio playback can easily be caused when accessing data from hard disks. The more advanced audio gear (file, software, hardware) you use, the more you start hearing such issues. Decibel supports loading and playing tracks directly from RAM of your Mac. This is a huge benefit since it removes the audio glitch issues. As files are first loaded in the memory, the playback becomes much smoother, eliminating all disk access issues faced by regular music players.

Decibel also supports the popular ‘hog-mode’ for Macs. This means it can take exclusive control of the audio device (sound card). This mode gives any program exclusive access to the ‘CoreAudio’ driver. When running the player in this mode, no other application is able to use the audio device, resulting in an exclusive and native use of the device to deliver clean audio playback.

Another issue with regular playback is software sample rate conversion. Obviously for software mixing all the signals need to be converted to a single rate. This rate, by default, may be 48kHz. Usually the algorithm used by default is a very rudimentary. It may be fast but very low quality and is likely to audibly degrade the sound quality of 44100 materials played through a mixed device. Some mentioned software sample rate conversion could add harmonic distortion of around -10dB in some cases and about -20dB on music! There are high quality mixers available, but I prefer to avoid all kinds of sample rate conversion whenever possible. Decibel can automatically adjust the output device’s sample rate to that of the playing track, preventing audio quality degradation associated with any kind of software sample rate conversion. Again, such features ensure your audio is least processed and pure. Some of you, who will prefer high quality resampled audio, could also have a look at iZotope 64 bit Sample Rate Converter and its implementation on some applications. Another player I would also recommend for you to test is Fidelia from Audifile Engineering. Fidelia (Advanced Edition) incorporates iZotope’s sample rate conversion and real-time audio dithering technology in a perfect manner. In my tests, this player sounded as good as (or, slightly better than) Decibel, but the level of quality improvement did not provide me enough contentment in reasoning the higher price. Also, Decibel incorporates a solid feature of supporting Apple Remote with Macbook Pro that really helps me relax and control playback from anywhere in my room.

If budget is a serious issue, you may consider free software. For a completely free application, you may also try Audirvana. It comes very close in playback quality compared to the paid ones mentioned above.

Apart from investing in a great audio player, to have a mid-range audiophile experience, I would at least recommend you to invest in a good pair of speakers or headphones. Please ensure you do listen to any of the options I mention to finally decide on your taste.

As for speakers, my first budget recommendation is the popular Audioengine 5. Great speakers for price that come with decent built-in amplifiers. A lesser priced but much more elegant looking speaker system would be the beautiful Harman Kardon Soundsticks III. Although they wont sound as good, considering the overall objective of your project is to create a value for money system, these will serve up-to your expectations. Another tie for second position is the M-Audio AV40. If sound quality is a concern, the AV40s can take out Soundsticks III. My last recommendation is the Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II, for people who are on a very tight budget.

Headphone / earphones can offer more sound quality than similarly priced speakers. There are two options in this category: first, the Grado SR60i – an incredibly awesome headphone that will change your perception of value range, and second, the Shure SE-115 – an entry-level earphone that doesn’t sound half as good as the Grado but provides a good balance between portability, practicality, and sound quality (this is the cheapest you can get). My recommendation is to go for the Grado SR60i and add a basic headphone amplifier, like the FiiO E5. This is because, I recommend switching off any kind of pre-amplification (volume control) in your music player application to avoid distortion and send the pure signal to the headphones / speakers.

I don’t ask you to get a Digital-to-Analog-Converter, as the purpose of this article is to provide you an option for budget audiophile experience (which quite honestly, is far different from the ‘perfect’ audiophile experience). That being said, if you have some additional budget for this setup, please do consider using an exceptional USB DAC / headphone amplifier known as Fubar III. The Fubar III can add the final touch of completeness to your system, replacing your factory audio device in the Mac. Just for note, I’m writing this post assuming that you don’t use an expensive DAC to playback music from your Mac. (DAC is beyond the purpose of this post. If you don’t know what a DAC is, then be sure that this post is perfectly fine for you.)

Due to the mid-range performance of the overall setup, there is no real advantage of wasting any money on interconnects (cables). Just use stock gear and you should be fine. You must, however, spend some cash in using either a good surge protector or an UPS when sending power to all of the components (computer, speakers, amps, etc.).

A basic overview of the overall setup:

• Player > Sound Card > Speakers (with built-in amps)
• Or, Player > Sound Card > Headphone Amp > Headphones
• Or, Player > DAC > Speakers (with built-in amps)
• Or, Player > DAC (with headphone amp) > Headphone

Once you setup this system, your taste for high quality digital files will continue to grow. I’ve found a good list of sites that can help you get access to an exceptional library of audiophile grade music in digital format:

Boomkat
Bleep
Bandcamp
Linn Records
Verve Master Edition
Acousence
Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound
Cedille
Downloads NOW!
iTrax
HDtracks
Naimlable
Deutsche Grammophon
Sloan Music
Beatport
Trackitdown

And that puts together a very budget based setup for you to experience some classic audio performance using Mac. In reality, many of us spend a lot more time listening to music than watching movies or playing video games. This is why a $500 – $1000 is the least you can do to get some incredible quality out of digital music.

I hope you find my post helpful to start building a proper mid-range setup.