I tried to upload bigger size videos, seems like they limited the size of the video.
Fahmia was in a learning process of count by different numbers. Interestingly she could learn the other numbers but it was really difficult for her to learn count by eight. Here Farhan is also giving a push to Fahmia.
This is a four five months old video, however by this time Fahmia improved a lot. She started to learn division, multiplication and all difficult mats. But Fahmia always mention that math is most difficult subject for her. It will be really interesting to see how she does in math in coming days.

It is quite sometime since I last wrote in this blog. This is yet another rainy winter in Vancouver. Last December we went to Bangladesh. It is always nice to visit Bangladesh, to meet with friends and family. 

Language barrier is probably the biggest barrier in a new country. For us we were lucky that we came in Canada where the language is English. Since begging we had English in our curriculum as a second language. So it was much easier to accommodate the new language. It could have been much worse if we were in a country where we were new with the language. 

But still I can not say that I did not have the problem. The reason is, though we could understand English, studied in English, we never used spoken English for our day to day activities. So when I was in a situation I could probably understand most of it but still I was not one of them. 

When I was in Toronto, I had to go for a job fair and they send me to participate in an exam to get the English speaking course. I did well in that exam though it did not help me to get any job. 

In my next writings, I will spent some time on this topic. 

I am writing again after so many days. In this blog I wrote last time in 2011. Time is just flying.
During these days there were so many changes but for me changes were small. We still live in the same house where we were living. Sometimes I though we will buy a house. Still so far it did not happen. In this case my test is not matching with Urmi. She really  likes North Vancouver. Undoubtedly I like this place also but it is too expensive to get anything here.
By this time Farhan started his schooling. He is going to West View School in Strong Start.  

I enjoy the music very much. I enjoy old Bangla music, Rabindra sangeet, Nazrul sangeet and variety of songs. But undoubtedly one type of song I enjoy very much; Qawwali and when it is from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, one of the greatest musician of the history was born in 1948 in Pakistan near Faisalabad. His family was involved with Qawwali with generations. He possessed a six octate vocal range and could perform at a high level of intensity for hours. He is considered the only songster of this kind.

How I fist knew about Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan? When I was in University, once I heard his music "Allah hu Allah hu" in stadium market. In my first listening I could not forget some of the lyrics, the ups and downs of the voice, the beat and the sargam and the reality is still I can feel the song inside me.

Since then I started to collect the Qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali. My favorite way of listening the qawwialis---

-Sit on a sofa chair

-Put the back on the sofa and be relaxed

-Close the eyes, don't think what's happening around

-Consider music is coming from another world

Some favorites..

Sanu Ek Pal

Allah hu

Pilao Saki

Maste calender

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was taken ill with kidney and liver failure on August 11, 1997 in London while on the way to Los Angels in order to receive a kidney transplant. He died of a sudden cardiac arrest on Saturday, August 16, 1997, aged 48.

Farhan

So far I didn't write about Farhan. He is boy of full of energy. At his three and half year age he is playful all the time. Yesterday I took him to a local playing ground here. Play ground is one of his very favorite place. He can spend hours there. Yesterday the playing ground where I took him had a nice and tall slipper. It had a spiral shape and cylindrical. While any one was slipping from the top, will have a nice turn inside but will not be visible until he was at the ground. So during his slipping I could not see him. He was enjoying that very much. As this slipper was tall, there was a difficult way to get into it. First you need to climb a tilted flat plane with the support of a chain. It was the most difficult part. What I noticed when I showed him two or three times, I saw he started to do that by himself.

Not a First Ramadan writing

Stephen Hawkins is the most famous scientist at our age. Physically disabled this scientist changed many thoughts of modern time. With his book "brief history of time", after Einstein he became the most influential personality in his field. His field is physics and more elaborately the natural science and in his book he explained how this universe coexists together with so many starts and galaxies. And one interesting thing is that he wrote this book for general people not for the fellow scientists. This is one way to come closer to mass people with thoughts and ideas. He was successful in doing so because his book was the best seller for many years.

In his book and after that in many other writings, he was vocal about the existence of intelligent creature other than the earth. His understanding is we can not be alone in this universe. But until a month ago, one thing he consistently avoided; about the God. Rather he was in favor of the idea of God and in this point he made a difference with many other scientists. This is probably a reason why his book became so popular with an impression that with his theory he did not become a non believer or agnostic.

Last month in his new article, he clearly mentioned not to think about heaven or hell. According to him these are the thoughts of kids. This time he was vocal not to think about after death life. Science is going ahead and these discussions are coming again and again. I am sure there will be no end of this discussion.

Yesterday our family friends visited us at our home in Vancouver. At our family level, we have very good understanding with them. My son, at his age could make his friendship with a member of that family. While they were here, he could enjoy most of his time.

Muslim family law of Bangladesh was one of the discussion yesterday. This is one of the topic where my wife had her very strong opinion. Her believe is somehow our religion deprived the woman. As I know her, she always claims that she is a feminist. So as I heard that, it was not completely new to me. Actually situation made her more vocal on this topic and probably this situation never came in family discussions. I know her as very devoted to religion. By the way in this discussion my position was sympathetic to our religion.

My brother in law is living in USA. He is doing his PhD. A very progressive and lively personality. For many reasons I like him. But one thing some times my wife complains about him. He is not very pious what he used to be. He used to be very devoted and prayed five times a day while he was in Bangladesh. The complain was, he is challenging the thoughts of religion and my wife is not comfortable with that.

At the end of this writing my position is I am trying to find fine line between religion and our daily life. One thing I believe of my Bangla teacher, Kuddus sir of Mymensingh Zilla School " darma Andhakarei Sunder".

for this morning I must listen my favorite Nusrat Fateh Khan

A link about modanization of Muslim Law, Case Egypt.

Law for Muslim Women in Bangladesh