Beyond Chingkhei

Feature articles published in 'Beyond News', a weekly supplement to 'Bangladesh News'

[chingkhei]

Reasons to Visit Book Cafes other than Buying Books

You must agree to the fact that the booming business of book cafe in Dhaka has become a phenomena lately. But have you ever wondered why so many people go to book cafes in Dhaka? To buy books, right? Well, you guessed it wrong! There are many other reasons why people visit book cafes these days. In other words, you should visit book cafes more often for the following reasons:

Follow the trend

The first take. The strongest reason. Book cafe is an in-thing in Dhaka right now. Numerous book cafes have been opened and many might be already in pipeline. So, don’t lag behind. Just be a dead fish and follow the stream. Visit them, check in, and let the world (aka your Facebook friends) know. This is definitely a ‘status’ issue.

Take wonderful photos

Book cafes do have some wonderfully designed and well-lit interiors perfect for your next Facebook hit. Utilize this free backdrops to the fullest. Take selfies or groupfies, or even take a friend with DSLR along with you and pose for a candid photo.

Meet celebrities

Celebrities often visit those book cafes with their friends and families. If you are lucky, you are getting an opportunity to meet them for free. This might be another reason why you should visit book cafes more often.

And did I mention that possibly they came with the same two intentions mentioned above?

Look like a real-book lover

In this digital era, people are leaning more towards digital things. Even if it’s a book, it should be an ebook, they say. But there you go! You want to swim against the stream. You don’t want to be an average Joe. So what do you do? Go analog! Just go to book cafes and take pictures of books and bookshelves and this and that, and post them on your favorite social media. Show your immense love for the real books even if it’s not a real love. Congratulations! You are an official real-book lover now!

Bonus trick? Go just once and take many pictures, but don’t post them all at once. Post them with an interval of a week or so as if you visit those places quite often.

Pass time safely while waiting for someone

Is one of your friends coming and you have to wait for a while? Depending on your meeting place, stop by a nearby book cafe and stay there until your friend joins you. Meanwhile, roam around and look around (don’t stalk anyone though). This way, you are safe. Book cafe is a very safe place, no doubt. No hijack, no other issues or whatsoever. And the best thing is, you are getting this security service free of cost.

Exercise for your stiff neck

Woke up in the morning with a stiff neck? Go to a book cafe without giving a second thought because book cafes are a wonderful place for doing exercise for your stiff neck.

How? Just pick a bookshelf that has books of categories you hate the most. Then go close to it, rotate your neck clockwise and pretend you are looking for a book. Start from one side of the shelf and go all the way to the other side slowly.

This way, you are stretching your neck to the right because books are kept that way and this is the only way to read the titles. How to exercise for the left side then? Just do the exact thing on the left side. Yes, it’s an unreadable position now. But don’t bother at all even if someone finds you out. You are just doing your neck exercise. Who is looking for a book anyway?

Smell new books and pages

Have got cold? Have stuffy nose? Go to a book cafe! You know how wonderful new books and pages smell, right? So take this as a challenge and see if you can smell it or not.

If you have a runny nose, be careful not to soak the pages though.

Published in the 6th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 17, 2018.

[chingkhei]

6 Benefits of Using a Dumbphone

Gone are the days of tiny little feature phones and their cool monophonic ringtones. Gone are the days of physical buttons. Everyone’s holding a smartphone these days. But did you know, it’s also generally accepted that smartphones have made us dumb as a person? Many people are, as a result, going back to the basic again -- the dumbphone. Here are 6 benefits of using a dumbphone that might convince you too to make the smart move!

Battery life

This is probably the biggest advantage of a dumbphone. You don’t need to charge your phone at all, compared to a smartphone. With the smartphone, you have to grow a habit of charging your phone regularly. This adds another job to your to-do list. But with dumbphone? Just charge once, and you don’t have to worry much.

No distraction

No Facebook notifications, no email, no Twitter, no Instagram, no lying in bed for the whole night surfing the internet on your phone. Yes, it’s just a phone. It’s not a camera or computer anymore. So, no distraction as well. Now you can focus on your job. Now you can be mindful. Now you can have a real conversation with a real person in the real world. If you are that kind of person who feels burnout from constant social media buzz, using a dumbphone might actually feel like a breath of fresh air and evoke a kind of Zen-like peace of mind.

Safety

In a time of all those latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, who would target your dumbphone? Hijackers are actually smart enough to chase for only smartphones. So your dumbphone would just be far less likely to be stolen or hijacked. You won’t be worried carrying a dumbphone in your pocket at any time of the day at any street or place. And this leads us to...

Price

Even if you lose one, you are not losing much. Dumbphones are way cheaper than expensive smartphones, sometimes at a price so low that you can almost treat it as a disposable.

Durability

Smartphones are more prone to scratches and dust. Dumbphones, on the other hand, are less vulnerable to breakage. You probably have seen those trolls and memes about the legendary, super-hero and the mightiest phone this world has ever seen -- Nokia 3310! Do we need to say anything more?

Uniqueness

If you want to stand out from the crowd, dumbphone is the way to go. Because everyone else is using a smartphone, being a dumbphone user is the new cool thing!

Published in the 6th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 17, 2018.

[chingkhei]

Be the Next Facebook Sensation This Ekushey February

Just imagine, you go to Shahid Minar or some other public place on 21 February, an electronic journalist comes to you with mic and camera, asks you some simple questions, you answer them all, and voila! Everyone’s sharing your video on Facebook the next day!

Over the last few years, many people have become such Facebook sensation every Ekushey February. We know you have always had that secret wish to be someone like that too one day. But how to become such sensation overnight? You have to prepare yourself. Without any preparation, it’s not possible to answer all the questions asked by the journalist in such a way that makes you a celebrity. Not everyone makes it. They interview hundreds of people. Only a few make it to the video.

But we have made things easier for you. We have gone through almost all the videos available online. With our extensive research, we have found the following questions to be recurring over and over again. So we are compiling all those questions and providing you all of them as question bank. We are also providing you the best answers given by all the previous superstars. So just follow this question bank and try to memorise all the answers by heart.

Aj kee dibosh?

This is the most recurring question of all. The most important one. There are many answers to this question that might secure your position as the next Facebook sensation. You might say “Shadhinota Dibosh” or “Bijoy Dibosh”. These two answers have the greatest success rate. Note that, this is an open ending question. So you can be creative too. Try to go for a fusion as well. For example, “Shahid Matrivasha Dibosh” as one such famous star answered in one video. This answer was hugely popular among the viewers for its creativity and originality. Try to come up with something fresh and unique like that. But also beware of not going too far. Never say something like “Valentine’s Day” or such. Have some common sense. Stick around some historical days related to Muktijuddho.

Kake sroddha janate eshechhen?

This might be the next question you face. This question has a simple answer: Muktijoddha. There’s no alternative. No creativity. Memorise it. Right now. You have come to Shahid Minar on 21 February to show respect to Muktijoddhas.

What actually happened on this day?

You can go for two routes to answer this question. First, say something emotional with a heart full of great passion (“abeg ghono konthe” as they say). Something like: “30 lakh martyrs died on this day.” Second, say something with a great joy and pride. For example: “Bangladesh became independent on this day after long 9 months of the brutal war.” Show how happy you are with your expression and body language.

Could you name few of the language movement martyrs?

This is tricky. Very tricky indeed. Almost everyone takes this question as an easy one and fall into the trap of saying the names of Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Shafiur, Jabbar etc. Never do that. Don’t you even know the seven names? Matiur Rahman, Hamidur Rahman and all? The seven Bir Sreshtha of our nation? Google and find the rest 5 names. This is an assignment. We are not providing you every answer, my dear. There’s never a shortcut to a great success. Use your brain at least a little bit and find the remaining five names with the help of google.

The simplest one

Okay, the tougher ones are gone. Now you might face some easy-peasy like: “How many letters are there in Bengali alphabet?” Straight answer -- 26. Just say it on the interviewer’s face. But this is one of the important questions to answer correctly even if it seems easy. Many people answered it wrongly (something like 49 or 50) and they never made it to the viral video. So be careful. Twenty-six!

“Who wrote the song Amar Bhai Er Roktey Rangano?”

Have you ever even heard this song? No? Great! Just say the honest answer. Because “I don’t know” with a shy awkward smile is the magical answer. You can get away with all the questions with this same answer. It works like a master key. But if you really have to know what previous Facebook sensations have already said, we have that for you as well. Three of the most successful answers we found are Al Mahmud, Rabindranath Tagore, and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Confused? Don’t worry. You can say all three names as the co-writer of this song as well. Remember? Be original and unique!

If you are all prepped with all these questions and answers, we just hope that you make it to any of the videos. Best wishes.

Published in the 6th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 17, 2018.

[chingkhei]

Game Review: Fifa 18

#ResponsivePlayerControl #DefendersNightmare #Realism #AttackersGame

What most people talk about when they talk about Fifa 18 is the gimmicky feature like ‘Journey: Hunter Returns’ and all. But where Fifa has really evolved over the years is its gameplay. Though still having some issues, the latest installment of Fifa series undoubtedly is the best ever made. It has some amazing new features and improvements.

First, player control is much more responsive now. Previously, all players had to complete the animation of a particular move before reacting to a newer one. This makes the player feel like slow and dumb and ‘locked’ and whatnot in some situations. These issues have been solved. You will feel more in control with the player movements this year. It feels smoother, faster and lot more responsive now.

Second, it continues to be the best at its forte: player likeness, stadium, signature celebration and all other realism thingies. The level of detail is, no doubt, amazing! No one’s near to Fifa on these matters.

Third, Fifa 18 has brought lot more attacking options than ever before. Cross and header was broken last year. But this lethal combination is back again. Also, long range shooters will be finding the nets much more this year. Long shots seem to be overpowered in this game, to be honest. And finally, improved close control dribbling has made playing Fifa a piece of cake when you play with players like Messi, Ronaldo and Griezman. To sum up -- this definitely is an attackers’ game. You will almost always end up having a high scoring match this whole season.

And ironically, there also lies the weakest aspect of this game: game is much imbalanced now. Attackers with good dribbling skill around the box are nightmare to the defenders. They are almost unstoppable. To solve the issue of overpowered defense mechanism of Fifa 17, EA Sports has made it handicapped this time. Gone are the days of tactical battle in the midfield. Gone are the days of well guessed, well timed interceptions. This definitely has to be solved or improved with a patch soon.

Apart from this, Fifa 18 is an amazing experience. It feels so real and so close to what you see on telly.

Published in the 2nd issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on January 20, 2018.

[chingkhei]

App Review: Grammarly

#CrossPlatform #YourTrustedLanguageCop

Be it email, tweet or Facebook posts, if you write a lot on your mobile (and who doesn’t these days?), Grammarly Keyboard is a must have app for you. This app will help you write better by making your message clear, effective and mistake-free. Grammarly will suggest a correction whenever you make a grammatical mistake.

With its Contextual Spelling Check feature, Grammarly gives you more accurate result. What this feature does is it spell-checks every word by analyzing the context. So, it will flag a correctly spelled word as an ‘error’ if it misfits in the context of the sentence.

Previously released only for iOS, it is now available for Android too. And it’s totally free! But for premium users, Grammarly Keyboard will also suggest style improvements and vocabulary enhancements.

So, will it replace a human copy editor? There’s no simple answer to it. If you are writing a book or publishing some other serious stuffs: No. But for daily communications like email and blogging and social media posts: a big YES! Who wouldn’t want to get rid of those embarrassing situations created by stupid typos and grammar errors!

The only downside of this app is that it doesn’t work offline.

Published in the 2nd issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on January 20, 2018.

[chingkhei]

App Review: Boomerang For Gmail

With its many exclusive features, Boomerang for Gmail lets you do many things with your email.

Send Later, the key feature in Boomerang, lets you schedule your emails to send at your desired date and time. This is a feature many have been longing for so long.      

Recurring Message is similar, but it sends the same message repeatedly on schedule. It might work as a reminder to someone. Even to yourself!

Boomerang Reminders, on the other hand, boomerangs an email back to you when you send an email and don’t get a reply by a date and time you set.

Boomerang-Returned lets you track your email after you send it. It lets your sent email return with status updates such as how many times the person opened it and clicked on content in the email. But in this case, the email recipient is alerted and can turn it off.

Website: https://www.boomeranggmail.com/

Published in the 4th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 3, 2018.

[chingkhei]

App Review: Gboard

For glide typing (aka gesture typing and swipe typing), Gboard is better than Android’s default keyboard and other available options for some reasons.

The most important reason is, Gboard is faster and smoother. It launches instantly with zero lag. The predictive text options are displayed quickly as well. And everybody knows Google is the best at prediction computing.

Also, Gboard has a unique feature of having an integrated Google search option. With Gboard, Google search is right under your fingertips. This definitely is an advantage Gboard has over its all other competitor glide typing keyboard apps.

Another plus point is, Gboard’s spacebar works as track pad, a feature known by very few people. This comes very handy when editing a text. With the small screen of mobile phone, it’s very tough to move the cursor. Gboard’s track pad makes this task as easy as pie.

Gboard is absolutely free. It is available both in Android and iOS.

Published in the 4th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 3, 2018.

[chingkhei]

4 Tech Gift Ideas for Your Loved Ones

POLAROID CAMERA

A Polaroid camera could be one of the most romantic tech gifts for your valentine.

In a time of glittering sleek DSLR images, a Polaroid photograph with a filmy grainy sexy vintage look is the coolest thing to have. What better thing could you gift your valentine than this to capture all the lovely moments you share together?

Did I mention that with Polaroid camera, you are getting the picture right after you capture it? Isn’t that amazing? That’s the magic and beauty of a Polaroid camera.

Fuji has brought many Polaroid cameras (InstaX) which are also available in Bangladesh. They differ in size and color and in the price range. Do a research online and compare them and find the best suit for your valentine.

Just go for it. Your valentine is gonna love it.

EBOOK READER

If your valentine happens to be a book lover, an ebook reader could be the smartest tech thing you can ever gift him/her. To a bookworm, having a device that can contain so many books with such small size is an absolute blessing. So why think twice before picking this as your Valentine’s Day gift?

You can choose from many options. If your valentine is a novel lover, there’s Kindle, there’s Nook and there’s Kobo.

If s/he prefers comics and graphic novels, an iPad or any tablet would be a better choice. Each has many editions and models as well. Do a little research online and pick what suits best for your valentine.

If your valentine already has an ebook reader, see if s/he needs an updated model. If you can’t afford it, you can go for some new ebooks anyway.

The feeling of reading a real book with the real page is impossible to replace. But an ebook reader is still a wonderful gift for your bookworm valentine, that’s for sure. S/he’s definitely gonna love it.

GAMING CONSOLE

I know it’s expensive and it sounds crazy. But isn’t that what you want to do for your valentine?

If he is an avid gamer, chances are he already has a gaming console. But does he have the latest one? You can gift him a PS4 or Xbox One if he doesn’t already have it. Trust me, no gift would be better than this for a gamer. If you can afford it, just go for it.

You got me completely wrong if you were thinking that this gift idea is a sexist one. But in reality, ‘he’ can be ‘she’ too. I know many girls who play Fifa and other games. I know many girls who are even better than their male counterparts. So it’s not just a boy thing anymore these days.

If you cannot afford a whole console, you can always go for the accessories and this and that. You can buy your gamer valentine a new controller or a brand new game. You can gift him a new monitor as well. Anything about gaming for your gamer valentine.

GADGET ACCESSORIES

If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford any of the options mentioned above, go for some cute little gadget accessories.

The list is long though. You can go for a headphone. You can go for wireless speakers. You can go for a power bank or charger. You can go for a phone case. When it comes to gifts, small is sometimes better and cuter. So avoid all the fancy things and go for something tiny, cute, creative and practical all at the same time.

You can also go for some DIY stuff or customized things. For example, phone case. You can add some creative touch to it and make it really special. Paint it with colors. Draw some doodles on it. Write a catchy phrase on it. Whatever feels right to you. A handmade customized thing has always been a great symbol of love throughout the history.

If you can’t draw or paint, no worries. You will find many brands (Biskut Factory, for example) in Dhaka already doing these professionally for you.

Published in the 5th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 10, 2018.

[chingkhei]

4 Things You Can Do to Organise Your Email Inbox

Organising your email inbox can be a horrible task if you receive tons of emails every day. While ignored by most of the people, this task of keeping it clean is necessary for productivity. Here are 4 things you can do to handle it with ease.

Unsubscribe

No mercy. Unsubscribe every updates and newsletters and notification. How many of those emails do you even open? Zero. Then why remain subscribed to all those unnecessary email updates?

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Did you know that there are many keyboard shortcuts to make your life easier? For Gmail, c works as compose, z as undo the last action, / as search for messages, r as reply, a as reply all, f as forward, e as archive selected message, and Command + Enter as send email. These are the basic ones. There are many more keyboard shortcuts to do more delicate tasks. Google for the complete list. If you use other email services, check for keyboard shortcuts for that as well. Yahoo, another popular email service, has as much keyboard shortcuts as Gmail. Use those and save tons of time of your life.

Take Quick Action

Don’t leave your emails without taking any action. It will keep piling up and one day you will feel helpless. Instead, take quick action as soon as you receive and open an email. Either reply it right away, archive it in another folder to reply later, or delete it. Don’t hold. Take quick action.

Use 5 Folders Method

Have only five folders: Inbox, Today, This Week, This Month/Quarter, and FYI. Inbox is your temporary folder containing zero emails most of the time. As soon as you receive an email, move them to any of the other four folders. In Today folder, keep all the emails you need to respond today. The name says it all about the other two folders. The last folder FYI is for emails containing information. This method works by sorting emails according to the deadlines.

Published in the 7th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 24, 2018.

[chingkhei]

First Bangla Gesture Typing Keyboard Still Has a Long Way to Go

Ekushey Bangla Keyboard is the first Bangla gesture typing keyboard for Android. A passionate team hailing from the Department of CSE, SUST developed the app, unveiled on 20 February 2018. The app is still in its beta version. Though it’s an effort worth appreciating, it still has a long way to go.

Let’s have a look at all the features this app has.

Gesture Typing

This is the key selling point of Ekushey Bangla Keyboard. This is definitely a landmark in the history of Bangla keyboard mobile app development. Gesture typing is the most advanced technology of recent times for mobile typing. Embracing this technology for Bangla was a general expectation. And Ekushey Bangla Keyboard does it for the first time. For those unfamiliar with this technology, gesture typing keyboards let you type by dragging your fingertip on the touchscreen. You drag over the letters you want to type, and you get the word you want. It’s a very intuitive process. This comes in handy especially while typing on the go with one hand. Also, combined with the intelligent space and word recognition, this technology lets you type twice as fast as you do normally by typing or taping.

Next Word Prediction

With the help of built-in artificial intelligence, this app predicts and suggests your next word to help you complete the sentence even faster. If you write the first few words of your sentence, the app will suggest few words that it thinks to be most obvious. You can just tap the right word from the suggested list and you will get it right there. This is will save your time as you don’t have to write the whole sentence. This feature is nothing new though.

Word Recognition

Another old wine in new bottle. Another must-have feature in a virtual keyboard app. Gladly, Ekushey Bangla Keyboard has it as well. Word Recognition feature predicts and suggests the word you are gliding or typing way before you finish it. It helps you to type even faster. You don’t have to drag your finger over all the letters. The built-in AI will predict the as soon as you start gliding over few letters. The performance of the guessing is very important for this feature though. If the rate of accuracy is low, you will often get irritated. But when it works, it’s a wonder!

Phonetic Keyboard Layout

Yes, no glide typing for people who got used to classic Bijoy layout. You have to know the phonetic input method. Moreover, you have to learn some ‘special cases’ too as the app calls it. Without knowing these basic things, you will have a hard time typing ‘juktakkhor’ (combined letters) and some special letters.

Around 120 Emojis

The app comes with around 120 emojis. Nothing special. Another basic and must-have thing for a virtual keyboard app.

After using the app for a while, it seemed the app is still underdeveloped. It has many rooms for improvement. There are some other issues too that I didn’t like about the app. Let’s have a look.

Wrong Prediction

Although the developers are promoting the app as the beta version, it needs to come up with all the updates very soon. The AI is still pretty dumb at guessing words. I had a hard time writing few simple words. There are already some Bangla typing keyboards who are good at it. To compete with them, this app needs to get better at all these basic and common features they share.

Smooth Gliding

The gliding didn’t seem smooth to me. This is the key feature of this app and thus it needs to be great at it. Otherwise, why would people choose this app over all other already established apps? It needs to be smooth and faster.

Phonetic Keyboard

It means there is no Bangla layout. It’s a real turnoff for anyone who got used to classic Bijoy or other Bangla layout. Bangla layout is What You See What You Get. But when you are typing default English keyboard layout to write Bangla, things become complicated. You need another step of a learning curve to first learn the basics of phonetic input method.

The app gets an average rating of 4.7 from 64 reviewers as of 21 February.

The developers have a long list as their future promise. They have a plan to include voice recognition, customizable themes and emoji search features in the future. They also hope to bring more emoticons.

Previously, SUST had come up with Pipilika (the first Bangla search engine) and RIBO (the first Bangla-speaking social humanoid robot. Let’s just hope that Ekushey Bangla Keyboard is not another gimmick from SUST to be the ‘first’ of anything. If they avoid this trap and keep developing the app with the same amount of passion and emotion, this app might become the essential one to every Bengali-speaking mobile users

Published in the 7th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on February 24, 2018.

[chingkhei]

Why Using Pen and Paper Makes You a Better Writer

You might be thinking, who in the 21st century deliberately chooses pen and paper to write over a word processor. Good question. And I have even better answers. Stephen King does, and so does J. K. Rowling, among many others.

It’s not magic though. Using pen and paper when writing won’t simply make you a Stephen King or J. K. Rowling. But there are some benefits that will make you a better writer than you were before. Let’s see what those are.

No boot up and power needed

You don’t have to wait for your pen and paper to boot up. You can write in any coffee shop, airport, plane, bus terminal, bus, beach and park, and never worry about recharging or power outlets.

No internet, no procrastination

When you are writing using pen and paper, there’s no temptation to check emails or Facebook. No breaking news, instant messages, virus and malware pop-ups, notifications, nothing. You are free from all of these noise. You can focus better.

Manage time better

Old-school pen and paper let you concentrate on the story and leave checking minor facts, spelling and other time-consumers for later, after the hardest part of your write-up – the first draft – is written. How many times were you going to quickly check “one little thing” and three hours later….

Slower is faster

Handwriting allows you to set aside typed page count and concentrate on what’s important: words and story. Stephen King has said that he wrote his novel Dreamcatcher with “the world’s finest word processor, a Waterman cartridge fountain pen.” By slowing down, you may write more that matter with less conscious effort at style. And once you start writing using pen and paper, you’ll be surprised how many words you can scribble.

Published in the 8th issue of ‘Beyond News’, a weekly supplement to Bangladesh News’, an English daily, on March 3, 2018.