Assalamalaikum and Namaskar

[Indian]

I am a frequent lurker in various Indian and Pakistani forums and by chance entered your site.
Here is my two paisa worth thoughts based on first hand observations.

1. The discussion board is promising but it has to be more Bangladesh and South Asia specific. There are plenty of irrelevant topics which are to be deleted.
2. There are too many sections. They should be condensed to a few so that interactivity of members increase and the job of the moderators becomes easier. And to be frank, some of these sections do not merit any presence.
3. Members' postings must be backed by facts and informative rather than one liners or glib at others.

Hope my stay here will be memorable.

BTW, I'm a Bengali Indian living in Calcutta.

[Wais_Islam]

Originally posted by Indian:
I am a frequent lurker in various Indian and Pakistani forums and by chance entered your site.
Here is my two paisa worth thoughts based on first hand observations.

1. The discussion board is promising but it has to be more Bangladesh and South Asia specific. There are plenty of irrelevant topics which are to be deleted.
2. There are too many sections. They should be condensed to a few so that interactivity of members increase and the job of the moderators becomes easier. And to be frank, some of these sections do not merit any presence.
3. Members' postings must be backed by facts and informative rather than one liners or glib at others.

Hope my stay here will be memorable.

BTW, I'm a Bengali Indian living in Calcutta.

thank you for your comments.

it would be nice to see you calling yourself Bangali instead of indian, esp since not many Calcuttans speak Bangla nowadays as they prefer to speak Hindi. they should be equally proud to be bangalis as they are of being whatever nationality they find themselves fortunately or unfortunately attributed to. Get my point? take care.


[This message has been edited by Wais Islam (edited 04 September 2000).]

[Indian]

Hello Wais, it is wrong that Calcuttans don't speak Bengali. We certainly do and me being a former Bangladeshi (my ancestors hail from Bikrampur, Dhaka) can speak with a Dhakan accent as well. However we certainly have an influence of Hindi because it is our national language. And with the Hindi films flourishing like anything, who on the Indian sub-continent don't know or speak it?

In Bangladesh you can obviously give more importance to Bengali as it is your national language. So a difference will exist but I don't think that is very important in building up mutual trust and friendship between the two Bengals.

And another point, we are all proud Indians first and then Bengali or Tamil or Oriya or Marathi or whatever. Our national identity is more important than regional identity. This is of utmost importance as we live in a pluralistic society.

If you analyze the history of freedom struggle, then you'll see us Bengalis have been the fore-runners. So there's no question of unfortunately attributing ourselves to Indian identity.

Jai Hind and Joy Bangla.

[Wais_Islam]

One wanders how much the Indian authorities care about Bangali hindus in places like Orissa, where the local economic production far exceeded what the state provided in terms of monetary help during the flood in which thousands of BANGALI hindus suffered and became homeless. Where is national help now? Let Indian pride flourish like this Indian and you wont find yourself liked in a region such as the sub-continent, which very frequently experiences natural disasters. Bye 'pluralist' Indian.

[Indian]

Wais, you're a moderator, aren't you?

It is my frank suggestion dude, if you want to keep up the standards of this forum and want to bring it at par with other international forums, then you have to spruce up your general knowledge a lot. A forum is identified by its moderators.

I have no problem with your anti-Indian stance, every day I face plenty of enlightened members in Pak forums with whom I have a good round of discussions. Definitely we disagree but sometimes I do appreciate their knowledge.

However I cannot say this for you. What you've posted is total garbage. First you said the Bengalis of Calcutta don't speak Bengali. Now you're saying Bengali Hindus of Orissa. FYI, they are not Bengalis but Oriyas, Bengalis do not even form 1% of Orissa's population.

If you're the moderator, do justice to your job. The way you're going, you may get some cheap applause from members like a.baba etc. but in the long run it will do harm to your forum as no serious member will turn up.

[This message has been edited by Indian (edited 05 September 2000).]

[islamicboy]

salaam

4 give for brother wais lack of knowledge indian. But we do not identify ourselves as bengalis rather we identify as muslims. Our national identity means nothing to us it is just a mere label provided for us by the british colonialists. Our identity and the only indentity we have is islam.

jazak allah brother wais

and thanx to indian. we can disucss this further if u like.

[Indian]

Assalamalaikum islamicboy.

Bangladesh is your country, you people are to determine whether you want to be identified as Muslims or Bangladeshis or Bengalis or whatever. I cannot and should not have any say in it.

Going by the same logic, I don't know why my Indian identity is causing so much heartburn to Wais.Is it because I can put my national identity over my regional, religious or any other identity?