Chinese authorities in the historically Tibetan region of Sichuan Province had arrested a Buddhist monk in Jun 2023 for having republished books from the exile Tibetan community and also for having contact with people outside the country, reported the Tibetan service of rfa.org Feb 5, citing belated information from two unnamed local Tibetan sources. It was not clear what books were republished and what the nature of the contacts were. The report said the whereabouts of the monk, named as Lobsang Thabkhey, 54, remained unknown. He was reported to have served as the librarian of Kirti Monastery in the province’s Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) county when he republished and disseminated the books in question. The witnesses have spoken on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. The Ngaba police station, on being contacted by Radio Free Asia, has claimed ignorance about the monk. This was despite the fact that he was stated to have been summoned several times by Chinese police before his eventual arrest. China maintains especially tight control on information and channels of communication in the Tibetan areas in the name of fighting separatism, making it all the more difficult even to people within the country to get timely and proper information on developing situation. Thabkhey is said to originally belong to the county’s Meruma township. Source: Tibetan Review

Besides setting a new record margin of victory in the clash between English football's two most successful clubs, other records were also rewritten. Manchester United suffered its heaviest defeat in the English Premier League on Sunday, losing 7-0 to Liverpool in what was the club's worst loss since 1931 when it went down 7-0 in a game against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the second division. Liverpool, in turn, recorded their biggest ever margin of victory in the fixture. Mohamed Salah struck twice and became the Merseyside club's all-time leading Premier League scorer with 129 goals. "To get it today against United with that result is unbelievable. I'm going home to celebrate with the family, Chamomile tea and sleep," he said after the game. Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez both scored twice and Roberto Firmino also found the back of the net once. Six of Liverpools goals came in an explosive second-half performance. It was the first time since 1999 that three players had scored two goals for the same club in the Premier League. Liverpool and United managers react United claimed their first trophy since 2017 just a week ago by winning the League Cup. Sunday's sobering defeat, described by Sky Sports pundit and their former defender Gary Neville as a 'disgrace', however left them in third place on 49 points and surely out of the title race. Erik ten Hag accused his Manchester United players of an "unprofessional" and "unacceptable" performance. "This is definitely a strong setback and is unacceptable. I'm really disappointed and angry about it. It is a reality check," the Manchester United manager said. Liverpool's previous biggest win over United was a 7-1 victory in 1895 when both clubs were in the second tier. The team's fourth win in five league matches lifted them above Newcastle United into fifth on 42 points, three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with a game in hand. "It was a fantastic day for everyone," Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson told Sky Sports. "The performance level from every single player was top quality today which is something that we've been missing for a while of course."

The students of primary and secondary schools are not able to participate the ‘book festival’ on the very first day of the new year due to coronavirus pandemic situation in the country. In that case the teachers are bringing new books at the door steps of the students. Taking books students are engulfed with joy. Teachers are thinking that this is a new initiative to distribute books. Learning activities are not stopped in this pandemic situation due to different initiatives taken by the government. Teachers are taking classes through online and television. Cumilla High School has taken an exceptional initiative to distribute new books in the new year. Teachers of the school are bringing books at the door steps of the students boarded on rickshaw van. On Friday a group of teachers of Cumilla High School reached at the homes of students with books on rickshaw van at Chanpur area of Cumilla town. They distributed books according to the list. They also brought books on hands where road for rickshaw was not available. After getting the new books a student of Cumilla High School Abul Hasan said, we used to go to school to collect new books in the new year but in this year teachers are giving books going door to door. This is not bad. In this regard Headmaster of Cumilla High School Md. Humayun Kabir said, book festival was not held due to corona pandemic. So we are delivering books at the door steps of the students. Education is the most affected sector in this pandemic situation. In spite of that education ministry is handing over textbooks to the students. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the activities on Thursday. AH   

Sayef Turan is a talented young writer in Bangladesh. Recently he has published a new book titled “The Tremble Guest House”. This book is based on a paranormal travel story. Before publishing this book he wrote two books named "How To Ensure Safe Internet" in 2019 and "The Revenge Of Fire" in this year which was co authored by Abdullah Zubayer. All of these books are published on international platform like Amazon and Google Books. He has also a plan to publish these books at “Ekushey Book Fair” next year. Talking about the book, Sayef Turan said, “Writing has always been my first priority since childhood. I used to write on different social media and blogging sites especially on Facebook. I received many positive compliment and responses from different countries for my writing. My new books are the collection of paranormal short stories along with educational book. These books are already available on International Platform like Amazon and Google Books.But I have a plan to publish these in Ekushey Book Fair too. I'm hopeful that my readers will accept my books positively.” Hailed from Narayanganj, Sayef is currently studying at Computer Science & Engineering at a private University. Alongside studying he is also Digital Creator and influencer. Talking about his journey Sayef said " I started my career as a writer from 2017. Later I increased interest on content creation on social media platform and became a popular Influencer. Since then, I got a whopping followers till now". Sayef said, "Hard work never goes in vain and I believe that success only pays of with the hard work. There’s no such other short cut to move forward without having a struggleful journey". AH

Information Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmud said, weight of school bag is more than the child at the moment. Have to reduce burden of books from the shoulder of children. It takes four years to step into class one in KG school. This type of system prevails nowhere in the world. This system should come to an end. His comments came in when he was delivering speech as the chief guest at a seminar organized by Bangladesh Human Rights Council titled ‘Child rights: Pretext of current Bangladesh’ in Chattogram on Friday. The minister said, it is fixed in Europe in which class a student will read in which age. We should do that. Children in the cities are taking their meals by watching cartoons. Parents are eating on tables. I think all should eat together. The society should come out from self centered condition. Now the children are playing on i-phone or watching cartoons. Hasan Mahmud said, children can be inspired but they should not be forced. Child labor is a big problem. Child labor in domestic work or industries is not prudent to our laws. We have to be conscious about our behavior to them. He said, the Bangladesh that we want to build led by the Prime Minister, to fulfill the dream of Bangabandhu we need meritorious, intelligent generation awakened by morals and patriotism. Otherwise formation of developed nation cannot be possible. The program presided over by council president Syed Nazrul Islam where VC of Chittagong University Dr. Iftekhar Uddin was the principal discussant. Nur e Akbar Chowdhury presented the key note paper. AH     

‘Alor Ferywala’ Polan Sarkar will not distribute books for free anymore by visiting village after villages. He breathed his last at the age of 98 years on Friday at his residence of Bausa village under Bagha upazila of Rajshahi due to old age complications. Haider Ali, son of Polan Sarkar confirmed the information. He said that his father was suffering from different old age complications for the last several days. Polan Sarkar waged a social movement of reading books by distributing books for free after going home to homes. For his achievement he was awarded the ‘Ekushey Medal’ in 2011. Many receptions were accorded to him. A drama named ‘Sayanne Surjodoy’ was made centering him. Following the death of Polan Sarkar State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam in a condolence message said that the nation lost a social worker due to the death. He said, Polan Sarkar waged an extraordinary education movement throughout 20 villages in Rajshahi. After buying books with his own money he distributed those among the backward villagers. The people of Rajshahi and the nation will memorize him for eternal period. Polan Sarkar was born in 1921. His real name is Harej Uddin. But he was popularly known as Polan Sarkar. His father died when he was just five months old. He had to conclude his education when he was in class six. But he continued his lessons with his own efforts. Polan Sarkar was the president of a high school governing body. He was a book lover. Every year he distributed books among the students who stood 1st to 20th  in the merit list. From there his journey of distributing books began. After that he distributed books among all. When he was diagnosed as a diabetic patient he then used to distribute books by walking. He did the job for more than 30 years. AH     

I recently posted about five of my must-read books. Here are a few more that have really made a difference in my life: 1) 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute What is it? If you like this blog, you’ll love this book. Richard Wiseman takes psychology research and tells you how to use it to improve your life in a straightforward (but entertaining) way. What did I learn from it?  I learned that: Best genre of movie to see on a date? Suspense-thriller. Thinking about death helps you identify long term goals. Humor and dog ownership reduce stress. And a lot of other stuff. 2) Creativity What is it? For his book Creativity, noted professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi did interviews with 91 groundbreaking individuals across a number of disciplines, including 14 Nobel Prize winners. What do they have in common? What does it take to be a successful creative professional? What did I learn from it? They weren’t stars in school. Almost all have IQ’s over 130 — but once past the 130 threshold, all that mattered was effort. They were all curious and driven. They take their intuition seriously. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studies creativity, happiness, and flow. 3) Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think What is it? Brian Wansink studies our behavior around food. And his work is fascinating. You eat for a lot of reasons — and hunger is rarely the primary one. What did I learn from it? Dessert tastes better on fine china than a paper plate. Big plates make you eat more. Wine from California tastes better than wine from North Dakota — even if it’s the same wine with different labels. And a lot more. 4) Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t What is it? Want to understand how office politics works? Want to learn how to get better at playing the game? This is the book. Combines research with examples to give you a modern Machiavelli’s The Prince. Even if you don’t work in an office it’s a must-read because these factors are fundamental to human nature. What did I learn from it? I did a whole post about the book. 5) Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries What is it? How can you spur innovation and creativity in your life without taking big risks? Little bets are the answer. Author Peter Sims lays out a system for pushing the envelope without danger, pulling from scientific research and great examples What did I learn from it? It’s an excellent system to make sure you keep learning and growing in almost any area of your life. From Eric Barkar, TIME magazine.  

Teachers who want to acquire techniques that will make them student friendly and who want to make heaven-like environment in their classroom must read these 10 books.   'The First Days of School' Old and new teachers talk good about this book written by Harry K. Wong and Rosemary T. Wong. Besides classroom, knowledge of this book can be applied in many sectors including various non-education organizations. This book can help a person well learned as well as a student yet to learn much. 'The Hidden Lives of Learners' New Zealand Emeritus Professor Graham Nuthall wrote the book. He discovered the three important things that determine the success of students. These three are teacher-student interaction, peer influence and a student's personal home life. He studied and gained deep knowledge about how low-ability students can learn as well as high-ability students. 'Outliers: The Story of Success' Renowned journalist Malcolm Gladwell’s this best-selling book deals with techniques that are must needed to understand in order to achieve greatness. In the book, Gladwell investigates numerous factors that contribute to extreme levels of success, such as that achieved by professional athletes, influential business people, and celebrities. The book explores how factors like birth month, practice, culture and hidden advantages can shape the lives of extraordinary individuals who excel beyond any reasonable understanding. This suggestion is for successful people. 'I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban' Malala Yousafzai is a pakistani renowned writer who stood against all the forces that hinders women’s education. She understands how powerful education is in order to become self-reliant.  Perhaps no one understands that more than Malala Yousafzai, who, at age 15, was shot point-blank in the head by the Taliban, simply because she wanted to attend school. Miraculously, she survived, and went on to become a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a powerful voice for girls' education. She wrote her memories of that time and one might feel the power of women education. 'What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World' Former teacher Taylor Mali wrote a poem called "What Teachers Make" in 2002. He had written the poem in response to a condescending lawyer who had asked him, "Be honest. What do you make?" The poem went viral on social media, and is the basis for this witty and inspiring book of the same name. Through a series of anecdotes and poems, Mali shares his experiences as a classroom teacher and helps to remind teachers why their job is so important. 'Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Their Students by Their Brains' Some educators considered this book by teacher-turned-author LouAnne Johnson as one of the most influential strategy guides even written for teachers. In it, Johnson, who is best known for her book My Posse Don't Do Homework (renamed Dangerous Minds after it spawned the movie in 1995), shares her honest and effective methods for improving classroom management, engaging students, and advancing critical thinking. These habits will help protect against diseases that slowly damages body organs. 'Today I Made a Difference: A Collection of Inspirational Stories from America's Top Educators' Joseph Underwood compiled this collection of stories that answer two essential questions: why teachers teach, and why they decided to make teaching a career, despite the low pay and long hours. The book is based on the real-life stories of all 28 of Disney's 2004 Teacher of the Year Nominees, and will inspire new and experienced teachers alike with its honest, inspiring and refreshing look at the obstacles teachers overcome on a daily basis. 'Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56' You cannot imagine how much impact a single teacher can have on a group of children. Rafe Esquith author of the book was a fifth-grade teacher at Hobart Elementary in central Los Angeles for more than 30 years. It was one of the poorest school districts in the country. In the book Esquith explains his methods of teaching that will be effective in building confidence, respect, and thirst for education among his students. These teaching techniques have not only earned him numerous awards and international recognition but also have helped lots of students succeed. This book can inspire you read more books.   'The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World around Them' The book was published in 1999. This books writings were by Erin Gruwell’s students. Erin Gruwell was a 23-year-old new teacher at Long Beach High School in Long Beach, California. He was assigned a class of so-called "unteachable" students. She used literature related to the students to teach them easily. He brought guest speakers who could attract them and gave each of them a blank notebook where they could share, anonymously, their thoughts and experiences. All his 150 students succeeded in their lives. This book gave birth to many films, writers and stars of world fame. 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' Dale Carnegie, American writer and lecturer, wrote the book published in 1936. The book contains many effective techniques of building one's confidence and leadership skills. It helps to reduce the cycle of stress.The techniques are very scientific that gives you confidence. Your success in every sphere of life depends on how you can influence and win people’s heart. This book can help you like more than a teacher.     Source: Reader’s Digest FU

Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee is now spending his time by reading books. Pranab Mukherjee said, I was associated with politics for long time in my life. I was in the Indian parliament and constitutional post like President. Now I have plenty of time for reading. He said these during a courtesy call to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence at Gonobhaban in the capital on Monday. He recalled about his first foreign tour in Bangladesh as a President in 2013. Praising Bangladesh’s amazing socio-economic development under progressive leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina he said Bangladesh is an attractive place for investment at present. Upholding different aspects of development under the government of Sheikh Hasina he said, the poverty rate has come down to 22 percent following realistic steps by her government. The economy of the country at a point of marginal loss due to last year’s flood. Over Rohingya issue the Prime Minister said, Bangladesh has given shelter to nearly 10 lakh homeless Myanmar nationals on humanitarian ground. Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmishtha Mukherjee, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Nazibur Rahman and Senior Secretary of Prime Minister’s Office Suraiya Begum were present during the occasion. Later the former Indian President took part in the lunch hosted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told these to the newsmen after the meeting. Earlier Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina welcomed Pranab Mukherjee with flowers at the entrance of Gonobhaban. AH         

The government has made 35 crore text books ready for the students of primary and secondary level students. The books will be distributed for free among the students from January 1. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the free textbook distribution activities of 2018 session through handing over new books to some students at Gonobhaban on Saturday.   The process of distributing 35 crore 42 lakh 90 thousand 162 books will commence on first January. 4 crore 42 lakh 4 thousand 197 students will get the books. According to National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) sources, hundred percent books were already sent in all the schools. Prime Minister will inaugurate the book distribution activities. Later from January 1 the books will be distributed among the students in a festive mood. According to the education ministry sources, this year 10 lakh 70 thousand 966 students were included in the list. For this reason, 71 lakh 93 thousand 369 pieces additional books were printed.   Although the government was distributing books among the primary students in a small extent but from the year 2010 it is distributing books free for the student from class one to class nine. Meanwhile, Education Ministry and Primary and Mass Education Ministry is set to observe the text book festival centrally from different places. On first January morning Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid will inaugurate the book distribution festival for the secondary level students at Azimpur Government Girls School and College ground. Students from several institutions in the capital will take part in the festival. On the other hand, on the same day at 10 am Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fizar will inaugurate the book distribution festival for primary level students at the central playground of Dhaka University. AH