First Update from Dhaka

I wonder why I could not make even a single entry in the last three months. Especially, as I arrived Dhaka on September 2, I should have mentioned about that. It marked a shift in my life. Back in Nepal, I was a Communications Officer of a reputed NGO and Lecturer in two prominent colleges in Kathmandu. I took the decision of giving up these all the perky jobs to achieve something and flew to Dhaka to join Regional Masters in Journalism, Media and Communication. It is a regional program jointly launched by Dhaka University (Bangladesh), Oslo University (Norway), College of Journalism and Mass Communication (Kathmandu, Nepal) and University of Punjab (Lahore, Pakistan). We are 26 students, six from Nepal and the rest from Bangladesh.
My experience in Dhaka is really different to what I thought it may be like before I came here. There are a lot of good people who really love Nepal and Nepalese. Too many people in the streets and many beggars sometimes create nuisances. It is far hotter than Kathmandu and the food habit is different, luckily rice and dal makes the main food. After nearly two months, we are happily settled in the International hall of the University. In the hall, we feel like home because nearly 50 Nepalese students are staying here and students operate their own mess.
The University of Dhaka is an ideal place to study. The University established in 1921 bears the pride and was known as 'Oxford of the East'. It is the residential University and majority number of nearly 35,000 students stay in the residential Halls. Most of the teachers of the University and especially in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism are well qualified, learned and trained and the teafching styles they employ are interactive. Virtue or sin of Dhaka is that it is like the centre of pirated books. Far more variety of books than in Kathmandu are found in very cheaper price. I hope to collect a lot of books in media studies and take them back home after completing two years of study.
Stay in Dhaka or any part of Bangladesh is cheaper. That's why many Nepalese students choose this destination graduate and Post graduate courses especially in medicine, pharmacy, engineering and other faculties. Rickshaws make inevitable part of life here. It is sometimes difficult for those who came from relatively opener society like of ours because Bangladesh is somehow closed society and even drinking is prohibited.
In these two years, I am trying to see the images of South Asia that the global media are showing to the rest of the world. Globalization of news, stereotyping, othering and common practices in the South Asia are my areas of interest in media studies while Gender also significantly attracts me.
I hope to upload my articles about media studies in the separate blog mediadiscourses.blogspot.com. Please keep visiting it as well.