My Father arrived from Sylhet, in Northern Bangladesh, to London in 1963 [at the age of 27]. As a student, he worked, like many of his peers, at a series of Indian restaurants upon his arrival. My Mother joined him shortly after, in 1968 [at the age of 18] as his new bride. For my parents, London was a new world that presented new beginnings in the 1960s – and they had aspirations to build a…

By day the streets of Dhaka were quiet. Some shops and offices were open, some were shut. The buses were half empty and not many taxis were operating. Now and then an army jeep would come roaring up the road, making pedestrians and rickshaws dart swiftly out of its way. Although the bustle and gaiety of normal civilian life were missing, law and order prevailed. But at night a hidden giant rose…

I have a vision, not a dream.

If you ask my father what the best day of his life was, he won’t tell you it was his wedding day, or the birth of me or my sister. He will tell you it was a day in April 1986, when he received his British passport. As he has told me so many times before, the passport symbolised freedom, opportunity, and the chance to start a new life. It was in this movement, one family’s migration from…

To be a British Bengali. What does that mean to me? How has the last half century made me the person I am today? We as proud Bengalis stand proud, wherever in the world we may be! What defines us from our vast heritage, existence, the struggles, challenges and victories we have experienced?

I was born in 1963 in a Rajshahi hospital where there had been a malaria outbreak which killed the other babies in the maternity ward. I was the lucky one.

My earliest recollection as a child was of primary school and school lunches. School dinners, what a revelation; my typical home meals consisting of rice and spicy curries were now replaced by sticky heaps of spaghetti hoops and fried chips. Then there were afters: desserts like sponge and custard and treacle pudding. I remember the summer school fete and sports day, were my favourite days in the…

My father, who is originally from Rangpur, came to the U.K. in the year 1962, six months after graduating from Dhaka Medical College. He began his hospital jobs over various locations in England, and in 1966 he married my mother (originally from Gopalganj). My elder brother was born shortly after, in Birmingham, and in 1974 my father settled down as a G.P. in Wolverhampton where both my second…

From social development to economic growth, diasporas have long led to the prosperity of the communities they lived with. Every year on May 21, the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development honors diaspora communities and promotes cross-cultural dialogue by celebrating the diversity of the world's many cultures, fostering unity, and promoting sustainable development.

Lebanese Diaspora Energy - LDE is currently undertaking an endeavor revolving around distance education that could be provided by key Lebanese universities to international students, including the Lebanese community overseas. We believe that the talents and academic wealth we have are one of the main resources that not only should we encourage, but we should also incentivize to stay in Lebanon.…