হুমায়ূন আহমেদ-এর “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” অবলম্বনে পেস্টিচে

বেশ কিছু বছর হয়ে গেল আমি বাংলায় লিখি না। সঠিক বলতে গেলে আমি লেখালেখি পুরোটাই হয়তো ছেড়েই দিয়েছি। ২০১৫ সালে “বিচিত্র” লেখার পর নিজের মধ্যে স্পৃহা জমিয়ে নিজের দ্বিতীয় বই – “বিষণ্ন” যে শেষ করবো তার জন্য মনোবলও যোগাতে পারিনি। এ কয়েকটি বছর কত কিছু যে আমার জীবনে ঘটে গেল তা এক ব্লগ পোস্টে লিখে শেষ করা বৃথা।

যাই হোক লেখালেখি থেকে এত লম্বা বিরতি এক লেখকের জন্য বড়ই হতাশাজনক। এবং বলা বাহুল্য যে আমি কোনও বড় মাত্রার লেখক নই যে আমাকে কেউ মনে রেখেছে আর যারা মনে রাখতো ওরাও হয়তো ভুলে গেছে যে আমি আদৌ লেখালেখি করি। তার সঙ্গে আমিও খেয়াল করা শুরু করি যে আমারও লেখালেখির হাত সঙ্গে ইচ্ছা শক্তিতাও ধীরে ধীরে ফুড়িয়ে যাচ্ছা। তা আবার কানাডা আসার পর বাংল ভাষা চর্চা মটেও করা হয়ই না। মন্ট্রিয়েল শহরে থাকা কারণে উল্টা ফরাসি ভাষাটা শিখা হচ্ছে।

মন্ট্রিয়েল শহরে মেট্রো রেলে আমার যাতায়াত দৈনন্দিন হয়। মেট্রো রেলে ঘুরতে ঘুরতে একদিন শুনি বাংলাদেশেও মেট্রো রেল চালু হয়ে গেছে। যাক দেশে আরও ইতিবাচক উন্নতি হোক এটাই সকলের চাওয়া। মেট্রো রেলে ঘুরাঘুরি আমার অত্যন্ত পছন্দের এক কাজ কারণ আসনে বসে যখন শা-শা করে মেট্রো ছুটছে গন্তব্যের দিকে তখন নিরবে আপন মনে অনেক কিছু ভাবা যায়।

বাংলাদেশে আমার সবচাইতে পছন্দের ঐতিহ্য হচ্ছে আমাদের চির চেনা অমর একুশের বইমেলা। আমার মনে আছে শৈশবকালে প্রতি বছর বইমেলা শুরু হলে বাবাকে নিয়ে প্রথমেই খোঁজ নিতাম সে বছর আমাদের প্রিয় কথাসাহিতিক হুমায়ূন আহমেদ নতুন কি বই লিখেছেন। আজ ১০ বছরের চেয়ে বেশি সময় কেটে গেছে হুমায়ূন আহমেদ স্যারের কোনও বই পড়ি না। কিছু দিন আগেও ওনার লেখা পুরানো বই পড়ে খুশি হওয়ার চেয়ে আরও হতাশাগ্রস্ত হয়ে পড়ি। এর কারণ মানুষটি আমাদের মাঝে আর নেই। বাস্তবতা বড়ই কষ্টের!

মেট্রো রেলে যাতায়াত করতে করতে হঠৎ মাথায় আসলো হুমায়ূন আহমেদ স্যারের অনেক “সম্পূ্র্ণ-মুলোক উপন্যাস” আছে যা উনি ইচ্ছা করেই পাঠকদের কল্পনার কাছে ছেড়ে দিয়ে উপন্যাসগুলোর সমাপ্তি ঘটান। এসব গল্পে কোনও সমাপ্তি নাই জেনে মনের মধ্য আরও অশান্তি জন্মায়, মনে হয় “এ কি পড়লাম… এর শেষ নাই কেন… ধুর!”

এমন একটি উপন্যাস “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে”। বইটি হুমায়ূন আহমেদ স্যারের আরও পরিচিত “শঙ্খনীল কারাগার”, “নন্দিত নরকে”, হিমু বা মিসির আলীর মত অত বেশি জনপ্রিয় না হলেও আমার মনের মধ্যে এক বড় ধরণের অশান্তি জন্ম দেয় যখন বইটি শেষ করি। জানতে বড়ই ইচ্ছা করে শেষে চিত্রার কি হলো, ওর বাবা ও মার কথা কি হলো, শেষে কি ওর বিয়ে হয়? – এই বড় প্রশ্নটি “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” নামক বইটি পড়েও উত্তরটি পেলাম না কখনও।

প্রথমে বলে রাখি আমি “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” বইটির প্যাস্টিচে লিখছি নিজের কোনও ব্যক্তিগত লাভের আশায় না। আর হুমায়ূন আহমেদ স্যারকে মন থেকে সম্মান জানায় লিখছি। তবে হ্যা একটি লাভ মাথায় নিয়ে লিখছি এ প্যাস্টিচে সেটি হচ্ছে আমার লেখালেখির হাত ফিরে পাবার আশায় যেন আমার দ্বিতীয় বইটি পুনরায় আবার লেখা শুরু করে শেষ করতে পারি। আমার জন্য দোয়া করবেন।

প্যাস্টিচে, ইংরেজিতে “pastiche” শব্দটির সঙ্গে কেউ পরিচিত না থাকলে, বলে রাখা ভালো এর অর্থ – “অন্য গ্রন্থকার বা শিল্পীর অনুকরণে রচিত সাহিত্য বা শিল্প” সূত্রঃ গুগল।

এখানে আমি “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” উপন্যাসে তার গল্পটির মূল ধারা ও চরিত্রের ব্যক্তিত্ব অনুসরণ করে গল্পের সিক্যুয়েল তৈরি করার সল্প এক প্রচেষ্ঠাই শুধু। কেমন হবে জানি না, বানান ও ব্যাকারণে অনেক ভুল থাকতে পারে কিন্তু আমার লেখার উদ্দেশ্য হচ্ছে সিক্যুয়েলটি পড়ে সবাই যেন আনন্দ পায় তাই ভুলগুলো দয়া করে ক্ষমার দৃষ্টিতে দেখবেন। আমি নিজেও এসব খুটিনাটির উপর নজর দেব না কারণ এটি আমার কেবল মাত্র লেখালেখিতে ফিরে যাওয়ার এক মহরা।

গল্পের প্রেক্ষাপটঃ

সবাইকে প্রথমে বলে রাখি যদি মূল উপন্যাস- “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” বইটি না পড়ে থাকেন, ভালো হয় এই প্যাস্টিচে পড়ার আগে একটু ঢু মেরে আসেন কারণ গল্পটি পরিপূর্ণ উপভোগ করতে চেলে এটিই শ্রেষ্ঠ মাধ্যম। গল্পের মূল চরিত্র সহ নতুন কিছু চরিত্র যোগ করা হবে। গল্পের স্বার্থে এটি শুরু হবে মূল উপন্যাস হতে ৫ বছর পর। “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” প্রকাশিত হয় ২০০১-এ, ধরে নিচ্ছি চিত্রার বিয়ে হয় ২০০১ সালে তাই আমার গল্পটি শুরু হবে ২০০৫ থেকে। তার সঙ্গে যে অভিজাত মেরিন ইন্জিনিয়ারের সঙ্গে বিয়ে হওয়ার কথা ছিলো, তা হয় এবং সে এখন বাংলাদেশ ছেড়ে যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে বসবাসরত ও সংসার করছে।

এখান থেকে আমার পরের পোস্ট দিয়ে শুরু করবো গল্প, আর হ্যা “আজ চিত্রার বিয়ে” বইটির সিক্যুয়েলের জন্য একটি নাম তৈরি করেছি, তা হচ্ছ-

“কাল চিত্রা ফিরবে”

No One Deserves This

The story I am going to post is from a fellow Canadian Bangladeshi who got bamboozled by his wife through marriage and then through divorce. I am posting this as a cautionary tale so that no other Bangladeshi gets to experience this. When marrying someone, please make all the necessary effort to know that person in order to realize his/her true intents.

I am posting the original post below with the necessary edits in the language. This has been posted in the BCCB (Bangladeshi-Canadian Canadian Bangladeshi) Forum over Facebook.

I had a 5-year old married life. I am a Canadian citizen (Bangladeshi origin), who sponsored his wife from Bangladesh (after marriage). I have a kid who is 1 year of age. From the beginning of my marriage, my wife used to speak very little and was very introverted in nature. She did not open up to me at all. I was okay with it as people are different. After coming to Canada, the first 2 years, she was somewhat okay, but by somewhat okay I mean, she used to do some house work- cooking, and spending time with me, at least. From the last 3 years, she had become very distant. I tried everything- visit new place, spend time with her. I even switch my job, so that I could give her more time. As I presently have a good job and my manager being very flexible, I was able to spend more time with her. I even offered her therapy, but she was not willing to do that.

Now, around 9 months ago, she confessed that she has reconnected with her ex-boyfriend in Toronto and wanted to divorce me. It came as a total surprise for me. So I started questioning, and then she told me that she never loved me. All along, she have always loved her boyfriend. Since I am a Canadian citizen, at the time of our marriage which was arranged, she saw an opportunity to come to Canada. Her boyfriend at that time was an international student at the University of Toronto and was not in any position to marry or sponsor her. Now that he’s fully capable to taking care of her, she was willing to leave me.

In summary, (I quote), in her own words- “I saw an opportunity to marry you, let you take all the cost and hassle for me to bring me here.”

I was devastated, fell being cheated. not actually “felt” as she did cheat since she never stopped visiting her boyfriend in Toronto and I never suspected a single thing.

I talked with my lawyer who informed me that since she is a citizen, nothing can be done now. Apparently having extramarital affair in Canada is not illegal by law. And it will also be almost impossible to prove her intention for our marriage at court. Now, on top of everything, she is suing me for alimony, child support and house ownership. The court has already discharged her and have charged me with all the cost. There’s very little chance to win the appeal, even though I was cheated, betrayed and felling lost.

Just recently got 40% percent custody of our kid with her taking the other 60%. Her family is in full support towards her and even paid for a very good lawyer. My family don’t even care (about this) at all. Never again, I am getting married. I have learnt my lesson.

I am also posting the screenshot of the unedited original post taken from the BCCB forum at Facebook:

The real post taken from Facebook

Please I request everyone to pray for this unfortunate brother. No one deserves this happening in his/her life, I prayer for him and his 1 year old child.

Guide to Completing Your ECA with Your Degree From University of Dhaka

IMPORTANT NOTE: I got divorced on the 26th of November 2020 and it was finalized on the 7th of March 2021. We separated with mutual understanding with no hassle and I request you all not to assume anything “bitter” in this case. Our marriage just wasn’t working out and both of our parents decided to pull the curtains to our chapter. It’s alright, I am doing well and she’s fine as well.

I originally intended to remove this post since it contains information regarding my ex-wife and since I actually wrote this post to help her out in her ECA process initially but seeing all the appreciation coming from various people around Bangladesh and also the world, I decided to keep it but putting a minor edit to my post, like changing the word “wife” to “ex-wife”. With that being said I request you all to pray for us so that both of us get to find life partners who are going to be suitable for the two of us. Thank you so much for all your utmost support and understanding. I really do appreciate all the love and gratitude I keep on getting due to this post and I too wish you the best with all your present and future endeavors. 🙂

I am writing this article for the purpose of serving this as a guide for the graduates of University of Dhaka for those who are aiming to completing their ECA from WES with the intention of immigrating to Canada as permanent residents.

Step 1 – Open up an Account at Your Preferred ECA Body

For an WES account just follow the video provided below:

Choose Academic ECA if you are going for higher studies or Immigration ECA if you are going to apply for immigration to Canada.

Step 2 – Make Payment to Get Your Registration Number

Upon registering and paying for your ECA, you will be given a unique WES Reference Number.

THIS NUMBER IS YOUR OWN PROPERTY SO DO NOT SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE, AT LEAST NOT UNTIL YOUR ECA HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

My advice: No not go for premium mode of courier service, standard delivery is more than sufficient as you will get the soft copy upon completion of your ECA report instantly once it has been published at your WES account.

Step 3 – Gather All Your Documents

You need 3 documents inside a sealed envelope from University of Dhaka in order to get your ECA done. These are as follows:

1. The Academic Records Request Form – Download the form from the following link. Fill up the upper portion which can be typed within the PDF form and leave the bottom part to be filled up by Mr. Wadud of Room 305 of the Transcript Office in the Registrar Building.

2. Academic Transcript – Original or attested copy. Make sure the credit hours are mentioned in the transcript.

3. Original/Provisional Certificate – Attested Copy only.

In one of my previous articles, The Complete Guide to Withdrawing Marks Sheet, Provisional Certificate & Transcript from University of Dhaka, I discussed about how to acquire the Marks Sheet, Provisional Certificate and Academic Transcript.

If you were able to attend the Convocation, you should be possessing the Original Degree Certificate. In that case use the photocopy of your original certificate.

Note: You can use the attested copy of either your provisional or original certificate, depending on which one you have. Providing the attested copy of the provisional certificate does not negatively affect your ECA report as this is also accepted by WES as a proof of graduation.

Step 4 – Check Whether You Will Be Needing a New Academic Transcript

Some departments of the University of Dhaka issue Marks Sheet in the format of Academic Transcript. This was the case for my ex-wife but not for me.

In order to check whether your Marks Sheet/Grade Certificate is same as your Academic Transcript, just check the heading of your document.

Here is an example of my ex-wife’s Marks Sheet which is the same as an Academic Transcript so she was not required to reissue a different transcript.

Master of I-O Psychology Marks Sheet

Here is an example of my own Marks Sheet which did not serve as a substitute for the Academic Transcript.

Evening MBA Marks Sheet

For that I needed to request for a proper Academic Transcript with credit hours. Please go through my previous article, you will find all the steps there. If your Marks Sheet is the same as your Academic Transcript, you do not need to reissue any other document.

Note: Make sure your Academic Transcript contains Credit Hours. Previously WES used to accept Transcripts without Credit Hours but not anymore. A person known to me got his wife’s credentials rejected as her transcript did not contain the credit hours.

For inserting the credit hours, you need the photocopy of a prospectus of your program issued by your department mentioning the program structure and credit hours. Since I completed my MBA (Evening) majoring in Management Information Systems, these were the pages of my prospectus which I needed to present when I needed to include the credit hours in my transcript.

In case if your department doesn’t have a prospectus for your program, you need to request them by writing an application to issue a letter on your behalf mentioning the program structure and credit hours for each of your courses being signed by the Chairman of your department.

Your Academic Transcript containing the Credit Hours, should look like this:

Step 5 – Attesting Your Document

Fortunately you can make use of an attested photocopied Academic Transcript when you are doing your ECA under WES. This saves you from the stress, the extra time and money you will require if in case you request to reissue an original copy of the transcript.

a) Attesting Your Academic Transcript

Fill up the following Form. This form can be collected from Mr. Masum of Room 305 which costs Tk. 50 which will be collected by Mr. Masum.

This form can be used for multiple purposes- Attesting all kinds of documents as well as any amount of Sealed Envelope. So you can just use one form for all your document attestment and issuing the Sealed Envelope.

Obtain photocopies for the transcripts you want to attest.

For each document attestment, you need to pay Tk. 50.

Go to Janata Bank, TSC branch and deposit the money. Use the yellow deposit slip for your paymentDeposit the amount at Counter 12.

Head back to Room 305 and show them your deposit slip. They will ask you to deposit all the documents meant for attestment at a wooden box. Do so and return after 3 working days.

Usually, they take 3 working days to process the attestment but if in case the Deputy Controller of Examination (the one who attests all the documents) is unavailable.

There are two personnel and either one of them will be attesting your documents:

  1. Dr. Himadri Shekhar Chakraborty, Deputy Controller of Examinations
  2. Dr. Md. Sanaullah, Deputy Controller of Examinations

b) Attesting Your Certificates

Follow the same steps as you did when attesting your Academic Transcript but attesting your certificates requires you to do an extra part. When you leave your certificate to be attested at Room 305, you will find after the attestment has been completed, that the certificate copy has been attested by an Assistant Controller of Examination.

Sometimes, if there is something wrong with your certificate, your documents will be kept aside inside Room 309, you may need to go deep inside the room and talk to Mr. Mosharoff and he will instruct you what to do next.

For me, my provisional certificate was wrongly written with the Year of my Examination being written as 2018 instead of 2019. I went to Room 309 and within one working they fixed my certificate and I got my attestment completed.

The attestment done by the Assistant Examination of Controller is not accepted by WES, so don’t mistakenly put that inside your Sealed Envelope. Return to Room 305 and show Mr. Wadud that your certificate has been verified by the Assistant Controller of Examination and he will ask you to give him a “fresh photocopy of your certificate” and instruct Mr. Masum to make arrangements to get your documents attested by the Deputy Controller of Examinations.

Usually, you will get the attested documents on the same day if you are lucky, otherwise they will ask to come back the next day.

Step 6 – Getting Your Sealed Envelope

Steps 3 and 4 can be done simultaneously with you using the same form mentioned above to get your attestment done.

Each sealed envelope costs Tk. 400.

If both of your Bachelor and Master degrees are from University of Dhaka, you can seal both of your credentials using the same one envelope. For example, my ex-wife had both of her degrees from University of Dhaka so her documents were all sent in one singular envelope.

But if you have degrees coming from other Universities as well, you need separate envelopes. For example for me, my Bachelor degree was from BRAC University and my Master degree was from University of Dhaka, so I needed two separate envelopes from each respective University and send them both through DHL.

Note: If you want to assess more than one credential from WES, you can send all your credentials using separate University sealed envelopes all together inside the Yellow DHL. However, DO NOT SEND YOUR SPOUSE’S CREDENTIALS TOGETHER WITH YOURS USING THE SAME ONE DHL YELLOW ENVELOPE. OTHERWISE, WES WON’T BE ACCEPTING ANY OF YOUR DOCUMENTS. YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PAY DOUBLE FOR YOUR DELIVERY BUT THERE IS NO OTHER ALTERNATIVE TO THIS.

Mr. Masum of Room 305 will make arrangements to process your sealed envelope. Once more, it usually takes one day to get it processed but if the Deputy Controller of Examinations is not available, they will ask you to return on the next working day.

Step 7 – Arranging Your Documents

Mr. Masum of Room 305 will be giving you three documents:

  1. Attested copy of your Academic Transcript(s)
  2. Attested copy of your Certificate(s)
  3. Sealed Envelope – signed by the Deputy Controller of Examinations

Mr. Wadud will be providing you with the filled up and signed “Academic Records Request Form” from WES.

Insert all the three documents inside the sealed envelope and have a glue stick with you to get your envelope sealed.

[New] Step 8 – Scan Your Documents & Upload them to WES

Okay, I recently got notified that you need to scan your documents (the ones you will be sending through the sealed envelope) now and upload them to WES through your WES profile portal. Previously, this wasn’t needed. Just make sure that before sending the documents, you have the scanned copy of all your document.

This article mentions about the entire process quite smoothly so just follow the steps there.

Step 9 – Prepare the Sealed Envelope for Delivery

WES has provided an illustration which needs to be followed accordingly in order to send the academic transcript in an acceptable manner by WES. For your convenience the illustration is being provided below.

wes-samplesealedenvelope-graphic-f

Type out your Reference Number and WES’s mailing address in a label-like strip and cut it out and stick it on the bottom right corner of your official sealed envelope.

Now your sealed envelope is prepared to be sent to WES. Mail your sealed envelope through DHL or FedEx and keep track of your package through the provided tracking number.

Step 10 – Payment for the Verification Process

After you have sent all your documents through DHL or FedEx to WES, you need to wait for at least one month before getting an email from them stating they have sent scanned copies of your credentials to your University.

A section of the email looks like this:

Make Photocopy of this ENTIRE EMAIL and return to the Registrar Building. You need to go and meet Miss Shawpna of Room 327. She is an elusive woman so you need to at first call her and get an appointment before meeting her in person. Even after doing so, you may need to wait in front of her office for hours waiting for her to arrive at her room. I personally, had to remain standing for two hours since she said she would be arriving at 10 AM but arrived at 12 PM. This notice in front of her office is enough to prove that she is barely spending time at her office.

If you manage to grab hold of her, give her the photocopy of the email from WES. She will search up your reference number at the inbox of official Controller of Examination email and print out your “Request for Document Verification” email along with the documents you have sent to WES through the sealed envelope.

She will then write down the amount to be paid – the Bangladeshi taka equivalent to USD 50. The front part of the email copy will look like this:

The following pages will contain all your submitted documents with a label from WES.

These samples have been retrieved from the official website of WES

Attested Copy of Certificate Received by WES
Attested Copy of Transcript (First Page) Received by WES
Attested Copy of Transcript (Second Page) Received by WES

Head to Sonali Bank on the Ground Floor of the Registrar Building and make your payment using the white deposit slip.

Your deposit slip will look like this:

After paying scan your deposit slip using your mobile scanner. You need to submit the deposit slip to Miss Shawpna of Room 327 and since you won’t be having any written proof that you have made the payment. In case if they lose your deposit slip and later deny that you haven’t made the payment so a scanned copy of your deposit slip acts as a security measure against any allegations made towards you.

Usually, it take ten days from the day of your payment for your WES profile to be updated that they have received new documents on your behalf.

After this, you are done with the processes from your end and wait up for WES to do their part.

Wait for another 1-2 months and they will be giving you an expected date for the publication of your ECA report.

Final Advice

My final advice to you will be to do some research before choosing WES as your assessment body. This is because sometimes even Master degrees from University of Dhaka sometimes do not get Master degree equivalency. This may depend on many factors which is only known by WES.

For example, I got Master degree equivalency for my MBA (Evening) program but my ex-wife got Post Graduate Diploma equivalency for her full-time MSc program. So the results may vary.

Talk to your seniors who have done their ECA, I knew my MBA would get Master degree equivalency beforehand from my seniors. However, my ex-wife couldn’t find anyone to advice her from her department regarding the equivalency of her Master degree under WES.

In case if you are confused whether your degree will be receiving Master degree equivalency then at best you should avoid WES. But if you have all the relevant information and are confident then go for WES ECA.

Please be extra careful when working for your ECA report as one simple and silly mistake can get WES or other assessment body to reject your documents.

Just to Let You Know: The WES evaluation for my 4-year BBA degree received a Canadian education equivalency of 3 years of Bachelor. However, I covered this short-coming by showing up my 2-year MBA (Evening) program from University of Dhaka which received Master degree equivalency from WES.

After the publication of your WES ECA, they will provide you with a “Badge Evidence” which you can display in your LinkedIn account. This is helpful in the case if you are seeking foreign job opportunities.

Here’s my own Badge Evidence which is also displayed at my LinkedIn Account.

Best of luck with your ECA report and please do comment below if you want to share your ECA experience upon being a graduate from University of Dhaka.

Guide to Completing Your ECA with Your Degree From BRAC University

The process of completing your ECA from any educational assessment is almost the same if you happen to be a graduate from BRAC University.

Fortunately, the process is quite easy, straightforward and low of cost in the aspect of processing your documents from BRAC University to be delivered to the ECA body.

Whether you go for WES, IQAS, ICES, CES, your ECA process is almost same when you process your documents from BRAC University.

So here are the steps for you to follow in order get your ECA process smoothly.

Note: I completed my ECA from WES and my degree from BRAC University was Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) so I will be mentioning the procedures in the light of WES ECA, BBA degree. But don’t worry, the process is almost same for any ECA body and type of degree.

Step 1 – Open up an Account at Your Preferred ECA Body

For an WES account just follow the video provided below:

Choose Academic ECA if you are going for higher studies or Immigration ECA if you are going to apply for immigration to Canada.

Step 2 – Make Payment to Get Your Registration Number

Upon registering and paying for your ECA, you will be given a unique WES Reference Number.

THIS NUMBER IS YOUR OWN PROPERTY SO DO NOT SHARE THIS WITH ANYONE, AT LEAST NOT UNTIL YOUR ECA HAS BEEN COMPLETED.

My advice: No not go for premium mode of courier service, standard delivery is more than sufficient as you will get the soft copy upon completion of your ECA report instantly once it has been published at your WES account.

Step 3 – Go to the Transcript Office under the Office of Controller of Examination

Simply just go up the Registrar’s Building, 6th Floor to find the Transcript Office. The Room number is UB60405.

IMG20200205140734

The time schedule and the notice regarding some rules and procedures hung in front of the Transcript Office is being given below:

IMG20200205140755IMG20200205140816

Step 4 – Collect All Your Documents for Your ECA

You need 3 documents inside a sealed envelope from BRAC University in order to get your ECA done. These are as follows:

1. The Academic Records Request Form – Download the form from the following link. Fill up the upper portion which can be typed within the PDF form and leave the bottom part to be filled up by the representatives at the Transcript Office.

2. Academic Transcript – In order to order a copy of your Academic Transcript, you need to at first fill up the Document Request Form which can be downloaded via the following link. Have it filled up duly and then go to the Accounts Department at the Registrar Building. The representative there will calculate and write down the amount to be paid and will sign the document. Go down stairs to the BRAC Bank at the second building of the main campus and pay your due amount. After payment, return to UB60405 and submit your Document Request Form and inquire them when will the transcript be ready. Normal delivery takes 3 working days, whereas an emergency fee can shorten the process to just a singular day.

Note: If you want you can make a photocopy of your Academic Transcript and deliver an attested copy of the transcript within the sealed envelope. However, it is recommended that you send an original copy of your Academic Transcript as a transcript can be withdrawn as many times as one wants.

3. Original/Provisional Certificate Attested Copy – For the withdrawal of original or provisional certificate, ask the representatives for guidance as it involves a lot of procedures. You can only withdraw the original degree certificate once you are done with your Convocation. Otherwise, a provisional certificate is acceptable by WES.

[New] Step 5 – Scan Your Documents & Upload them to WES

Okay, I recently got notified that you need to scan your documents (the ones you will be sending through the sealed envelope) now and upload them to WES through your WES profile portal. Previously, this wasn’t needed. Just make sure that before sending the documents, you have the scanned copy of all your document.

This article mentions about the entire process quite smoothly so just follow the steps there.

Step 6 – Put all Your Documents Inside the Sealed Envelope

You need to make a separate payment for the sealed envelope which can be requested through the same Document Request Form. The representatives will provide you all the documents to be put inside the sealed envelope for you to check. Please check carefully for any possible mistakes and confirm it to the representative. He will seal off the documents and get it signed by the Registrar. It usually takes a few minutes if the Registrar is available.

Step 7 – Prepare the Sealed Envelope for Delivery

WES has provided an illustration which needs to be followed accordingly in order to send the academic transcript in an acceptable manner by WES. For your convenience the illustration is being provided below.

wes-samplesealedenvelope-graphic-f

Type out your Reference Number and WES’s mailing address in a label-like strip and cut it out and stick it on the bottom right corner of your official sealed envelope.

Now your sealed envelope is prepared to be sent to WES. Mail your sealed envelope through DHL or FedEx and keep track of your package through the provided tracking number.

Step 8 – The Waiting Period

After this, you do not actually need to do anything. There is a verification process where WES sends an email to BRAC University asking them to verify your credentials. This BRAC University does so fortunately, free of cost under their own responsibility, so you do not need to worry. Within 7 working days after they have sent their reply to WES, your status will changed from “Awaiting Verification” to “In Progress”. Should you require to know more about WES’s evaluation process, please refer to the following link.

Should you require to contact the Office of Controller of Examination regarding the status of your WES verification process, you can contact them through the following contact numbers and emails:

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Hopefully your WES will be completed by four months once the University has replied to their verification email. I sent my documents during the middle of December in 2019 and by the first week of March 2020, my WES ECA report was published. So WES is the fastest when it comes to constructing ECA report and also the most prestigious.

However, if your MBA is from BRAC University, it is recommended you go for CES or IQAS, otherwise you won’t receive Master equivalency from WES.

Final Advice: Be careful when sending your documents following all the instructions given by WES, otherwise your documents WON’T GET ACCEPTED and then you need to RESEND them. Other credentials assessment bodies have similar procedure in completing the ECA and from BRAC University’s end it is all the same for whichever ECA body of your choice.

Just to Let You Know: The WES evaluation for my 4-year BBA degree received a Canadian education equivalency of 3 years of Bachelor. However, I covered this short-coming by showing up my 2-year MBA (Evening) program from University of Dhaka which received Master degree equivalency from WES.

After the publication of your WES ECA, they will provide you with a “Badge Evidence” which you can display in your LinkedIn account. This is helpful in the case if you are seeking foreign job opportunities.

Here’s my own Badge Evidence which is also displayed at my LinkedIn Account.

Best of luck in completing your ECA from BRAC University, as an alumni, it was my pleasure in helping you all. 🙂

The Complete Guide to Withdrawing Marks Sheet, Provisional Certificate & Transcript from University of Dhaka

I am creating this post since I find there is no comprehensive guide available online for those students who have their results published from University and this is a very usual scenario that all of us tend to suffer a lot when it comes to withdrawing the marks sheet, provisional certificate and the academic transcript.

I had to go through all sorts of odds when it came to withdrawing my master degree credentials. Thus I am sharing you my entire experience as I do not wish other students to suffer like the way I did.

At first I want to state that the degree which I have earned from University of Dhaka is the Master of Business Administration (Evening) program majoring in Management Information Systems in 2019 which means this post will be most relevant to those students and graduates of that program but in terms of degree processing procedures, they remain true for all the students of University of Dhaka. However, my wife is a full-term graduate from University of Dhaka attaining her Master of Science in Industrial-Organizational Psychology in 2019 so I will also try to pen down her experience when she went for her degree processing so that this post also gets relevant for the full-term students of University of Dhaka.

Step 1 – Make sure all your results are published

If you wish to make your results considered for final publication by the Office of Controller of Examination you need to at first make sure all your grades are published by your respective department. In case of MIS, you can log in and see which results are still in process and which are published. Sometimes results which are already published may miss out being published in the portal of MIS. Make sure that all your grades are published and your internship defense and final report submission has been completed, otherwise your result won’t be considered for final publication.

You need to understand that the result publication cycle for Master of Business Administration (Evening) program isn’t the same as the Master of Business Administration Full Time program. The result publication dates of the full time program is more fixed in nature whereas the evening program’s result publication date tends to be more flexible. According to our department results are published in batches. Each batch may range from 50 to 70. This means even if you are done with all the requirements of your degree, your result won’t be published until and unless at least 49 other students are done with the publication of their courses at the portal as well as have completed their internship defense and submitted their reports.

Capture 1

Your grade sheet should be in this condition. It is okay if the internship result is pending. As long as you have submitted your final report and have completed your defense your result will be considered for publication by the Registrar.

I discussed about the next closest possible date of result publication and the staffs informed me that it was going to be August 2019.

I noticed that in the ongoing Summer 2019, my grades of Fall 2018 Supply Chain Management was still in process. I went directly and talked to the concerned faculty, being the chairman of our department at present and said if the result isn’t published in the portal, my results won’t be considered for final publication. He assured me that within the next week all his pending courses’ results will be published. He did it as he promised and within the next week all my course results were published and with my defense and report submission being done within July 2019, my results were considered for final publication by my department in August 2019.

Step 2 – Check the Notice Board for the Provisional Result Publication

Before your department delivers all the results to the Office of Controller of Examinations, they will publish the provisional results in the notice board for students to check their grades and see whether they all have been published correctly or not.

The provisional result issued by your respective department looks like this:

MBA Provisional Final Result for 2019 - Correct Hall Name

After receiving the provisional result, check the following information concerning you:

  • The spelling of your name
  • Your ID number
  • The name and spelling of your hall name
  • The spelling of your courses
  • The grades of all your courses
  • The calculation of your CGPA

Step 3 – Correcting Mistakes in your Provisional Result

From my provisional result I discovered that the spelling of my name was wrong. It was mentioned as “Saihan Islam” whereas it should be “Saiyan Islam”. For that I wrote a letter designated towards the Director of the MIS department in order to make the correction of my name. The letter is being provided below for assistance of those who are going to face this problem in the future.

Letter for Correction of Name in Provisional Grade Sheet - Received Copy (1)

As you can see when I submitted my letter, I kept a received copy just in case if my department loses my letter.

Step 4 – Correcting Mistakes in your Final Result

This is by far the worst and the most stressful part in case if the Office of Controller Examination gets your results incorrect. In my case this happened and it took like one whole month getting everything up in piece.

After your department has corrected and confirmed your provisional result, they will deliver it to the Office of Controller of Examinations or some call it the Registrar’s Building. There your grades will be published and it will be treated as the final grades.

Based on the grade sheet published by the Office of Controller of Examinations, your department will issue Admit Card. This admit card is required when you are to withdraw your marks sheet, provisional certificate and academic transcript.

My initial admit card, the incorrect one looked like this:

Admit Card- Incorrect

I found out that the name of my Hall has been listed incorrectly, instead of my Hall Name being “Surjasen” it has been mentioned as “The Jatir Janak Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman”.

For this, I had to issue yet another letter, this time designated towards the Chairman of our department and asking him to take steps for the correction of the Hall Name.

Letter for Correction of Hall Name in Final Grade Sheet

After having submitted this letter to your department you need to contact the Office of Controller of Examination and may even need to meet the Controller in person as the administrators usually leaves the letter aside without processing the correction process. I did this and got to convince them that I needed the correction of my hall name as early as possible. The Assistant Controller of Examination issues a letter asking for the correction of their mistake and delivers it to a place called Desk Pass.

Desk Pass is the place where all the letters are issued to their designated places. Your letter for the request of correction is sent to three places:

  • Your Hall
  • Room 309 (Certificate Processing Room) of the Registrar Building
  • Your Department

Your department then issues the corrected version of your admit card.

[Corrected] Admit Card_Saiyan Islam_MBA (Evening 2)

Go to the Registrar Building Room No – 310, collect two forms, each costing Tk. 15- one for the provisional certificate and another for mark sheet. Total Fees = 15+15 = 30 Taka. The fee is to be submitted at the counter of Room 310 upon receiving both the forms.

Upon receiving your corrected admit card go to your Hall. In my case it was Surjasen.

Step 5 – Document Processing by Your Hall

Image result for surjasen hall du

In case your Hall have not received the letter of correction from Controller of Examination’s office, you need to convince them to fetch the letter on your behalf because many a times Desk Pass delays in the delivery of letters to the Halls.

You need to make 2 set of photocopies of your Admit Card and have 2 set of your passport pics which needs to be attested along with your filled up forms by the Provost of the Halls upon.

Note that for different halls the attestation fees may differ. For example, the attestation fee of Surjasen per document is Tk. 100 whereas at Bangabandhu Hall it is Tk. 400 per document. The fees were previously had to be submitted to the Janata Bank at the TSC. However, they are now collected by the assistant of the provost.

Ask for the receipt of your submitted fees as a proof of payment.

I had to submit Tk. 200 as I was applied for the attestment of both of my provisional certificate and marks sheet forms.

Make sure they have correctly signed and attested both of your provisional certificate and marks sheet forms. Otherwise the Registrar’s Building will not process your request.

Attest

Step 6 – Document Processing by the Registrar Building

After having both of your forms processed by the Hall, go back to the Registrar building.

a) For Marks Sheet processing-

Take your form to Room 308. They will write down the amount which needs to be deposited for the marks sheet processing and printing.

Normal Fees for Marks Sheet  – Tk. 175 (7 working days processing)

Emergency Fees for Marks Sheet – Tk. 275 (3 working days processing)

For me, I chose the normal delivery mode for my marks sheet processing.

The officials there will write the amount needed to be deposited.

Attest 2

Go to Janata Bank, TSC branch and deposit the money. Use the yellow deposit slip for your payment. Deposit the amount at Counter 12.

Make sure the banker endorses the amount which has been submitted at your marks sheet form.

Capture

Take this form back to Room 308 and upon submitting it, they will write the date when you have submitted the form and provide you with a code number and write it on the backside of your deposit slip.

pay

This code number is important as this number will be used when you inquire for your marks sheet.

Advice: Keep the contact number of the person who will process your marks sheet. During my time it was a person named Mr. Jahangir of Room 308. By doing so you can knock to know whether your marks sheet has been published and is ready for delivery. 

b) For Provisional Certificate processing-

Take your form to Room 309. They will write down the amount which needs to be deposited for the marks sheet processing and printing.

Normal Fees for Marks Sheet  – Tk. 200 (7 working days processing)

Emergency Fees for Marks Sheet – Tk. 300 (3 working days processing)

For me, I chose the normal delivery mode for my provisional certificate processing.

The officials there will write the amount needed to be deposited.

Capture

Go to Janata Bank, TSC branch and deposit the money. Use the yellow deposit slip for your payment. Deposit the amount at Counter 12.

Make sure the banker endorses the amount which has been submitted at your provisional certificate form.

Capture

Take this form back to Room 309 and upon submitting it, they will write the date when you have submitted the form on the backside of your deposit slip. In this case for provisional certificate they don’t provide you with any code number.

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Advice: Keep the contact number of the person who will process your marks sheet. During my time it was a person named Mr. Shahid of Room 309. By doing so you can knock to know whether your provisional certificate has been published and is ready for delivery. 

Step 7 – Withdrawing Your Marks Sheet & Provisional Certificate

a) Marks Sheet Withdrawal:

Visit Room 308 and at the counter section show them your yellow deposit slip and mention to them your code number. By mentioning your code number they will be able to find your marks sheet quickly.

The outlook of marks sheet also known as marks certificate or grade certificate may differ in terms of looks. Unfortunately, there’s no definite format regarding how our marks sheet should look like.

I am sharing the marks sheet of mine as well as my wife’s so you can get an idea regarding how they looks and how they can even differ.

This does not matter as long as the marks sheet contains all the designated signatures and the seal of the Office of Controller of Examinations, this is an official document.

Make sure you bring along the yellow deposit slip as well your admit card when withdrawing the marks sheet as without them you won’t be granted your marks sheet.

b) Provisional Certificate Withdrawal:

Visit Room 309 and at the counter section show them your yellow deposit slip.

The Provisional Certificate has a standard look and this format is same for all degrees under University of Dhaka.

Step 8 – Correcting Mistakes in Your Marks Sheet & Provisional Certificate

My suffering due to human error further continued as my provisional certificate contained a very elusive mistake which went out of sight at the time when I had withdrawn my provisional certificate.

This was the year the degree I was awarded my degree. It should have been 2019 but mistakenly it was mentioned in being 2018.

For mistakes made in the Marks Sheet just go to Room 308 and for Provisional Certificates go to Room 309 and inform the officials, they will provide you with the corrected copy as soon as possible. For this you do not need to pay any extra fee. Usually they print and process the corrected copy of your provisional certificate/marks sheet within 1 day. If you notify them of their mistake in the morning, you can hopefully get the corrected copy by evening on the same day. This was true in my case.

Step 9 – Withdrawing the Academic Transcript

The withdrawal of Academic Transcript is vital in case if you wish to apply abroad either for higher studies or for immigration. You need to send official copies of your transcript in sealed envelopes to the University you are applying to or the education credential assessment bodies when it comes to immigration.

One distinct difference between the Academic Transcript and Marks Sheet is that Marks Sheet can be withdrawn only once but Academic Transcript can be withdrawn as many times as wanted as you may need additional official documents which needs to be sent to education credential assessment bodies/Universities.

I am providing the rules of withdrawing transcript. Please read it carefully before going for the processing of your Academic Transcript.

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In my next post, I will share my experience of my ECA process by WES.

For the withdrawal of academic transcript, at first you need to go to Room 305 called the Transcript Room.

Mr. Masum of Room 305 will provide you with a Transcript Request Form which costs Tk. 50.

You just need to fill up the first page of the form. No need to fill up the later pages. Also attach photocopies of your Admit Card, Provisional Certificate & Marks Sheet along with the form. After doing that talk to Mr. Abdul Wadud of Room 305 and inform him of your requirements. If you need the transcript on an urgent basis, he will write “Urgent” at the top of your form.

Normal Fees for Academic Transcript  – Tk. 400 (30 working days processing)

Emergency Fees for Academic Transcript  – Tk. 900 (15 working days processing)

Deposit the amount, in my case it was Tk. 900 as I required it on an urgent basis. Use the same yellow payment slip and deposit the amount at Counter 12.

Return to Room 305 with the deposit slip and talk to Miss Farjana of Room 305 and she will provide you with the date of delivery. After this you just need to deposit your form at the transcript request drop box which is located right after the entrance of Room 305.

On the provided date of delivery you will be getting your transcript which is why you do not need to knock anyone for your transcript.

On the day of delivery talk to Mr. Azam of Room 305 and he will be provide you with a draft printed copy of your transcript. Check the draft for any sort of error and inform him if there is any correction which needs to be made. He will readily correct any kind of error as long as you have proof regarding the correction which is to be made.

For MBA (Evening) graduates:

Your credit hours won’t be mentioned in your transcript. This is one mistake I made when withdrawing my transcript for the very first time.

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This is a very important information which should not be overlooked. For that you need to make photocopy of the prospectus which was provided to you at the time of admission by your department. Your prospectus must mention the course structure of your department which will include all the courses which can be taken under your program and their individual credits. Also the information of a total of 66 credits for the MBA (Evening) program need to be mentioned. Otherwise Mr. Azam won’t permit for the input of individual credit hours. In case if your department does not have such a prospectus you need to get an official letter from your department listing your courses and stating that each courses carry 3 credits and by completing 22 courses consisting of 66 total credit hours you have earned your MBA degree. You need to submit the photocopy of your prospectus or this official letter to Mr. Azam, only then he will mention the credit hours in your transcript.

The first page of your transcript will contain your personal information and the second page of your transcript will contain your grade sheet along with their individual credit hours.

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After getting your finalized copy of the transcript from Mr. Azam, you need to get the registration number of the transcript which is also provided at Room 305.

After this has been done you are all done with all your degree credentials.

Note that when withdrawing the academic transcript for the second time, you need to buy the same Academic Transcript Request Form for Tk. 50 once more and fill it up like last time. Attach the photocopies of your admit card, provisional certificate but instead of the marks sheet provide the photocopy of your academic transcript. By doing so you will get a faster delivery time. However, the fee will remain the same- Tk. 900 for urgent document delivery and Tk. 400 for normal delivery.

Final Advice:

Have photos of all your documents, receipts and letters like the way I have maintained. That way people won’t charge you for their own faults. For example, if you maintain scanned copies of your documents and the received copies of all your submitted documents, the person receiving the documents won’t be able to deny that you have submitted your documents duly in case if they can’t find or have lost your documents.

Secondly, don’t go into extra form of informal paying for your degree processing. You have worked hard for your degree, after publication it means you fully deserve it so don’t go into paying anything extra outside official documentations. You may even run into trouble if you do so. I solved all my problems without having to pay anything extra under the rules of University of Dhaka and I hope everyone does so.

My best of regards for all the graduates of University of Dhaka. May Allah grant our dreams of pursuing a better future, Ameen.

Goodreads Asked Me to Write a 2-Sentence Horror Story. Here was my Reply!

Can you tell us a two-sentence horror story?

This is the question which Goodreads asked me like 2 months back but it had always eluded me for some reason. Today I got to notice it finally and wrote this in a hurry:

They say, you can still contact Lynda even after she had committed suicide upon slitting her wrist at the washroom near the Science Lab. Just follow the given steps-

  1. go to the same washroom where she took her life
  2. turn on the faucet to fill up the basin
  3. look straight at the filled up basin and start chanting her name 9 times
  4. upon finishing your chant, her murky reflection will appear in the water as it reaches out to hold your face and drag you down along with her.

Link to the answered question at Goodreads

I know it’s a long tale for a 2-sentence story but please do let me know your reviews. It will mean a lot!

I apologize for the prolonging hiatus from my regular blog entries.

Thanks for giving it a read and do pray that I remain motivated enough to contribute regularly at my blog.