Biography

I was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I’ve lived up till my young adult life in Bangladesh before coming to Penn State for my Masters in 2017 – before then, I’ve never even been out of the country! Being alone for the first time in a foreign country was quite a learning curve; one day I’m in my home country and then over 40 hours of time awake and an anxiously long flight later I’m in a place I’ve only seen in movies! I went from not knowing how to crack an egg to becoming a veteran cook (self-acclaimed of course). I have made wonderful friends along the way and now, State College has become my home away from home.

Hobby

My only real hobby is collecting stamps like you’d read about in old storybooks. Yeah, no. I play guitar and sing. Some people find it amazing, others…not so much.

I taught myself guitar from the internet starting from when I was in grade 7. This was before social media became such a big part of our lives – I had so much time on my hands they eventually turned into chords.

Performances

I was lucky enough to turn my hobby into entertainment for people. In 2018 I was picked by the Bangladeshi Student Association at Penn State to both host and perform in their annual international event, Bangladesh Night. A fond memory of that night is when we realized we didn’t have any microphone stands and quickly put together a makeshift one from a camera tripod and a PVC pipe!

My friend Munna and I always jammed and sung without a care in our campus at North South University. Here’s a fun story; I was on my evening walk and Munna calls me up. He tells me it’s his nephew’s birthday and he wants me to come over to just “hang out” and play a few songs with him for the family. I decided to be a cool uncle and went over. To my surprise, I was welcomed by a stage with over 150 people! We hadn’t rehearsed a thing but we decided to wing it. You can check out our cover of Watch Over You by Alter Bridge below at that event. Enjoy!