Bangla blogs discuss evolution  – Of life, blogs and women power  · Global Voices
Aparna Ray

What is blogging all about? Is it about sharing one's daily life and/or thoughts with the rest of the world? Is it then an autobiography of sorts? Can a blog be deemed as literature? Suman Rehman, who labels himself as an ‘uploader’ rather than a true blue blogger, set the tone for a discussion in the Bangla blogosphere.
When the discussion is about blogging, can blogging tools be far behind? Kherokhata reviews the popular Bangla input software, Avro keyboard. It is being said that the latest version (4.5.1) of Avro is heavily loaded with features but some of these could be made optional (for easier download) as not too many people use them anyway. Also, the software, in its process of evolution, could focus more on skins, converter etc.
Elsewhere in the blogosphere, the conversation was about the age-old conflict between religion and the theory of evolution which propounded that human life evolved through natural processes, without any supernatural intervention. Diganta feels that  people should be more open to science and scientific theories and not bury one's head in the sands of religious dogma. On the other hand, while commenting on the post, blogger Eskimo mentions that since the evolution theory is not substantiated by proof, it would be wrong to call it a ‘scientific’ theory in the first place. Balai, with good humor, states that religion is a ‘made easy’ set of  life principles provided by God to humans so that whenever they were faced with conflicts, they could fall back upon the ‘made easy’ guidelines.
Two women get elected to the post of President and fuel the popular topic of gender issues in Bangla blogs. This time however, the discussion spans women from across the globe. First, Ahmed Fahrukh writes in about Michelle Bachelet becoming the first woman president of Chile and then Pagla Babu talks about the Congress loyalist Pratibha Patil becoming India's first woman President telling us through an image what he thinks of the newly elected Ms. Patil. Rekchowni writes about the Chinese actress Xu Jinglei whose blog had the highest incoming links in mid 2006, according to Technorati. Fahrukh also tells us that while the world continues to hold the impression that Saudi women were an oppressed lot, statistics show that Saudi women have significant financial power and are successfully joining the workforce as doctors, educationists etc., and also running powerful business ventures. Atleast 56% of Saudi women are reported to have completed college  education with graduate degrees. Stories of women power however did not stop some others from aborting female foetuses  or killing newly born girl babies as  this post by Ashraf  Rehman  goes to show.