Dhaka
Diary
False
Hope
I
am one of those people who have a lot of trust and faith in
people. I had never been cheated before but it was not too
long back that I was. That incident not only cost me financially
but also mentally. I am a student of DU and like other students
I wanted to earn some money and started to look for a private
tuition. I saw some tempting advertisements in the daily newspapers
that offered a lot of immediate tuition with high salaries.
Being very trusting and inexperienced, I fell in their trap.
I became member of two such media centres that offered immediate
students. I was deceived by Baishakhi Media Centre at first
and then by Dreamland. I contacted them several times but
still today, I did not get any reply from them. I wonder how
these institutions can coax the common people so easily and
so openly. Who will punish them for their fraudulent activities?
Misty,
Dhaka University
Tears
of a Beggar
“What
is looted can not be blotted." I got an example of this
fact some days back. At about 10 a.m. and I was relaxing.
Suddenly, I heard a beggar at the door. It was an old lady
and I gave her some rice. She left. I was leaving my house
sometime later when I saw the same beggar crying outside my
doors. I asked her what had happened and she told me that
she had gone to another house for some food but the master
of that house was not as generous as I had been. He rebuked
the old lady and slapped her violently on top of her ears.
She could not hear properly with that side of her head for
quite some time now. By now, she was crying hard, more from
the insults of her assailant than her actual wounds. She started
to tell me about her past. She was not always this poor. Once,
she was quite wealthy and even had her house and all but the
greedy clutches of the river Padma had washed away everything.
She had to survive in some way and she chose begging as the
last resort. This sad story made my very unhappy. Fate is
a very strange thing and it can change at an instant. However,
I must say that our sympathy and compassion for our fellow
country people are changing even more drastically. We are
becoming increasingly cruel with each passing day.
Sagor,
Notre Dame College
A
Rickshaw Puller to Remember
It
was a busy day. I just finished my coaching and was on my
way home. Usually, I walk home but that day I was tired and
decided to go by rickshaw. During the journey, I caught a
glimpse of a friend of mine on the street so I offered him
a lift. We were off soon and as it happened, we were talking
in English. I dropped my friend off and resumed my journey.
Suddenly out of nowhere, the old rickshaw puller asked me,
"Who was he?" in pure English. I was baffled and
speechless. Somehow I gathered myself and replied. From then
on, we spoke in English until he had brought me home. I asked
him how he came to speak such proper English. He said that
he used to go to school, but that was cut short, as his family
could not afford the expense. He became a rickshaw puller
and earned money for his family but that did not hinder him
from reading. Some of the money he earned, he kept for buying
books and he read them at night. I was amazed and happy to
have met this wonderful and I am sure that I will never forget
this experience.
Zaki
M.A.Kareem, Shantinagar
Copyright (R)
thedailystar.net 2004
|