Trekking
from Teknaf to Cox's Bazar
By
Tahiat-E-Mahboob
This
the story of four trekkers who came together because of an ad placed
in the Rising Stars. This is the story of the Young Explorer's Society.
When Zaki Ameen (Auntu), an SSC student from the Government
Laboratory School placed an ad in the RS about a trek, little did
he know that his ad would lead to four and a half day mind-blowing
experience. But it did. People saw the ad and contacted him. Although
many were interested, in the end Auntu found three people who were
as hell bent as he was on making this trek a success. Rubayat Khan
(Onik), an IUB student, Limana Solaima, a GED student and Fatima Tuz
Zahra (Raka), a Dhaka University student contacted him and Auntu's
trekking plan came alive.
The
trek would be from Teknaff to Cox’s Bazaar. It's theme? Cholo
nah ghurey ashi. Bundled up with trekking gear they took
a bus from Dhaka to Cox’s Bazaar and then another bus from Cox’s Bazaar
to Teknaf. At Teknaf they stayed at Deep Plaza. In the morning they
headed to the Teknaf beach.
From
there they started their trek towards Baharchora. Although the map
said it was only 16 km away, after trekking for 28 km, upon asking
locals they discovered that the map was wrong. Baharchora was approximately
40km away. This mistake led to the trek period being extended by a
day. After more than eight hours of trekking they finally reached
Baharchora where they stayed at house of the chairman. It started
raining and so they next day it was finally 10am when they started
trekking again. From Baharchora they went to Monkhali which was approximately
17km away. There, although the chairman of the area was unable to
lodge them for the night, the group was allowed to stay in a beautiful
rest house. That night it rained again and the next day the group
set off at 8am and went to Emordel.
At
Emordel they stayed at the house of the local member and they targeted
Inani as their last stop. Although they couldn't stay in Inani they
discovered a jhoubon and explored it after which they went and stayed
at the Jaliayapalong Union Complex. By this time the news about the
trekkers had reached the local government and the young explorers
were well treated wherever they went.
At
6am they took started trekking from Jaliayapalong to Cox’s Bazaar
on the Marine Drive (a road that is being built and will stretch from
Cox Bazaar to Teknaf). They stayed for a night at Cox Bazaar and then
went to Chittagong city from where they took a bus to Dhaka.
The Young Explorer's Society explored all the places
at each stop. It was a learning experience for them, the greatest
lesson being: sunscreen really doesn't screen anything! It was also
an eye opener because they discovered some of the areas had no electricity
and none of the areas had any schools: all there was, was madrasas.
In all, the explorers agree that this was truly a remarkable experience
for them.
In
a place where it is so hard for young people to try out new things
and embark on daring adventures, the Young Explorer's Society has
done an excellent job of showing people that where there is a will,
there is a way. Hats off to them for their great work!
Fashionista...or
fashion disastah?
By
AES
Take a good look
around and you will observe few people who stand out from the rest.
Maybe its due to the fact that they are attired in some ridiculous
outfit, for example - a shocking yellow, incredibly tight shirt and
'lungi' like baggy pants, maybe because their hair is spiked like
a porcupine's quills or maybe stuff resembling dog chains hang from
every part of their bodies. One thing is common for all these conspicuous
characters- they are all trying to be stylish.
The
most recent and queerest ever style is wearing short shirts. These
are normal shirts made tighter and of course shorter but definitely
not smarter. Some of these shirts can be ridiculously short- a fact
exemplified by a friend of mine who wears short shirts ending just
above his belly in conjunction with extremely low pants. He applies
makeup (makeup for men he claims) wears cosmetic contact lenses, listens
to Backstreet Boys, takes dance lessons and of course, wears ridiculously
revealing short shirts (you don't need to be a genius to find out
what I am trying to imply). He can't stand straight and loves to twist
and turn his body in precarious angles imitating Britney Spears or
worse our very own Tishma (did I mention that this friend of mine
is a boy…or at least I think he is) showing his belly in the process.
Believe me, nothing can be more appalling than the sight of a guy
showing off his belly button!
If you turn on
BTV, you are bound to notice a longhaired singing-dancing baboon attired
in an orange makeshift shirt made out of a blanket. These loose, blanket-like
shirts are becoming quite popular and some people are actually crazy
enough to wear those in the scorching summer heat.
Another thing
you will observe while watching BTV is that the actors tend to wear
shirts of the most shocking, blinding colours, ranging from bright
red, bottle green, purple to white shirts with red spots!
Nowadays people
seem to forget the purpose of shirt buttons, as most people tend to
keep the buttons of their shirts open, baring their hairy (sometimes)
chests and resembling the Bengali film villains, the heroes even,
on the process. I know a person who keeps almost all the buttons of
his shirts open and on being asked why he adopted such a peculiar
style, he answered "Ami mota manush to tai amar shorirer ventilation
lage (as I am a fat person, my body requires ventilation)"
These days people
seem to wear only two sorts of trousers the baggy type and the skintight
type, the latter worn by people trying to imitate Jimmy Page and Jim
Morrison (the 70's are over for God's sake!) and the former worn by
Eminem fan's. The baggy pants are usually oversized and are always
on the verge of falling off (don't these people know what a belt is?)
and believe me, the very sight of a person wearing a skin tight pant,
probably made of leather, on a hot summer day is torturous.
Covering your
body with beads and chains and piercing your ears and some other parts
you don't want to know about has become a new trend. People go as
far as wearing spiked dog chains around their neck and piercing their
tongues (I bet that hurts). Another odd style is attaching one end
of a metal chain to your wallet and the other end to your trousers.
This serves a dual purpose as it is not only fashionable, but can
also prevent you from being pick-pocketed. However this system can
sometimes grossly backfire as in the case one of my friends whose
trousers came off when a pickpocket tugged at his wallet failing to
notice that the wallet was attached by a steel chain to his flimsy
trousers. To make matters worse, the incident took place in a concert,
jam-packed with more than two hundred people! The sight of a pickpocket
hastily making his escape with my poor friend's wallet and a big chunk
of his trousers was sadistically funny.
Being hairy seems
to be in fashion nowadays as we see more and more unshaved people
keeping a day or two's growth of beard. We see lots of people keeping
long, curly, unkempt and extremely dirty hair with Osama bin Laden
type beard (and its got nothing to do with religion or fundamentalism).
These people have the notion that being hairy (and inevitably scary)
would make them look rugged and handsome, completely oblivious of
the fact that instead they end up looking like Neanderthals from the
Stone Age.
Don't get me wrong
here; I am not implying that there is anything wrong with being stylish.
I am just suggesting that people should not become obsessed with style
and fashion and looking and being peculiar on the process. So no offense
intended!
