The Lesson

Life is all about experiences and memories, or in other words, memories shaped by experience. You learn a lot through life, what to do, what not to do, and what you should do but should stop after a certain time. One incident that occurred in my life taught me a lot about why I shouldn't brag a lot about my football skills, which I was very proud of. This incident just slammed the reality in my face with such force that I figured I would keep my mouth shut henceforth…about football.

This whole incident happened in Calcutta, where I went along with my friends to spend our semester break, taking a break from the normal city life. I have always been a morning person, waking up to go jogging or going out for an early soccer match. Things weren't much different in Calcutta, and I didn't want to break this routine of mine there. So I contacted one of my cousins there to get some help on how to avoid the predicament on not just staying in the house in the morning. He is a well renowned football player among his friends, which is why he was the first one I contacted for this problem.

After he heard me out, he offered me the answer to my morning problem. “I know some team’s having a practice session at a ground near your place tomorrow morning”, he offered, “and although I am not sure which team this is, usually the teams around here are pretty strong, so I have to know how well you play before I send you there.” Now, my ego kicked in, and I decided to brag a little bit. “Well, I wouldn't boast about my soccer skills, but I was in the newspaper back home”, I said.

Now while that is technically true, the significance of being on the paper in Bangladesh is a lot less than in India. The way it happened was that, every year there is a tournament involving all the media establishments. I used to work for a different newspaper then, and in one of the tournaments, we played some matches before getting kicked out in the group stages. I was man of the match in one of those matches, and my picture got printed in our paper. Not a difficult feat, considering the other players were mostly over 30, and played the game as frequently as it snows in Dhaka.

Early next morning, there was a team doing stretches down the far end of the field, and seeing no other groups wearing jerseys there, I presumed that this was the team that my cousin was talking about. So I went up to them and waited for them to finish their stretches, but I didn't have to wait long. One of them asked me if I wanted to join them or not. Not wanting to be left out of the action, I joined in. After they had finished stretching, they formed into teams, at which point I was taken into a rather serious looking team.

One moment I see the ball whizzing past me, and the next moment, I see someone else sprinting towards our goalpost, with several defenders on the chase. I ran to slide in order to get the ball, but the striker just lifted the ball and ran over me like I wasn't even there. However, I soon got hold of the ball, and what do you know? I lost it almost immediately! When I next got the ball, I decided to execute a nice step over, which would at least give me some space past the lone defender there. What actually happened, was that despite my brilliantly executed my step over, the ball and I went flying off in opposite directions.

The defender apologised profusely, but with all the stars flying around, I couldn't hear him properly. Well, history repeated itself, and the guy just took the ball away like I wasn't even on the field. After a couple of more times of losing the ball like that, and the fact that everyone soon discovered I was weaker, slower and some more ers from the rest of the team, I got substituted very politely.

For my part, I got off very graciously, thanking them for letting me play with them for so long. Before I headed back home, I asked the team their name. After all, it was a long time since I found myself wondering after a game, what the hell happened on the field? I mean, it was one of the very few games where I was amazed at the quality of the players and the overall game played by them. And this was no amateur football team, I could tell that much, not with all that brilliant and effective passing, shooting and what not.

So I went up to one of the players and asked him casually,
“Which team is this?” After looking at me incredulously for some time, he answered, “It's the East Bengal team. Are you visiting India for the first time?'

When I told my cousin what happened, he laughed his head off before saying, “Well, I don't know about your newspaper and stuff, but getting a picture in the newspaper here regarding soccer is very difficult. So when you told me that you were in the newspaper, I naturally assumed that you were player of the highest calibre. And I honestly didn't know that it would be East Bengal team practicing there. Usually they are at their own ground”. Well, he was right about, only partially. You see, it was the East Bengal team, except that it wasn't the main team, but it was the reserves, not that it made any difference.

Well, all in all, it was my bragging that led to this incident. Although the moral of the story lies in the fact that you shouldn't brag, I still can't deny the fact that I enjoyed learning such a lesson.

By Asifur Rahman Khan

Case#1: Snow white
The story spread by Snow White: unavailable because it's a waste of time and space. Besides it's found in all fairy tales books.

The story (unpublished till today) told by Snow White's mother:

I am Queen Roxana (known to everybody as Snow White's step-mother) of a kingdom which is far, far away. In a few words, my step-daughter is ungrateful, rude, naughty, undisciplined, short-tempered and self-centered. The problem began when she was a child. My husband, the king mistakenly gave birth to a child which was as black as coal. Therefore it was named Coal Black. After his death the burden of Coal Black was heaped on my shoulder. I accepted this responsibility (burden) with optimism and a feeling which was so strong that I felt she was born in my womb. I requested all the royal maidens, beauticians and doctors to make this child as fair as snow. I was compelled to make this request because to have a princess who is coal black, is very, very unlucky. Besides, no prince will ever fall in love with princess Coal Black. With each passing day I grew weary of my responsibility (burden) and I could feel death knocking at my door. I decided to do something concrete. I embarked on a journey to the east to meet Sage Gollu. I didn't have to say much because he knew what I had to say. He gave me a mirror and said wisely, “This shall show your path when all lights fade.”

I returned to my castle with great hopes and dreams. I dreamed I would see Coal Black marrying Prince Charming. The mirror was put up in my study room. When I first conversed with the mirror, I was fascinated by its charm and intelligence.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who is the darkest of all?” I questioned.
“Famed is thy beauty, majesty
But hold, a dark-skinned maid I see,
Rags cannot hide her ungentle face,
Alas she is darker than anyone else.” It said rhythmically.
“Reveal her name.” I ordered.
“Lips dark as ebony,
Hair rough as straw,
Skin dark as coal” It answered.
“Coal Black.” I muttered.
“Is there anything we can do to cure her abnormality?”

“She needs fresh air, fresh water and fresh vegetables to eat. She must abandon meat. She must exercise and must consume apples everyday. She must go to a forest where everything is pure and green. Only a forest can provide her with fresh air to breathe, fresh water to drink and vegetables and apples to eat.”

“It shall be done.”
I was broken hearted. I called for Coal Black. Hardly had I finished my part when she started yelling.
“Shut up you ugly old vulture. You want to send me out of my kingdom so that you may rule it yourself forever.”

“Nobody lives forever child and that's what I fear. When I am not around-” I was interrupted.

“Shut up. Shut up. You are jealous of my beauty. I will not go leaving my kingdom. I own it. I am the heir. I will pray you die faster, witch.”

She left leaving me feeling neglected and foolish. I wondered how on earth could I ever be jealous of her beauty. In fact, my maid servant was fairer than her. After a few days I planned a different way to send her away. I ordered my body guard to take her to a glade where she could play with wild flowers and leave her there. When I last kissed her good-bye, I felt like my nail was being torn apart from my finger.

Things happened as I had planned but unfortunately the seven dwarves ruined it all. They fed her with meat and wine. She even stopped stealing a glance at apples. They wouldn't allow her to exercise. Their house had foul air. She grew obese and darker.

When I lost all hopes and was ready to give up, the doctors came up with a clever and immaculate plan. They gave me an apple which was genetically modified and had beautifying medicines in it. This modified apple was equal to a thousand apples. They also gave me a cream called Fair & Lovely. This cream would increase the rate of the beautifying process. I dressed myself as an old beggar because if Coal Black recognized me she would never touch the apple.

She accepted my offering and ate the apple. As soon as she ate the apple she fell asleep and the beautifying process started. The evil dwarves thought I had killed her and chased me. I left the Fair & Lovely and started running. They chased me until they were tired which happened faster than I expected because they were stout. When they returned they misinterpreted Fair & Lovely as being a medicine for bringing back the dead. I was happy though since my plan was working. The dwarves kept her in a glass coffin and applied Fair & Lovely on her everyday. By the mercy of Almighty, the medicine had an effect and she grew fair within a month.

Then I sent Prince Charming to look for her. Prince Charming awoke her with a kiss. She returned to the kingdom with Prince Charming where she was renamed as Snow White. But she banished me from my kingdom after being throned as Queen. But she wasn't satisfied until she published a story concocted by her against me called 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.' Then she lived happily ever after in her small, selfish world.

By Efadul Huq

Ever imagined how things are getting worse day by day? How low people are willing to go to get their cheap entertainment? Ever thought about the millions of pedophiles who aimlessly browse legal child abuse sites? Did you know that day-by-day, the abuse is getting worse and that child pornography is unfortunately one of the world's worst multimillion-dollar businesses? I was shocked when I learnt about the fact that 19% of all children who are abused do not even realize what is happening to then since they are less than three years old! A more shocking thing is that who come this online pornography sites are not stopped by the elite community who try to stop hackers? There has to be an answer to this. And hopefully there is…

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By Shamma M. Raghib