Thinking out of the box!
VERY recently I was in Mirpur stadium to watch Bangladesh vs. West-Indies T-20 match. And, as usual, I was left heartbroken and agonised at the Tigers' sad performance. Apart from the disappointment of losing the game some activities in the gallery pricked me. I was sitting in the clubhouse section of the gallery and just two or three rows above my seat was the food zone. What struck me, or rather I would say hit my ear, was the continuous use of Hindi language by the staff members. Then, to my surprise, I found out that the staff who had been appointed for the job of maintaining discipline and doing other duties were Indians. I have no idea about the situation in other sections of the stadium.
It took me a while to digest what was going on. First, it was Mr. A.R. Rahman's solo saga of Hindi songs at the opening ceremony (with due respect), and then this incident. And to add to that is the Bangladesh government's recent ban on carrying another country's flag inside the stadium. I mean, seriously! While the government has no problem in hiring people from our neighbour for tasks which I believe our people could have managed well, it has a problem with supporters exercising their right as any team's fans. This is supposed to be an international event, not an intra-national one. We are a nation of cricket lovers and our enthusiasm to cheer and share any team's winning moment is a sign of our positive frame of mind. How can we snatch away that right from our supporters? And what message does it convey? It seems some of us have missed the thin line between unprecedented and unconventional; while the latter means doing something that is different from the common ideas, the former means something that hasn't been done before.
Observing the government's attempts -- starting from the opening ceremony to the recent ban -- it appears that we have switched the two concepts. While the government should have arranged the opening ceremony in a fashion that would be unconventional and would reflect that we can think outside the box, it ended up doing something way more unprecedented. I guess they have got a wrong idea of what exactly “thinking outside the box” means.
The writer is an MA student, University of Dhaka.
Comments