Hurricane
Lamps
Last night
I saw a rickshaw with a hurricane lamp underneath it. This sight
took me back many years to my childhood. In those days all the
rickshaws in Dhaka had hurricane lamps underneath them, as most
of the city streets were dark. As time passed, most of the streets
got sodium lights, so the necessity of hurricane lamps gradually
reduced. It is now almost non-existent. Maybe rickshaws in villages
still use hurricane lamps, but I still can't help thinking about
how fast Dhaka City is changing. Maybe after 15-20 years, the
rickshaw itself will be non-existent.
Mohibul,
Dhaka
Activities
of Dhaka Board
Last
month, I went to the Dhaka Board to cancel my brother's admission.
He is currently a student in a college. He got a chance in Textile
Engineering at Tangail and for his admission, he needed his
original S.S.C. mark-sheet. Even though this mark-sheet was
in his college, the authorities told me to go to the Dhaka board.
I went there and told them my problem. They wanted to see the
necessary papers before they could help me out. When I showed
the papers, they told me that my documents were illegal. I was
astounded. I told them that everything that I had presented
them was legal, but they did not respond. They all started to
throw weird glances at me. Finally, one of them came to me and
said that he could solve all my problems if I gave him Tk.1000.
I finally realised that I would not be able to get my work done
unless I paid some bribe. When will any actions be taken against
such occurrences?
Khokan
Sarker, Dhaka
A
Courageous Rickshaw puller
A
few days ago, as I was returning home by bus, I was stuck at
a traffic signal at Kakrail. When the signal turned green, all
the vehicles started to move at a tremendous speed. We were
near Notre Dame College gate when my bus hit a rickshaw as it
was passing by. Luckily the poor rickshaw-puller and his passenger
were not seriously injured. The blame should go to the bus driver,
who was the main culprit in causing this accident but the helper
of the bus began to accuse the poor rickshaw-puller and immediately
started to hit him. The rickshaw-puller became angry and boldly
protested. He too started to lunge back at the helper and his
courage gave him the support of several other fellow rickshaw-pullers.
At that point, the driver and the helper quickly fled the scene
as they saw that a crowd had quickly gathered. If people can
stick together, there can surely be justice when needed.
Rifat-Bin-Salam,
Notre Dame College