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     Volume 4 Issue 1 | June 25, 2004 | 8th Anniversary Issue


   Inside

   Editor's Note
   Letters
   Voicebox
   Chintito
   Cover Story
   Nothing if Not     Serious
   Slice of Life
   Fiction
   Perspective
   Impressions
   Retrospection
   A Roman Column
   Food for Thought
   Musings
   One Off
   Reflections
   Jokes
   Straight Talk
   Dhaka Diary
   New Flicks
   Write to Mita
   Sci-tech

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Dhaka Diary

Crazy Campaign
All of my O Level exams in May were held in Gulshan and driving down the Tejgaon area to reach my examination centres, I had a very interesting experience. Everywhere I looked, a moustached man was beaming down at me, flanked by the message "Vote for Falu Bhai"! Mr Falu's never-ending smile was adorning every inch of the walls by the road not to mention the huge billboards singing along with the posters. When I got tired of being smiled at by the same man, I tried looking away, turning to the skies, but hanging from roadside pillars and electricity poles were colourful banners asking me to vote for Mr. Falu. The large letters painted across the walls, however, were far more colourful. I also noticed a stand of bamboo and cloth that had been erected by the road, apparently by a committee of truck drivers (or something similar), in support of Mr. Falu. At one point it all got a little suffocating. The campaign for Mr. Falu was really quite an overdose of propaganda. I believe election campaigns should be brought under control, otherwise commuters in the city will be haunted night and day by faces of grinning politicians and their pleas for votes. One thing, however, is certain at this moment there is no escaping Mr. Falu once you enter the Tejgaon area.
Tania Hossain, Dhaka


Victory of Merits
My elder brother was admitted in Bangladesh Medical College Hospital (BMCH) at Dhanmondi a month back. I stayed with him for some days as an attendant. There was another patient beside his bed, a young boy called Shaheen, whose attendants were his parents and a teenage sister, Happy. She was in Class 10. One day, I noticed that she was reading a book. After a while, she came over to me and asked if I could help her with some math. I gladly helped her, as mathematics was one of my stronger subjects. I solved all her problems and the next day, she came to me with some new ones. As I was solving the problems a ward boy called Azad, who was cleaning around us, observed what I was writing down. Azad then told me that the way I was solving the problem was really hard, especially for a Class 10 student. "I have an easier solution to the problems," he concluded. At first I was really angry with him but reluctantly I challenged him to show me his methods. He started solving the sum and I was astonished. His handwriting was very nice and his method was much easier than mine. It was amazing how a cleaner could solve these difficult problems. I thanked him and asked how he came to learn to solve such difficult sums. He said that he was an Intermediate student of Dhaka College. His poverty made him join BMCH as a cleaner. I admired his good and humble nature, not to mention his intelligence, from the bottom of my heart.
Tufayal Ahamed Tohin, Economics Dept., MSS (Final Year), Dhaka Colleg


The Pride of a Teacher
One fine day, I was returning home from college by rickshaw. I was a bit tired and wanted to return as soon as possible. Suddenly, the rickshaw puller saw a gentleman beside the road and swerved the rickshaw to a halt. The rickshaw puller then went up to the man and asked him how he was doing. The man, looking here and there, reluctantly gave him some reply. I thought that the man was hesitant because he was ashamed to talk to a poor rickshaw puller. Nonetheless, they had a little conversation and soon, we were on our way. A little later, the rickshaw puller started to chit-chat with me. "Do you know who that man was?" asked the rickshaw walah. Though I didn't care, I politely replied with a negative answer. "He was my student in college. I was a teacher in our village," he said. His voice was full of pride and happiness. I felt really ashamed. Here I was, taking him to be a poor, illiterate rickshaw puller whereas he was a great person who had educated one of the faces of tomorrow. I had acted like a common person with a typical mindset without even knowing the person. How quick we are to jump to conclusions. I felt really bad because life is not always fair, but at the end of the day...life goes on.
Tabassum Binte Islam (Titly) English Dept., 1st year, Dhaka Commerce College

 

 

 

 

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