Dhaka Diary

Embarrassing situation in front of a foreign friend
A foreign friend of mine had once come to Bangladesh on a business trip. We were on our way to Motijheel through Mohammadpur when City College caught my friend's eye, who also happened to be a patron of the arts. As everyone knows, City College is actually spelt as City Collage, which stands for a collection of artefacts like pictures, sculptures, clay creations, oil paintings, scraps of paper, etc, building an image all together. My friend was suddenly overwhelmed by the idea of visiting this institution called the City Collage to meet the artists of this country and see their creations. (Then again, Dhanmondi Road no. 27 has been wrongly printed as Dhanmondi 27 no. road!). Out of sheer embarrassment, I tried to avoid taking him to the place assuring him that I would take him there later on, since there was a lot of work to be done. For the three days that he was in Bangladesh, I avoided that road so that my friend would not get excited over a silly spelling mistake. I would like to request the Dhaka City Corporation to be more careful while writing these signs and names in English.

Golam Kibria Mahmud, Mohammadpur

Heavens me!
Although my friend's parents have been deceased for over a year, they still receive letters from the leading banks of Bangladesh. Getting fed up of this situation, my friend decided to teach them a lesson. One day a bank staff called inquiring about my friend's dead father. "My father doesn't live here anymore,' quipped my friend in reply. "He now resides at a huge complex in Banani, Road No. 4. Just follow the boundary wall of the complex and you'll find him there where he actually resides permanently. However, I cannot guarantee that he will wake up." The unsuspecting bank official could not understand the wit in my friend's sarcasm and inquired further, "Is that his office or residence?"

Syed. Raiyan Abu Zafar, Gulshan- 2

None of your business
A few days ago, my mother and I took my younger sister to the doctor for a check up as she had fever. We reached the chambers on time, as per the appointment. There was no one in the waiting room. We waited for our turn for over an hour but there was no sign of the doctor. By this time another patient came into the waiting room. A while later we came to know that there was no patient in the doctor's room. We requested the assistant to let the doctor know that patients were waiting outside but he dared not do so. Finally, two people came out of the room who were medical representatives having a business meeting inside. I wonder at the imbecility of these doctors holding their business meetings, at the cost of the waiting queue of sick patients waiting for a cure.

Md. Sadaat Khan