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     Volume 4 Issue 32 | February 4, 2005 |


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Dhaka Diary

The Electronic Harmonium
I'm a keyboardist and the worse part of being a keyboardist is that you have to move around in the city with a huge coffin-like keyboard case. People stare at you as if you are an extinct creature in the zoo or something. A few days ago, I was going to my friend's place in Banani with my keyboard in a CNG. On my way, I was stopped at the police check post at the Tejgaon link road where the policeman asked what was in the case. "A keyboard", I replied. The official looked very confused for a moment and inquired further, "What is a keyboard?" It was then that I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes and pondered for a moment as to how to explain the object I was carrying with me, when it suddenly hit me. "It's an electronic harmonium!" I quipped, proud within for my quick innovative reply. Hearing this, however, the police official got really excited and wanted to see what this 'electronic harmonium' looked like. So he made me get the huge case out of the CNG, open it and finally had a look at the instrument with awestruck eyes. I bet he had thought I had been carrying a bazooka or state of art weapon inside the case in the beginning though!

Emran Khan NSU


Child Dadas
When I was a student of class seven in Govt. Laboratory High School, we had a school football team where I held a very important position. I also had very good knowledge about all kinds of football equipment. One day one of my friends, not so close to me, told me that he wanted to buy a football from the stadium. He requested me to go with him. Since I was considered to be dada of my class, I naturally asked him to treat me once the the football was bought. He readily agreed and got the football that he wanted. The next day, he brought some money to treat me, plus some extra money to buy a knife! This time, some other friends of his went along with him to buy the knife, however, mugged the rest of his money with his own knife! They also happened to be dadas of a different category in our school. Even though, the fact that students bully each other and become dadas at a very young age, many simply sympathised with the boy whose friends turned out to be his foes.

GS Shyamoli

Snake in the Grass
A fresh young lad all the way from Dhaka had arrived at our University. He attended the Orientation as most FOP's, (fresh of the plane), like myself, do. It was there where we found ourselves getting acquainted, which is obvious considering that my friend and I were volunteering at the orientation to help new students. I was pleased to see this young lad giving me respect as an elder and his youthful vigour and enthusiasm were infectious as it helped raise my spirits after a hard day's work. The three of us formed a friendship, which naturally led to us extending an invitation to our new friend to stay at our abode. Four others shared our residence and one of them was an older bhai, also from Dhaka, who commanded our respect. Naturally, our new friend had lots of money with him so he needed to open a bank account. This elder bhai volunteered to help him open it as a sign of good faith. How were we to know that he pilfered the account number and the password? Imagine my friend's surprise when the next day, one thousand five hundred dollars were being transferred from his account to another account right in front of his own eyes! Guess to whom the other account belonged to?

MR University of Windsor, Canada

 

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