::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

The Star Diary

A few days ago, I found a 50-year-old man stuck inside a drain near Bahadur Shah Park at Sadarghat. The man turned out to be a blind beggar. It seems that every morning, a woman guides the blind beggar to a certain spot where he sits and begs for alms. After dusk, the woman would come back and take the beggar back with her. The night before the day I found the beggar, the blind man had to spend the whole night in the drain. It seems that because of the heavy downpour, the woman could not come and take back the beggar with her. Therefore, the blind beggar got lost and fell into the drain. With the help of passer-bys, we got the man out of the drain, washed him and warmed him in front of a fire. Then we placed him on his regular spot where the woman would come and get him later on. The last thing I remember fills me with warmth inside. The blind man raised his hands to the almighty and prayed for the prosperity of his rescuers.

AKM Nazrul Ismal
Milnars Pumps Ltd.
Motijheel

In Chittagong, the business of 'Tuition Media' is extremely prosperous. Usually the students from Chittagong University, Chittagong Medical College and Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology get private tutors from tuition media. However, they take advantage of these students and guardians. The teacher recruitment process is not as transparent as they make it seem to be. Often they provide false information to the guardians and students. According to the whole process, once a teacher gets a student to teach, he or she would have to pay 70 percent of his or her first salary to the tuition media office through which he or she got recruited. Sometimes, these offices try to influence the guardians by saying that a particular teacher is not good enough for the student. Once the guardians agree to a change in teachers, the tuition media office in turn gets a benefit of 70 percent of the salary once again. My recommendation to the guardians is that you yourselves are the best teacher for your children. And if you do need tuition teachers for your children, try to contact and recruit a teacher by yourself.

Md. Saimum Reza Piash
Dept. of Law
University of Chittagong

It was a hot summer day and the scorching heat of the sun was unbearable. I was on my way back home after a hectic day at my university. As the rickshaw puller was wearily making his way past a boisterous crowd of people in a local fruit market, I caught sight of a fruit-seller with a basket full of juicy lychees. I have a great fascination for the fruit and I could not resist the temptation of queuing my rickshaw puller to a halt. I knew that such a desire might cost me a lot. Still. I asked the fruit-seller the price for a hundred lychees. As I was engaged in the bargain, I noticed a well-dressed young gentleman standing quietly beside me. It seemed to me that he was carefully observing our conversation. I thought that probably he was a keen customer who wanted to finish the hassle of bargaining by me rather than declaring what he had in mind for the price of the lychees, which he might have intended to buy. When I had come to a settlement with the fruit-seller, I told him to give me a poly bag. To my surprise, the gentle man who had been witness to my conversation all along stepped forward with a packing net. I was surprised to find that he was not a customer but the actual fruit-seller himself. The basket full of lychees was his and he was simply making some profit selling them during the season.

I also learnt that he was a university student.

It was a rather uncommon experience for me but I had felt very happy to know that at least he was involved in such a humble profession and making a decent living besides studying.

Naome Syed
Mohammadpur