Star Diary

The Spoiled Youth
The other day, I went to the Chittagong Hawkers Market to buy some clothes to wear in the summer. While walking by, I noticed several schoolchildren most probably from class six or seven gathered around hawkers on the street. To my shock, I realised that these kids were gathered around the hawkers who sold pirated versions of x-rated movies! I moved on and was thinking about the whole incident. What's wrong with these children? They seem to be attracted to almost every adult thing. I remember in our childhood we passed most of our leisure time playing and reading books. However, today's kids do not seem to be interested in all these things. The government must exercise power to stop these hawkers who are playing a role in spoiling the future generation.
Shahriar Kabir Rana
International Islamic University
Chittagong

Those Unfortunate Souls
My mother and I were returning home from the CMH one afternoon. While our car was taking a right turn at the Bijoy Shoroni road, my mother pointed to the half demolished Rangs Bhaban and said that the other day it had been stinking as the car was passing the building. While my mother was trying to figure out what it was, the driver told her that it might have been the rotten bodies stuck inside the half-demolished structure. I was not in a state to judge if the driver was right or wrong. My thoughts suddenly suffered a terrible jolt and I felt bad for those unfortunate workers. Their lives seemed to have had no value whatsoever. The bad odour, to me, was the crying souls of the bereaved blaming us for being so ungrateful and insensitive.
Omar Nasif Abdullah
Dhanmondi, Dhaka.

Outburst at a Wedding Reception
Last week we were attending a wedding reception at Senakunja. The reception was held for the son of the Managing Director of the company that we work in. My two colleagues and I were the first to arrive at the venue. We decided to reserve two tables in advance for the convenience of our fellow colleagues who were on their way to the venue.
The tables were almost filled when all on a sudden a middle-aged gentleman came and sat on one of the reserved chairs. I approached him and politely asked him to sit at the nearby table since this one was reserved. To our surprise, the man burst out in anger and demanded to sit on the particular table that was reserved. He also screamed further and let us know that he would not move.
Honouring the event, my other colleagues agreed to let him sit there and let go of the issue. However, for the so-called gentleman, it was not over. He kept on roaring and revealed his identity as a very close friend of our MD and also a professor of a renowned university. Eventually, he started to use slang words and abused many of us verbally. Noticing this, one of the colleagues got annoyed and demanded his apology for what he had just said. But he was so reluctant to say sorry that we were enforced to give him the right treatment. He was then verbally abused by everyone around.
Respect must be earned, it can't be demanded, especially where an educator is involved.
Shehabun Saaqeb
Mohammedpur, Dhaka

Copyright (R) thedailystar.net 2007