::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

Star Diary

Upholding One's Integrity

Back in 1988, my father had just had an open-heart surgery in Vellore, southern part of India. We were all standing outside the ICU in Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH). The doctors had asked us to contact the local Rotary Club for fresh blood and they did not receive blood from professional donors. We contacted the Rotary Club accordingly. The Chairperson of the club, Vellore branch appeared soon at the spot. He gradually began to sort out the probable donors from a large notebook. I put my hand inside my pocket to bring out a paper and pen to note down the names and numbers of the donors, when the Chairperson immediately signalled me to stop. “Please take out your hand from your pocket,” he said in a clear south Indian accent. “I will give you a pen and paper to write with. The doctors here might think that I am taking money from you for the donors' contact addresses.” I could not help but wonder how generous and careful some people are when it comes to their honour and how they strive to maintain their integrity even during tense situations.
Romon Bhuiyan
Purana Paltan
Dhaka

Mobile Frauds

Last weekend I was at my friend's place to study. While we were working on our project, his younger A while back, a senior friend said that he won a raffle draw organised over the phone by a particular telecom company. The person on the other end informed my friend that he had won one-lakh takas, a mobile phone and a car in the raffle draw. For this, he was asked to transfer 10,000 takas to different phone numbers belonging to the particular telecom company, which he did. When I came to know about this, I told him that this was fake and the phone call was obviously made by some pranksters and not by the telecom company's authorities. Things got worse, when the same people called him back and asked him for 10,000 more takas for fuel costs, since they needed to deliver his winning prize to his home. I spoke to a senior official of the telecom company, after which my friend was finally convinced that it was actually a hoax being played on him. This is a shame since there are a few pranksters who use the names of the different telecom companies and extort money from regular people. The respective telecom company authorities must make it a point to explain this to their customers, since even today, there are many who tend to be tricked.
Kamonashish Haldar (Bappi)
Khulna University
Khulna

Young Creations
Travelling via the Chittagong University shuttle train is quite an experience for both students and regular travellers. If one wishes to work on one's creativity, expressions, music, art and culture, the CU shuttle train is probably one of the best choices. The walls and seats of the trains are covered with poems, prose, snippets, couplets, drawings, artwork and many other forms of expressions made by youngsters. The train is also a regular ride for those who wish to invent new lines, tunes and compositions. The whole environment is filled with love, friendship and young expressions. We should have more spaces and platforms like the CU shuttle train so that young people in this country can develop themselves and their personalities, instead of shying away and locking up their feelings inside.
Mohamed Azam Khan
University of Chittagong