Star Diary

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Please Move On

On the 7 March, on the way from Uttara to my office in Farmgate, I experienced what I can only describe as an insane traffic jam. I was stranded for five hours on a road that should have taken me two hours maximum. And the only explanation I got for it was that it was March 7, the day our Father of The Nation called on everyone to fight for freedom. That was why there was a mass rally on the main road for which a large portion of it was blocked.

If it was so important to have the rally, then why not make it a national holiday? If a person spends five hours on the way to work, how much of work does s/he actually end up doing at the office? And for those of us who have to use public transport, being stuck in an overcrowded bus, in the heat and humidity, is an inhuman situation. I have been using public transport almost all my life, but as of yet I am not used to this kind of traffic. A lot of passengers even got down from the bus and had to walk miles to reach their destination. Even more distressing is the fact that such programmes occur all year round and the excuses change with the change of government.

Nazma Hossain
Uttara
Dhaka

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A Bit Too Righteous

One day, I got onto a bus where a man was sitting in one of the front nine seats, which were next to a sign saying 'Mohila, Shishu o Protibondi der jonno noyti ashon' (nine seats reserved for women, children and the disabled). I didn't notice that he was handicapped until I was quite close to his seat. But by then, everyone had noticed that I was a mohila (woman) and I was standing in front of a mohila seat where a man was sitting. A huge commotion broke out as people started yelling and saying mean things to the poor man for sitting on a 'mohila seat'. I tried to explain to the others that he was handicapped and that he had the right to occupy that seat as per the instructions written on the wall of the bus. But no one was listening. The man, who must've been embarrassed of his disability, was reluctant to admit it. Eventually he got up and I was forced to take the seat. It was only after he stood, holding on to the upper railing of the bus with one hand instead of two, that some of them realised his handicap, to which they just went quiet. In the end we were two harassed and embarrassed people, with our rights wrongly thrust upon us. In this country, some people try to be too smart and want to show off their sense of morality or righteousness. They rarely realise how ridiculous it is or how much trouble or embarrassment they put others through.

Shumona Chowdhury
Malibagh
Dhaka

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