Star Diary
Photo: Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo
THE ELEPHANT TRICK
Last week, my mom was coming home from Dhanmondi and a strange thing happened. Our car was stopped in the middle of the road by an elephant! The road was blocked on two sides due to parking of other cars and the elephant stood right in front of the car, in the middle of the road. As our driver stopped the car, a man controlling the elephant came over and asked for money to let the car pass, and the money had to be handed in the elephant's trunk. As our car made its way through the road, my mom looked out the window and saw the man with the elephant talking to his new target; the vegetable vendor. This new way of extracting money with elephants has been going on for some time in certain areas of the city, not only Dhanmondi. Extortion with snakes is regular in certain streets of Dhaka, and now even elephants are being used in harassing people, not even sparing the street vendors. Regardless of such things happening, the traffic sergeants or local police take no action whatsoever to stop these harassments that people face in the streets.
Arshi Siddiqui Promiti.
Dhaka
HIDING THE SCARS
I came across a video in the internet the other day which showed how to cover blackeyes and bruises with makeup. To my horror I realised it was for those who were facing domestic violence. The video was very disturbing in the sense that the person applying the makeup on herself wasn't even able to talk properly. This barbarism isn't uncommon even today. The problem is we don't know what the laws are and where to go, whom to talk to be it getting hit by our husband's bottle of alcohol or facing the horror while walking home from the workplace in the middle of the night. Even if we do reach the proper authority, sometimes not having a strong voice leaves us unheard. You do have to realise that you are a human being and you deserve healthy life. If there is a child in the scene things become more complicated but again the child doesn't deserve such a life either. It is very easy to type these words then to face the horrors everyday. You should realise that layers of makeup will be able to cover your bruises today, tomorrow and the day after but hiding the scar behind our makeup is never a solution.
Fabiha Tanzeem
Purana Paltan, Dhaka
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